Day 132 - 07 Jun 95 - Page 46
1 anything that comes on to the premises that are not
2 normally used must be maintained to the normal standard
3 that we would expect.
4
5 Q. That was in the same store, was it?
6 A. I think it was. Forgive me, we are going back a while
7 and I have not looked at the papers for a while -- for a
8 long time indeed.
9
10 Q. When you say you looked again at the business of rewiring
11 plugs?
12 A. Yes.
13
14 Q. What kind of investigation had you been involved about that
15 then?
16 A. Well, I had not in previous, but I was aware of the
17 McDonald's instruction that only certain people should wire
18 plugs, people who had gone through the Equipment course.
19 What I said was since there was something in this instance
20 that had broken down that system needed to be reinforced
21 and we needed to notify everybody of that fact which,
22 I believe, was done.
23
24 Q. So the Company had not previously looked into who was
25 rewiring plugs, they had just -----
26 A. Well, the Company had always limited rewiring of plugs
27 to people who had been on the AEC course.
28
29 Q. But they had not looked into what the practice was on the
30 ground?
31 A. I cannot comment on that. I do not know whether they
32 had or not. As far as I am concerned, there had not been a
33 serious incident which suggested that the system was
34 breaking down. When the incident occurred and we carried
35 out the investigation, they then took steps to reinforce
36 their system which I would have thought appropriate.
37
38 Q. I am only asking because you said you looked at the
39 business once again of rewiring -----
40 A. I see. I apologise if I mislead you on that
41 circumstance. When I say "once again", obviously, this is
42 the benefit of hindsight and it came up subsequently. But,
43 in actual fact, I was aware of the Electricity at Work
44 systems and so on. That was something that Joe and I had
45 looked at specifically which is -- because the Electricity
46 at Work regulations and so on, we had looked at the
47 inspection systems for the stores, etc. but obviously it
48 needed -- we felt it needed reinforcing after that
49 incident.
50
51 Q. What other work were you involved in whilst, kind of,
52 filling in for Mrs. Barnes?
53 A. I honestly cannot remember now. As far as I am aware,
54 that was the only sort of call-out situation, but it would
55 not be unusual for somebody to phone me up and ask for
56 advice. I cannot recall anything else that was tackled at
57 the time.
58
59 MR. MORRIS: So was, effectively, nobody taking on her
60 responsibilities then if you were not dealing with any
