WHS appeal not guilty ruling for Cody Smith electrocution death

A Central Qld pineapple farm owner and his father found not guilty by a magistrate earlier this year for their roles in a fatal electrocution workplace accident on their farm. They are now both back before the courts. Read here why.

Lake Mary Pines owner Nathan Stevens (right) and his father Colin (left) were found not guilty by a magistrate earlier this year over a fatal electrocution workplace accident on their farm. They are both back before the courts.

Six months after a magistrate ruled in favour of Lake Mary Pines owner Nathan Stevens and his father Colin Stevens, the pair are back before the court.

Workplace Health and Safety are appealing the Central Region Chief Magistrate’s not guilty finding from March 2024 in relation to the death of Cody Smith, 25, who died after being electrocuted while picking fruit at Lake Mary Pines at Bungundarra on July 14, 2021.

Six others were also injured, including owner Nathan Stevens.

An appeals hearing has been scheduled for January 24, 2025 in the Rockhampton District Court.

Colin Stevens, who is retired but still helps out on the farm, was standing on the 4.6 metre-tall harvester driven by Ryan Doak when it struck a 12,500 voltage powerline with the current running down the boom (armlike attachment) which workers loaded picked pineapples onto as they moved through the wet rain-drizzled patch.

Michela Valsecchi worked on the harvester and Nathan walked behind.

Five employees - Ian Page, Raymond Sheriff, Cody Smith, Joshua Fritz and Simone Ronchi - walked behind a boom as the machine slowly moved forward through the pineapple patch.

Cody Smith was killed in an industrial incident at a pineapple farm in Bungundarra on July 14, 2021. Picture: Facebook

Each employee who worked for the Stevens’s at Lake Mary Pines on July 14, 2021, gave evidence in a Rockhampton Magistrates Court hearing in November 2023 after Nathan Stevens and his father Colin Stevens, both pleaded not guilty to one count each of failing to comply with a Category 2 electrical safety duty – expose an individual to a risk of death, or serious injury, or illness.

In March, Rockhampton Magistrate Cameron Press handed down his decision in the “circumstantial case” where the prosecution had to prove beyond a reasonable doubt the Stevens men were guilty of the charges.

He determined Colin Stevens was not an owner of the farm according to legal definition.

The workers each gave evidence during November’s hearing about what happened on the day of the accident, and an incident from two days prior.

Most of the workers that had been on the farm on July 12 and 14, 2021, claimed they heard Colin Stevens say “we almost hit the powerline” on July 12, almost 48 hours prior to the harvester they were working with had electricity shoot through it and the attached boom, electrocuting Mr Smith in the chest.

Mr Press, in his decision handed down on March 26, said the defendants admitted Colin “may have made some comments about the power line” on July 12, “but that it was innocuous”.

Workplace Health and Safety investigator Natalie Hitchcock investigated the incident and told the court she saw the snapped stay wire dangling halfway down the pole and the other part still attached to a rod in the ground and there was a gap next to the leaning pole with water in it.

The court heard the stay wire was blackened and disintegrated at the ends.

Workplace Health and Safety prosecutor Sophie Harburg said a metallurgical expert tested the broken stay wire and concluded it would have taken 2.5 years for the corrosion to reach the catastrophic end.

Ergon Energy was ordered in October 2023 to pay a $300,000 fine in relation to the electrocution.