RAIL wagon manufacturers Thrall Europa have been fined £2,500 for breaching health and safety rules after 625kg of steel fell on a worker, fracturing his skull.

Former Thrall employee Christopher Hall, 29, had climbed on to a part for a coal wagon to release it from an overhead crane on May 15 2002. It fell on top of him, fracturing his skull in two places and cracking his hard hat.

York magistrates heard that Mr Hall had suffered two fractures to his pelvis and lost 40 per cent of his hearing in one ear as a result of the accident at the company's Holgate Road site. He also experienced dizziness, headaches and short-term memory loss.

Alun Williams, prosecuting on behalf of the Health and Safety Executive, said that Mr Hall had been helping an agency worker, Stephen Long, remove the clamp fixing the steel part to the crane.

At 5ft 7in, Mr Hall was not able to reach the clamp, so he climbed up on the steel part. He said he had climbed up another assembly part earlier that day and had been warned by Mr Long that the structure might fall on top of him.

Mr Williams said that Mr Hall never returned to work at the company and was currently looking for another job.

Carole Ferguson, for Thrall, said there had been stools on the premises, which Mr Hall could have used to reach the clamp. Eight new stools had been delivered the previous day, but were in storage until they could be checked for safety reasons.

She said: "It would have taken maybe two minutes to go and get one, but Mr Hall decided to climb up instead."

She said that once the accident had happened, Mr Hall had been attended by first-aiders and rushed to hospital.

Miss Ferguson said Thrall, which closed its York operation this year, had pleaded guilty to breaching Health and Safety rules because it had failed to recognise somebody might choose to climb on to free-standing parts.

She said this type of steel assembly unit had never toppled in the past.

After the accident, Thrall told all employees they must never climb on to free-standing equipment under any circumstances and provided workers with two new long stools, she said.

As well as the £2,500 fine, Thrall was ordered to pay £1,848 in costs.

Updated: 10:37 Friday, April 18, 2003