Lincoln magistrates heard that the 39-year-old maintenance technician from Gainsborough had climbed onto the machine at the firm’s Carr Lane plant. His intention was to install a lifting beam across the top of the large vessel in order to hoist out the motor for repair.
But as the worker, who asked not to be named, leaned over the machine to tighten screws to hold the beam in place, he slipped, falling nearly 3m between the machine and the wall.
The worker suffered fractured ribs and a bruised coccyx in the accident, which happened on March 31 2010. The man was off work for about three weeks.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) said that a platform should have been fitted to the machine so workers did not have to lean over the edge.
No safe system of work
After the hearing, HSE inspector Judith McNulty-Green said: "There was no safe system of work in place when the incident happened. It could have so easily been prevented had the company taken heed of warnings from staff who had raised concerns that safe access and work areas were not provided for all high level areas of plant.”
After the accident the firm installed a gantry around the sides of the bread-making machine to give workers a safe platform from which to work. “It is unfortunate for this gentleman that it took his fall for this to happen,” said McNulty-Green.
Kerry Ingredients pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 4(1) of the Work at Height Regulations 2005.
More than 4,000 employees suffered major injuries after falling from height at work last year, according to the HSE.