Day 130 - 26 May 95 - Page 21
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2 MR. RAMPTON: Perhaps Mr. Morris should listen to that answer.
3 It is quite an important answer.
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5 MR. MORRIS: Our case will be that Robert Chapman -----
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7 MR. RAMPTON: I intervene to invite Mr. Morris to listen to the
8 last answer. He may not wish to proceed with this any
9 further, if he should look at it.
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11 MR. MORRIS: Yes, the point I am putting is an additional point,
12 that the plug could quite possibly, or probably, would have
13 been wired, or, rewired, perfectly adequately, but been
14 tugged loose, as it had been previously, when Mr. Chapman
15 had had to change -----
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17 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Do not answer that question because I do not
18 think you can know the answer. Let us see what the
19 evidence is at the end of the day, and whether it really
20 makes a different to the thrust of your point with regard
21 to Mark Hopkins. I have taken the point that it is in
22 issue whether it was rewired properly or not, or whether
23 something happened, tugging or whatever else, which
24 rendered it in a dangerous condition.
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26 MS. STEEL: Can I just ask about the following paragraph: "AEC
27 training on plug wiring does not cover all the areas that
28 contributed to this accident, i.e. length of wires,
29 stripping of wires, securing so that the earth comes free
30 last, securing cable clamp around cable not wires". What
31 exactly does the AEC training on plug wiring cover?
32 A. I cannot remember exactly what it covered then, but it
33 did cover wiring a plug, in terms of which colour goes
34 where, but, for example, particularly that part about
35 securing the earth so it is longest so it would come free
36 last, is not something we taught at the time, but has been
37 included in the revised package since.
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39 Q. So, basically, at that time training on plug wiring was
40 just which colour to which pin?
41 A. I cannot remember now exactly what was taught, but
42 certainly that particular one about the earth coming free
43 last was something we felt was very important, that we
44 recognised we had not included. Obviously, this page goes
45 just about everything I could think of at the time where we
46 should look to approve. I hope you appreciate, in looking
47 at that, I was as picky as I possibly could be. We were
48 not trying to hide anything.
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50 We were not perfect. We made lots changes afterwards, but
51 I still cannot guarantee to you there will never be an
52 electric shock in McDonald's, just as I cannot guarantee
53 there will never be an electric shock in my home or anybody
54 else's home. As long as there is electrical equipment, it
55 could happen.
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57 MR. MORRIS: The third full paragraph from the bottom said that
58 Bellec ^ had offered to carry out the repairs that they
59 felt were needed in September 1992. That relates to what
60 we said before about management being brave in asking for,
