Day 130 - 26 May 95 - Page 25


     
     1        just as it is impossible to say so at home or any other
     2        workplace.
     3
     4   Q.   If you were were not notified about these electric shocks,
     5        they would not have been in the RIDDOR statistics either.
     6        A.  An electric shock is not a RIDDOR accident.  An
     7        electric shock is only a RIDDOR accident if the person
     8        involved goes to hospital, receives medical treatment, or
     9        is kept in more than 24 hours.
    10
    11   Q.   I thought you said something the other day that electric
    12        shocks were a special category, and they automatically have
    13        to be reported?
    14        A.  They are, but the injury has to be such that I
    15        have just described to you.
    16
    17   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  It is dealt with by the results ---
    18        A.  Yes.
    19
    20   Q.  -- rather than the mechanics of how the injury is caused?
    21        A.  That is right, an accident becomes a RIDDOR accident
    22        depending on the seriousness of the outcome.
    23
    24   MS. STEEL:  So, basically, electric shocks are treated in
    25        exactly the same way as the other accidents; it is only the
    26        outcome that matters?
    27        A.  Sorry, I do not understand what you mean.
    28
    29   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  The accident book, people only write in, it
    30        may be suggested, if there is an injury.  In fact,
    31        I pointed out myself that there was an electric shock
    32        appeared ---
    33        A.  In that -----
    34
    35   Q.   -- the woman who appeared regularly in the book, I cannot
    36        now remember whether it is said that she received any
    37        injury.
    38
    39   MS. STEEL:  I think it said she had a dead arm or something like
    40        that.
    41        A.  What we have in place now (and we have since my people
    42        were appointed in early 1993) is that any electric shock,
    43        it does not matter whether there is an injury or not, it is
    44        phoned in straightaway.  They either talk to my people or
    45        they talk to the facility engineer and we investigate them
    46        all.  So we do not depend on it being a RIDDOR electric
    47        shock.
    48
    49   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  The word "accident book" is a bit of a
    50        misnomer.  It is not an accident book; it is an accident 
    51        followed by injury book? 
    52        A.  Yes, an accident could result just in equipment damage 
    53        or building damage.  It might not result in an injury, but
    54        an injury is one particular type of outcome but, in
    55        general, they tend to be used as intermingling term.
    56
    57   MR. RAMPTON:  My Lord, if it helps, in fact, there were two;
    58        they were both in 1986.  One was not the lady your Lordship
    59        referred to.  She got an electric shock and had a dead
    60        arm.  The other one was a lady, Gloria Saul.  She had an

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