A painted line was all that was there to stop Daryn Raines stepping into the danger zone between a steel table bolted to the ground and the metal perforation machine he was using when he was crushed to death.
The 46-year-old had been working at Rapid Perforation, a Melbourne-based company with employees across the east coast, for a month when he was killed in February 2021.
Management said it had stressed repeatedly during training that workers should not step into the danger zone, marked by a red and blue painted line around the machine, while it was in operation.
But a judge has fined the company $280,000 for not putting in place simple physical barriers to protect its workers.
Mr Raines had been at the loading point of the machine, where the control panel to operate the machine was.
Sheet metal was manually loaded and unloaded for the turret punch machine.
Three or four years before Mr Raines' death auxiliary tables had been placed in front of the machine to ensure sheet metal didn't protrude from the machine, and that it was supported as it slid out.
The tables, bolted to the ground, were a replica of a more modern version of the machine.
On the morning of his death Mr Raines was discovered by coworkers standing pinned between the table and a travelling carriage of the machine.
Colleagues cut the legs off the table to free him and placed him on the ground, but he was unresponsive and was later declared dead at the scene by paramedics.
The company, through its owner James Gibson, admitted failing to provide and maintain safe plant or systems of work.
County Court Judge Michael O'Connell noted no systems were in place to detect when a person entered the danger area.
"The likelihood of injury was high because the set-up of the machine at that time allowed a person to enter the danger area while a person was operating the machine by simply stepping over a line marked on the floor," he said.
Workplace safety needs to allow for worker error or carelessness, he said, finding there were identifiable measures which would have eliminated or reduced risks to Mr Raines.
The company has since installed a light curtain which automatically shuts down the machine when the light barrier is crossed.
WorkSafe health and safety director Narelle Beer said workers would continue to die or be horrifically injured where employers failed to make sure machinery was appropriately guarded.
Last year 311 manufacturing workers made workers compensation claims for incidents involving machinery, and 142 claims have been made so far this year.
