Lake Mary Pines owner Nathan Stevens found not guilty over fatal electrocution incident

A young worker was killed, and six others electrocuted on their Queensland property, but a judge has revealed why he could not find father and son farmers guilty of safety breaches.

Lake Mary Pines’ Colin Stevens and his son Nathan leaving court after a hearing at Rockhampton Magistrates Court in November 2023 in relation to the workplace death of pineapple picker Cody Smith in 2021.

The last legal chapter in a painful two years and nine months for all involved in a tragic fatal farm accident ended in a not-guilty judgement at Rockhampton.

Cody Smith, 25, died after being electrocuted while picking fruit at Lake Mary Pines at Bungundarra on July 14, 2021.

Six others were also electrocuted, including the owner Nathan Stevens.

His father, 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.

Cody Smith. Picture: Facebook

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

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.

This week, 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.

Raymond Sheriff and Simone Ronchi leaving Rockhampton courthouse after giving evidence at the Workplace Health and Safety hearing in November.

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.

Some also claimed to have heard farm owner Nathan say his father “didn’t know what he is talking about”.

Mr Press said the defendants admitted Colin “may have made some comments about the power line” on July 12, “but that it was innocuous”.

Powerline height ‘deceptive’ from ground

A surveyor contracted by Workplace Health and Safety to measure distances at the fatal electrocution workplace accident shared his experience on viewing powerlines from the ground while giving evidence at the hearing on Wednesday, November 1.

The contractor, Don Hiron, worked for Finch Surveying at the time of the fatal accident.

Ergon Energy employee Greg Dan Exter, who was the work group leader at the Yeppoon depot at the time, explained to the court how an electrical safety officer inspecting a pole on an adjacent property that connected to the pole near the incident and found the neighbouring pole to be leaning and had a snapped stay wire.

He also explained a stay wire was used to support and counteract the force of an electrical wire pulling in the opposite direction.

The court had heard the previous day from Workplace Health and Safety investigator Natalie Hitchcock who investigated the incident.

She said 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.

Mr Hiron was the last witness called by Ms Harburg during the hearing, which ran for three days.

Lake Mary Pines owner Nathan Stevens (left) leaving Rockhampton Magistrate Court during the hearing where Workplace Health and Safety Queensland alleges Lake Mary Pine owner Nathan Stevens and his father, '"retired" former owner Colin Stevens, failed in their duties as employers to ensure workplace was electrically safety to work in.

He was taken through his report and diagrams he created for Workplace Health and Safety’s investigation into the accident.

During cross examination by defence barrister Russell Pearce, Mr Hiron pointed out the lowest point of the electrical line was not above a path and the machinery would have also had clearance issues in the next path they were due to take after they completed picking in the row the electrocution occurred.

Mr Pearce asked Mr Hiron if one was to look along the electricity line from the shed which was in an area lower than were the incident power pole was located, it would create an illusion as to the distancing of wires as it disappears into the distance due to “the fact the ground rises up before it drops away”.

“From that position … it looks like there is a very deep sag in the line,” Mr Pearce said.

Mr Hiron agreed with that suggestion.

“They are very deceiving,” he said.

Mr Hiron said even when he looked at powerlines and thought they were low, when he measured them, sometimes they weren’t actually as low as they appeared.

“Unless the powerline is going to hit your windscreen, you would not know it is low,” he said.

Mr Press, in his decision handed down on March 26, stated he accepted a misinterpretation of the view could be a possibility by Colin as other workers had stated, particularly Mr Sherriff who Mr Press found to be a reliable witness, had looked up after this comment and the line did not appear to them to be too low.

In body worn footage video played in court, Colin Stevens told police there were safety checks undertaken on their 340 acres of pineapple patches land the year prior to the incident and the power pole and electric line was “fine”.

Lake Mary Pines former owner Colin Stevens leaving Rockhampton courthouse in November.

Mr Press determined that there was no direct evidence about when the powerline had dropped to the dangerous level and evidence from other witnesses was inconsistent and not credible.

“The incident, unquestionably, would have been severely traumatic for those involved,” he said.

“The witnesses at the time (of the incident) did not have a complete recollection of the things, which is understandable.

“And it is not uncommon for humans to reconstruct aspects of events so as to give better understanding of them.”

He said the employees meeting up two to three times after the incident because they wanted to discuss the traumatic event and how they were feeling, was “natural behaviour”.

“There remains a possibility that some of the witnesses have filled in or completed their memories of the events of the two days with what other witnesses have told them.”

Mr Press determined Nathan Stevens did dismiss his father’s concern on July 12 about the low level of the powerline and it was not clear why.

“It might well have been the case that he looked up and saw nothing,” he said.

However, he found both Nathan and Colin Stevens not guilty of both of their charges.

“We were really happy with the outcome,” Nathan Stevens told The Morning Bulletin outside court.

“It’s been a painful two and a half years, maybe three years, this has been going for.

“At the end of the day, our thoughts are with Cody and his family.”

This publication has also reached out to Cody’s family for comment.

Originally published as Lake Mary Pines owner Nathan Stevens found not guilty over fatal electrocution incident