: Still wrong.: I have found out since posting my last message in here that the
: accident was caused by a pin prick in an electrical cable.
: The pin prick was so tiny that had the accident never have
: occured an electrican looking at the cable would have never
: have even seen it.
: The main reason why this poor person got electorcuted was
: because he was not following the correct procedures for
: cleaning behind the grill. All our thoroughly detailed in
: equipment manuals and soc's.
: And the person should have known the correct procedures because
: he was once a casual manager from another store. the fact was
: he was trying to short cut and it cost him his life. this is a
: painful way to point out that there is no "quick and easy" way
: to do anything!
: You do have a good point though. This should not be swept under
: the carpet. This horrible incident gave Mcd's Australia a wakeup
: call. Oz tries its best at all times to be the best. The US McD's
: is just screwed up and there is not much that can be done for them.
: but in oz we are honestly tring our best to be the best.
: pls help us and keep on writing to places like this with critisim or praise
: which is constructive. which we can use to better your next visit.
: THANKS
: ______________________
: McSpotlight replies:
: The eletrocution death refered to in the last McSpotlight reply
: was that of Mark Hopkins, a floor
: manager at a store in Manchester, UK.
:
: We are aware of the Australian death but have few details about it.
: In the case of the UK death, it was revealed during the McLibel trial, that an internal
: company memo had gone to all restaurants in the region, warning about the faulty equipment and
: the fact that a number of workers had been receiving electric shocks. However, despite the warning,
: nothing was done about the problem untill it after Mark had been killed.
: Here is an extract from the reports on the closing speeches (day 302)
:
: HEALTH AND SAFETY AT WORK - Mr Morris then talked about the death of Mark Hopkins, a floor
: manager at a store in Manchester, UK, who was killed by an electric shock from a piece of faulty
: equipment in October 1992. Shortly before his death a McDonald's memo went to all stores in the
: northwest region, saying, "there have been several recent incidents in our restaurants where members
: of staff have received severe shocks from faulty items of electrical equipment." Mr Morris pointed out
: that it seems that faulty equipment was not only a general problem, but also that it was known to be a
: general problem, in that region at least. Mr Morris claimed that the evidence had clearly shown the
: McDonald's was responsible for Mark Hopkins death. Manchester Council's Environmental Health Dept
: had issued a prohibition notice on the store for failing to have a 'Residual Current Device' in a kitchen area,
: an offence. McDonald's then hurriedly installed such devices nationally. Mr Morris reminded the court that
: the company's own confidential investigation (which had not been given to the coroner or the inquest jury)
: had catalogued a number of company failures and problems and had made the damming conclusion that
: "safety is not seen as being important at store level. Their Safety Officer had accepted the findings
: when in the witness box."
:
I think it is better that no one knows how the death in the Woollongong store occured. Only someone that saw it could have know. McDonald's have now tried to prevent the incident happening again by doing electrical upgrades in every store and intoducing a kind of Safety Switch, which when turned off prevents all electrical currents passing through. Let's just hope it doesn't happen again.
None.
