Day 130 - 26 May 95 - Page 24
1
2 MR. JUSTICE BELL: We will break off for five minutes.
3
4 (Short Adjournment)
5
6 MS. STEEL: Just one small matter: On page 736 of the bundle,
7 pink XIII still, a letter you sent out to all employees
8 following the accident?
9 A. Yes.
10
11 Q. Despite discovering that there were several damaged sockets
12 in the store, and they were being used, you did not think
13 to state in this letter, to explicitly state, that
14 employees should not use damaged sockets?
15 A. It obviously is not in here, but we already say about
16 not using damaged equipment. Remember, we also decided we
17 would put it in the contractors' hands to make sure the
18 work was done, instead of leaving it to the discretion of
19 management.
20
21 Q. But the contractors would not be coming around to all the
22 stores right at this time, would they? They are not all
23 coming to all the stores the same day, to immediately take
24 action?
25 A. No, they would not go around straightaway. I cannot
26 really remember the wording in the memo from Paul Preston,
27 but certainly we felt we had raised the awareness of
28 electrical safety with both of those. Remember this too
29 was aimed mainly at crew members as opposed to managers,
30 although it was the employees' the idea was it was posted
31 so that crew could see it.
32
33 Q. If you turn to page 773. We have referred to this memo
34 before; this is the one dated 17th February 1992, and it
35 says: "There have been several recent instances in our
36 restaurants where members of staff have received severe
37 shocks from faulty items from electrical equipment.
38 Unfortunately, I have not been notified of these accidents
39 at the time they occurred". Were you notified about these
40 accidents at the time they occurred?
41 A. I doubt it if Frank Frost was not. At that time it was
42 before my original people were appointed, so the regional
43 facilities engineers, like Frank, would be the primary
44 point of contact for electric shocks.
45
46 Q. You would not expect it to come to you and then you report
47 to Frank Frost?
48 A. No, I would expect it go straight to him so he could
49 get the contractors in there to investigate. It is still
50 joint now between my people and the people, like Frank
51 Frost, to get the investigation done. As I say, using
52 electrical equipment is just the same as at home, there is
53 just no way you can say categorically an electric shock
54 will never happen. You can maintain them to try and make
55 sure you pick up any faults they develop.
56
57 We feel, now, putting the RCDs on, should a shock occur, it
58 is unlikely to cause any severe injury, but I cannot
59 categorically say that nobody else at McDonald's will ever
60 get an electric shock. It is just impossible to do that,
