The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has prosecuted neon sign manufacturer Taylor Electronics (Manchester) Ltd and its Wigan-based director, John Taylor, after a worker was killed in a fall from a statue.

In April 2007, Ian Gutteridge was fitting a giant necklace to Manchester city’s 140-year-old Albert Memorial statue, when the cherry picker he was working on overturned.

Mr Gutteridge suffered head and chest injuries in the fall and did not regain consciousness. He died in hospital the next day.

A photographer who was also on the platform was knocked unconscious, but made a full recovery.

An investigation by HSE showed that the cherry picker had not been properly stabilised before being used.

Taylor Electronics had agreed to fit the necklace – a giant glowing cross – to the statue in Albert Square to promote a jewellery exhibition in Manchester Town Hall.

On Wednesday, 24 March 2010 at Manchester Crown Court, Taylor Electronics (Manchester) Ltd and its Wigan-based director, John Taylor, were fined a total of £12,000, after each pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974, by failing to ensure the safety of workers.

Taylor Electronics of Chester Road in Manchester was fined £10,000 and ordered to pay costs of £8,000. John Taylor of Greenfield Road in Atherton was fined £2,000.

After the hearing, HSE inspector Sandra Tomlinson said that Taylor Electronics had agreed to carry out ‘an unusual job’ to help publicise the jewellery exhibition – but it then took ‘unacceptable risks’ to achieve it.

Ms Tomlinson added that Mr Gutteridge ‘would still be alive today’ if the correct safety procedures had been followed.

‘Mr Gutteridge’s death has had a devastating impact on his family, and it could easily have been prevented by properly stabilising the cherry picker,’ she said.

‘Only one of the four legs on the cherry picker vehicle had been fully extended, which made it dangerously unstable.

‘I hope this tragic case will highlight how important it is for companies to treat health and safety seriously,’ Ms Tomlinson added.

Last year, more than 4,000 employees suffered a major injury as a result of a fall from height at work and 15 were killed, said the HSE.

More information about the HSE’s Shattered Lives campaign is available at www.hse.gov.uk/shatteredlives.

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