A commercial dairy farm in Cass County that was gearing up for its 5th Annual Ice Cream Social and Farm Tour this Saturday has sustained a fatal accident when an employee was electrocuted while working on a new storage facility at the farm this morning.
Cass County Sheriff Richard Behnke reports that his office is investigating the death of 19-year old Rocky Stoner of Marcellus who was working on the new storage facility on the Sparks Cedarlee Farms in the 59000 block of Gards Prairie Road in Penn Township shortly after 9:30am this morning.
Behnke says that emergency personnel responded to the scene of the incident and found that Stoner, who had been working on constructing the new storage facility at the farm had been electrocuted. They say that Stoner was moving a metal roof truss with another employee when the incident occurred.
Stoner was holding the steel truss while the other employee worked a fork lift to move the truss into position. During the move, the truss touched a nearby power line, electrocuting Stoner. The other employee immediately called 911 and rendered aid.
Stoner was transported from the farm to Borgess-Lee Memorial Hospital in Dowagiac, but was unable to be revived and was pronounced deceased at the hospital.
Penn Township Fire and Life Care Ambulance assisted at the scene of the incident, which remains under investigation at this time.
Sparks Cedarlee Farms is an 1,100 acre, pasture-based dairy, and organic milk producer for the region.
