The Haut du Mont explosion which killed ten people was a “failure of the individual” and not a failure of corporate supervision, a gas safety expert has said.
Giving evidence yesterday, retired engineer Chris Clarke insisted that Island Energy had fostered a “good culture in terms of not condoning deviation from procedures” prior to the fatal blast on 10 December 2022.
Mr Clarke was called to the stand as an expert witness on behalf of the gas company, which denies two alleged breaches of the Health and Safety at Work (Jersey) Law 1989.
The former health and safety manager at Wales & West Utilities is the final expert providing live evidence at the trial, with the jury expected to retire to consider its verdict “sometime next week”.
Advocate Mike Preston, for Island Energy, asked Mr Clarke to assess the level to which the three defendants – Neil Armstrong (58), John Wright (60) and Lee Ward (59) – had been trained.
“I think their training was exactly how I’d expect it to be,” Mr Clarke replied. “There were comments in their interviews about how much training they did.
“I therefore assessed them – through their combination of skills and long experience – to be competent.”
It was put to Mr Clarke that “none of” the Island Energy employees were trained in ‘Safe Control of Operations’ – an established set of procedures for controlling the risk that arises from individuals not carrying out work correctly.
“On the basis that it appears Island Energy did not implement SCO, I wouldn’t expect them to be SCO trained”, the former British Gas employee responded.
He went on to refer to SCO as an “administrative procedure which tells you how to fill the forms in”, and not applicable for workers with a “spanner in their hands”.
“I think their training was exactly how I’d expect it to be”
Chris Clarke, Chartered safety professional (CMIOSH)
Crown Advocate Simon Thomas, prosecuting, cross-examined Mr Clarke on whether Island Energy had something “equally effective” to SCO in place at the time of the explosion.
Mr Clarke answered that it was Island Energy were controlling the safety of operations by the use of hands-on “supervision”.
“My observation was that the way it was being done in Island Energy was not using lots of paperwork and additional procedures,” he said, “but using the very back-to-basics style that I had observed when I worked at British Gas.
“From my own experience, in that time, we operated in a safe way.”
READ: Boss was ‘in a rush’ before Haut du Mont explosion, court hears
The prosecutor pointed out that Mr Armstrong, who was the supervisor of the network operations team, had instructed team leader Mr Wright to carry out the initial disconnection work to Haut du Mont in contrivance of procedure on 9 December.
He said: “[Mr Wright] had been told by Mr Armstrong only to use a single bag rather than the two bags that he thought he should use.
“That instruction was given in the office, and given quietly by Mr Armstrong so that [former Island Energy safety and compliance officer] Mr Johnstone wouldn’t hear.”
Crown Advocate Thomas continued: “If Mr Wright is right about what he was saying he has been told by his supervisor – to do something unsafe – then that is a complete failure of supervision, isn’t it?”
“It is not a failure of supervision, it’s a failure of the individual,” Mr Clarke countered.
“Clearly, they were trying to conceal it from senior management, and therefore I conclude from that that [Island Energy] had a good culture in terms of not condoning deviation from procedures.”
Commissioner Andrew Oldland is presiding.
The trial continues.
