'Budget concerns' at Island Energy in the years before the fatal Haut du Mont explosion meant workers - including the three men on trial over the blast - did not get 'fundamental' safety training, Jersey's Royal Court has heard.
Witness James Cherry, a former senior manager at the gas company, recalled telling a colleague, 'I don't want to be sitting in the dock with you one day', because he was concerned that workers who needed to be weren't compliant with safety training.
Mr Cherry has been giving evidence, alleging that Island Energy ‘wouldn’t spend the money’ on it.
He said that before the explosion, no worker at the plant had Safe Control of Operations (SCO) training, and that this was part of the reason he 'quit' in the summer of 2022, and was working his notice period before being asked to stay.
Mr Cherry told the jury the training he requested multiple times, including in September 2022, for defendants Neil Armstrong, 58 , John Wright, 60, and Lee Ward , 59, was ‘very important’ and ‘a fundamental part of doing their jobs properly’.
But, he said, they were never trained in SCO - designed to ensure that workers understand gas network procedures and meet compliance standards - because their former employer ‘wouldn’t spend the money’.
He said Island Energy were reducing salaries, and that it was hard to get buying even a spanner signed off. He said that in-house development became stagnant.
When shown by prosecutors method statements and operation diagrams by workers at the company, Mr Cherry said many of them lacked detail, that there was ‘not a lot there’.
He agreed with Defence Advocate Rui Tremoceiro that Mr Armstrong taught people to take 'pride in their work' but that there was a 'gap in his knowledge in regards to paperwork' and planning.
And he agreed with Defence Advocate Olaf Blakely that it seemed his attempts to get employees, including the three defendants, the training ‘fell on deaf ears.’ It was during this cross examination that he recalled telling a former colleague he didn't 'want to be in the dock' with her one day because workers were not SCO compliant.
Earlier this week, another former IE manager, Mark Wheeldon told the jury that a 'common response' during a safety audit, when certain equipment wasn't used, was to describe it as 'the Jersey way'.
The court has previously been told a gas pipe was cut in the wrong place and then reconnected without a vital leak test the day before the deadly explosion.
Mr Armstrong, Mr Ward, Mr Wright each deny 10 counts of gross negligence manslaughter, over the fatal blast at Haut Du Mont flats on December 2022.
Island Energy denies breaches of the Health and Safety Law.
The trial continues.
Read our full coverage of the trial here:
Haut Du Mont trial: Safety Officer ‘would’ve stopped the job’ if told truth about test
Haut Du Mont trial: Worker told colleague he 'didn't test' gas main
Haut du Mont trial: Island Energy 'placed health and safety at risk'
Haut Du Mont Trial: 'It could explode', jury hears 999 calls
Haut Du Mont Trial: Worker checking gas valves spent almost 'entire' time on his phone
Haut Du Mont Trial: Gas works were 'sloppy, unsafe, and cut corners', allege prosecutors
Haut du Mont trial: Explosion 'an incident waiting to happen'
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