Day 130 - 26 May 95 - Page 07


     
     1        Environmental Health Officers initially said they would be
     2        able to release their own statements to us, and the second
     3        reason, the main reason, was that we did not feel it
     4        was fair on the people who were in the store at the time,
     5        because they were distressed enough already.  We did not
     6        really want to put them through having to give the story,
     7        what would have been possibly three times, in some cases,
     8        because the Police also took statements.
     9
    10   Q.   You did as thorough an investigation as you possibly could?
    11        A.  I pulled together all the full facts as I knew them at
    12        the time, from having spoken to people who had sat in on
    13        witnesses giving statements.
    14
    15   Q.   Was your investigation as thorough as the Company could
    16        make?
    17
    18   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  It was not because she did not interview the
    19        people concerned, for the reasons she gave.
    20
    21   MR. MORRIS:  I believe some people were interviewed?
    22        A.  They were not interviewed by McDonald's.
    23
    24   Q.   But apart from that?
    25        A.  As I say, I gathered together -----
    26
    27   Q.   Was it as thorough as you could  make?
    28        A.  I gathered together as many facts as I could at the
    29        time, just bearing in mind what I told you.
    30
    31   Q.   You said the staff were upset.  In this opening
    32        paragraph. "He said:  'I was upset, extremely upset',
    33        naturally so 'and I may not have included full relevant
    34        details when questioned'".   Would you accept that is
    35        likely to be true, when someone is extremely upset, they
    36        may not give all the details?
    37        A.  I suppose that is possible.  There is no doubt he would
    38        have been extremely upset.  We were all extremely upset.
    39        And, again, having been a Restaurant Manager myself, I know
    40        how close a community is in a restaurant.
    41
    42   Q.   Did you check whether the First Aid box was under-stocked?
    43        A.  I did not check the First Aid box; it did not seem to
    44        have any relevance to this particular accident.
    45
    46   Q.   Did you check if the store was under-staffed at the time of
    47        the accident?
    48        A.  Although it is not included in my report, from what
    49        I understand, from what I remember, there was five, maybe
    50        six, people in the restaurant at the time which is pretty 
    51        normal for a close. 
    52 
    53   Q.   He said:  "It was often under-staffed for the close, hence
    54        we had to rush to finish in time"; is that pretty normal?
    55        A.  It sounds like a subjective statement on his behalf
    56        then.  It is down to the Restaurant Manager in each
    57        restaurant to decide how many crew are needed for a
    58        particular time of the day.
    59
    60   Q.   Did you investigate whether that was enough staffing?

Prev Next Index