Day 127 - 23 May 95 - Page 65


     
     1        injury, yes?
     2        A.  Yes.
     3
     4   Q.   Do you think that is a remediable situation?
     5        A.  Well, in fact, the numbers for 1994 came back to 40 per
     6        cent.
     7
     8   Q.   Here we have them at something nearer 50 per cent at the
     9        end of 1993; is that right?
    10        A.  That is right.  It is very difficult to say whether it
    11        is just a normal variation in the percentage or whether it
    12        is a real decrease, but the year before 1991, 1990, they
    13        were at 50 per cent, just over 50 per cent, so we feel that
    14        that 50 per cent down to 40 per cent in 1994 is a real
    15        measurement, but it is very early days in terms of keeping
    16        these statistics for .....
    17
    18   Q.   The only other thing I was wondering about, although one
    19        sees that "struck by" and "harmful substance" have both
    20        gone up to over 10 per cent as opposed to being about five
    21        per cent in 1991, was manual handling -- it was really
    22        quite significant in 1991, 30 per cent of all accidents,
    23        whereas in 1993 it had dropped back to about 11 or 12 per
    24        cent, do you see that?
    25        A.  I do yes.
    26
    27   Q.   Do you know the reason for that?
    28        A.  Certainly, we enhanced the training on manual handling,
    29        I am not sure which year, but it is reflected in the crew
    30        handbooks in terms of the information that we give.
    31
    32   Q.   What do you mean, how you lift things?
    33        A.  Yes.
    34
    35   Q.   Push them, that kind of thing?
    36        A.  That is right.  But why, other than that, I really do
    37        not know.
    38
    39   Q.   It looks, Mrs. Barnes, from the figures you have been
    40        telling us about that -- let us assume it is not as much as
    41        one, but call it one -- for every one RIDDOR accident in a
    42        restaurant, .8 at the moment, there are something like 100
    43        accidents altogether, does that figure of 100 include the
    44        RIDDORs?  I mean, would the RIDDORs be found in the
    45        accident book, I assume they would.
    46        A.  Really, the numbers are insignificant when you compare
    47        it with 100.  If there is only one RIDDOR per store per
    48        year and there are 100 other accidents, whether that is a
    49        total of 101 or whether it is 99 -----
    50 
    51   Q.   No, I am sorry.  I am just being a lawyer.  I apologise for 
    52        that.  Call it 100 as against one. 
    53        A.  Yes.
    54
    55   Q.   First of all, does the figure of 100 of the non-RIDDORs per
    56        annum per restaurant concern you?
    57        A.  Well, I would always like them to be less, and it is a
    58        very wide classification, but I think, looking at the top
    59        of that and being able to see a decrease in the RIDDOR
    60        ones, gives us some encouragement that we are impacting on

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