Dennis Burman had only been working at the port for a few weeks

Dennis Burman, 51, of Brantham, Suffolk, died after falling at Felixstowe Port on 17 June last year.

At Ipswich Crown Court Felixstowe Dock and Railway Company admitted breaching safety rules and failing to ensure workers were not exposed to risks.

Judge John Holt also ordered the company to pay �27,288 costs.

Mandy McLean, prosecuting on behalf of the Health and Safety Executive, said the accident happened as trainee dockworker Mr Burman tried to cross from a movable walkway, attached to the crane's cab, to a fixed walkway which led to the main body of the crane.

Obstructed view

As he stepped from one to the other the cab driver, whose view of the crossover point was obstructed, began to move the cab forward trapping Mr Burman between the railings of the two walkways and crushing his upper body.

Mrs McLean said the railings buckled and bent before springing apart violently freeing Mr Burman who lost his grip and fell to his death.

Mrs McLean said Mr Burman was one of six trainees who had successfully completed a basic three-day induction and was undergoing a 12-day dock familiarisation course when the accident happened.

On the penultimate day of the course, the six trainees were taken up a crane so they could see how it operated with particular emphasis on safety considerations for ship workers on the dock below.

Blind spot

Mrs McLean told the court that while trainees were always accompanied up the crane there were no written procedures for their safe descent.

Toby Reily-Smith, defending, said the company accepted there was a blind spot which prevented the driver seeing the full length of the cab platform.

He said they also accepted that they had failed to ensure proper written procedures were in place for the descent of trainees from cranes and that no risk assessment for visitors to the cab had been carried out.

Mr Reily-Smith said that since the accident the company had introduced a number of measures to ensure such a tragedy could never happen again.