Fruit picker’s fatal fall leads to $750k fine

A Woorinen South fruit grower has been convicted and fined a total of $750,000 after a fruit picker passed away after falling from a moving trailer.

Fruit grower Cutri Fruit was recently sentenced in the Mildura County Court, pleading guilty to a single charge of failing to ensure persons other than employees weren’t exposed to safety risks.

The company was charged after a 70-year-old labour-hire worker was fatally injured back in January 2022. The worker was performing just his second shift at the workplace when both he and another worker fell from a trailer as it was being towed by a tractor on a road between different farm sites.

The worker sustained a fractured skull and other serious head injuries and later passed away in the hospital, while the other worker walked away unharmed.

According to the court findings, the workers were required to travel to different locations at the workplace to pick fruit and place it in bins sitting on two trailers, which were then towed in tandem by the tractor.

Each of the trailers featured platforms at the front and sides to allow fruit pickers to empty their picking bags into the bins – however, they were not designed to carry passengers.

The investigation found that four workers were riding on the platforms on the two trailers as the incident occurred, despite the company’s orchard manager and director warning against the practice in a message to staff earlier in the week.

“Riding around on any type of machinery or equipment that isn’t designed to carry people is incredibly dangerous and should never be part of anyone’s work,” said WorkSafe executive director for health and safety Sam Jenkin.

The court found that it was reasonably practicable for fruit grower to “provide portable steps for workers to access bins on the trailers and implement a procedure for the tractor operator to remove the steps and ensure no one was riding the trailers before towing them”.

The company that employed the labour-hire worker also faces charges relating to the fatal incident.

“It’s frustrating and heartbreaking that a man has lost his life in a workplace incident that could easily have been avoided if safe work practices had been implemented and properly communicated,” said Jenkin.