Day 131 - 06 Jun 95 - Page 14

     
     1        accidents to reflect the generality and the type of
     2        accidents occurring within stores, granted the fact that
     3        you have also put in a control loop, in as much as
     4        individual stores are asked to monitor their minor
     5        accidents themselves; and one would expect that to be so.
     6
     7   Q.   Two questions arising out of that, Mr. Purslow.  Are you
     8        telling us then, that, as a generality, in so far as one
     9        can prevent RIDDOR accidents of a particular type from
    10        occurring, one is also going to succeed in preventing minor
    11        injuries arising out of the same kind of minor accident?
    12        A.  Indeed.  To give you a simple illustration:  if one
    13        slips over, the likely outcome is that somebody will stand
    14        up and it will be a minor bruise.  Once in maybe 20, 30, 40
    15        times, the injury will be much more severe, and yet it is
    16        exactly same incident that has occurred.  That will then
    17        become the RIDDOR one and, as I say, it will reflect the
    18        fact that perhaps there were some slips in the
    19        organisation.  It is as simple as that.
    20
    Q.   Before I ask you to look at the actual figures,
    22        Mr. Purslow, to what extent does the prevention of
    23        accidents and hence, one hopes, of injury, depend upon the
    24        local conditions as opposed to the general method of
    25        operation of the Company's business?
    26        A.  Well, again, it is a blend of the two.  The general
    27        operations of the company, the way that tasks are carried
    28        out and so on, is obviously important; but obviously
    29        important, too, is local conditions.  So it would be
    30        difficult to separate the two entirely.
    31
    32   Q.   It might depend, might it, upon the physical conformation
    33        of a particular restaurant?
    34        A.  Indeed.
    35
    36   Q.   Could you please fetch from the shelves behind you a file
    37        with a pink label on the back of it, XIII?  Can we have a
    38        look, first of all, please, at tab 57M in that volume?
    39        A.  Yes.
    40
    Q.   These are only up-to-date so far as the end of 1993 is
    42        concerned.  The RIDDOR accidents at McDonald's ---
    43        A.  Yes.
    44
    45   Q.   -- in this country; do you see them there?
    46        A.  I do.
    47
    48   Q.   The first page is the total number?
    49        A.  Yes.
    50 
    51   Q.   In 1991, there were 335; there were nine more in 1992; then 
    52        a jump to 490 in 1993.  Mrs. Barnes has told us that in 
    53        1994 it went back down to 380.
    54        A.  Yes.
    55
    56   Q.   For an organisation in business of the kind that McDonald's
    57        is, and employing the number of people in the store that it
    58        does, do those figures give you any anxiety?
    59        A.  No.
    60