Day 130 - 26 May 95 - Page 11
1 someone who will say: "People have to step over the flex
2 when it is taut", then you will be able to tell me that.
3
4 At the end of today I am going to say something to
5 Mr. Rampton about Mr. Purslow about what I expect him to
6 give evidence and not to give evidence, along the lines
7 that I do not want Mr. Purslow giving evidence which makes
8 this comment or that comment in relation to potential
9 witnesses of yours, in so far as those are matters to which
10 I can apply my own common sense, as against Mr. Purslow
11 giving me the benefit of a particular expertise which I do
12 not have myself.
13
14 You have to give me a little bit of credit for common
15 sense, even if the extent of my common sense has not
16 appealed to you so far. You have to work on the basis that
17 I will reach my own judgment on matters, which I think
18 I know as much about as anyone else, like tripping over
19 flexes. If you feel able to make a comment on it, I will
20 feel able to form a judgment. I am saying this because you
21 must finish your cross-examination today, and I want you
22 want to deal with the matters which are important to you
23 today.
24
25 MR. MORRIS: The fact is, Mrs. Barnes, that if people kick wires
26 that are trailing, especially if they are in a taut
27 condition, it is going to loosen the wires in the plug, is
28 it not, that is common sense?
29 A. That could happen, particularly if the cable itself was
30 not in the cable grip, which is the case here. The other
31 thing is, obviously, a written statement like this from
32 Robert Chapman was not available to me at the time.
33 I could only go on, second party, what he had said.
34 Therefore, you cannot expect me to have all these facts in
35 my report.
36
37 Secondly, Robert Chapman had the advantage of being there;
38 I was not. Therefore I really cannot disagree from his own
39 subjective view of what happened. It is his version. In
40 doing accident investigations, it is common to find that
41 two people who saw the same thing will give a completely
42 different version of it. So, I cannot say, one way or the
43 other, whether he is right or wrong.
44
45 Q. Can I ask you one further question about that particular
46 point? The distance from the plug to the fat filtering
47 unit, when it was positioned to be in use, with the wire
48 trailing in a taut condition, it was not trailing next to
49 the wall behind the machine, it was trailing to the machine
50 across the floor, was it not?
51 A. I really cannot -----
52
53 Q. I was not at the store. You looked at the store; you
54 checked the incident; you could see where the filtering
55 unit was; you could see the plug. If you draw a direct
56 line, in a taut condition, from the plug to the fat
57 filtering unit, it would not have been by the skirting
58 board and out of sight, would it, it would have been across
59 the floor, yes or no?
60 A. I am just trying to remember what the back room looked
