McDonald's in Hot Water after Illinois Slip and Fall Injury, Deep Fryer Burns
The very grease which made McDonald's Big Macs, golden fries and Chicken McNuggets such hot commodities has the popular fast food chain feeling the heat in Illinois. A personal injury case involving a former McDonald's employee who burnt her hand in a deep fryer of hot grease after slipping and falling on a wet floor is beginning hearings. Julie Ann Wynard is seeking a minimum $30,000 in damages from McDonald's Corporation and Frymaster, L.L.C. following a 2001 accident at a Carol Stream McDonald's.
Wynard was cleaning out a deep fryer when she allegedly slipped and fell on a slippery floor, which caused her hand to be thrust into a fryer of hot oil and sustain burns. In her Illinois personal injury lawsuit, Wynard alleges that McDonald's failed to develop adequate rules for cleaning their deep fryers, housed unreasonably dangerous fryers, designed unreasonably slippery floors, and failed to warn her of such hazards. She also alleges that Frymaster carelessly designed the fryer in question and did not warn of the dangers of contacting heated grease. Will McDonald's get out of this hot water? The Injury Blog will keep you updated on any developments.
As a McDonalds employee myself, I don't think it's reasonable in the slightest. Proceedures state that after the floors (which are not designed to be slippery - they're designed to be kept clean easily!), when wet, should be marked with a 'Wet Floor' marker. In places where this is not possible, such as some places in some kitchens, all staff members should be warned about the floor-not just the ones in the viscinity. If the person in question was not warned, then the blame would lie with whoever washed the floor, not the establishment.
Fryers are, by nature, hot. If fries were put into cold oil, there wouldn't be much point in putting them in there. There are also signs on the friers themselves telling staff how hot the oil should be, and it flashes up on a display below.
If she doesn't have enough common sense to figure that out, then I'm quite glad that it happened - it's unthinkable to contemplate the other possibilities with such an evident lack of comprehension of something so simple as this.