In Texas, a child froze to death at home: the family filed a lawsuit against power engineers for $ 100 million

The family of an 11-year-old boy who died from a cold snap in Texas has filed a $ 100 million lawsuit against energy companies. ABC News.

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Christian Pineda's mother found him dead in a cold mobile home.

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) and Entergy are accused of gross negligence in the death of a child. The child's family suspects he suffered hypothermia when the power and heat in his mobile home were cut off during a historic cold snap. The amount of the claim is $100 million.

11-year-old Christian Pineda's mother has filed a lawsuit in Jefferson County District Court alleging that utility giants "prioritize profits over human well-being," ignoring previous recommendations to winterize their power system, which recently suffered a massive outage and left more than 4 million consumers without heat and electricity in extreme cold.

“Despite the fact that ERCOT and Entergy knew about the dire weather forecast at least a week in advance and knew that the system had not been prepared for more than ten years, they took no proactive actions that could have prevented the crisis and were completely ready to deal with the crisis,” the lawsuit says.

According to the lawsuit, Christian died on Tuesday, February 16, in his family's mobile home in the Houston suburb of Conrow, while sharing a bed with his 3-year-old brother under a pile of blankets, trying to keep warm.

“This is a child who died for no other reason than corporate decisions,” said Pineda family attorney Tony Buzbee. “Many decisions that were made a long time ago led to his death. This is unacceptable".

As of Sunday, Feb.21, more than 30 people have died in Texas in a week due to harsh weather, officials said, including many from carbon monoxide poisoning when they used cars or generators to keep warm during a massive power outage.

Buzby said he now represents seven families bereaved by the harsh weather. More lawsuits will be filed against energy companies, he said.

“Christian’s lawsuit is the first, and his lawsuit should be the first,” Buzbee said. “This guy can change Texas, and God bless him for it.”

The sixth grader, who emigrated to the United States two years ago with his family, was a healthy boy who played in the snow for the first time in his life the day before his death, said his mother, Maria Pineda.

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The next day, Maria Pineda found the baby with no signs of life and called the emergency services, trying to give artificial respiration, the lawsuit says. The Pineda family claims the child froze to death, but the official cause of death was not announced until the autopsy results.

Entergy, which supplies electricity to consumers in Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi, issued a statement saying: “We are deeply saddened by the loss of life in our community. We cannot comment because of the pending litigation. "

ERCOT, which operates the electricity grid for more than 25 million consumers, said that "the lawsuit will be answered appropriately as soon as it is considered."

"Our thoughts are with all Texans who are suffering due to this week's weather," ERCOT said in a statement.

ERCOT officials said the company initiated an emergency power outage on Feb.15 after a blizzard covered much of Texas and caused temperatures to drop below freezing (below -17,7 C). The agency said it has taken drastic measures to avoid a catastrophic statewide power outage.

“With approximately 46% of private generation offline last Monday (Feb. 15) morning, we are confident that our grid operators made the right choice to avoid a statewide blackout,” ERCOT said in a statement.

But a lawsuit filed on behalf of Maria Pineda by attorney Anthony Buzby alleges that the power supply was cut off for "those most vulnerable to the cold."

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The lawsuit accused ERCOT of misleading customers by assuring them that the power outage would be temporary.

“Instead, the power outage lasted for several days. The failure to adequately inform plaintiffs of the duration of the power outage prevented them from adequately preparing for the power outage or leaving the area. Accurate information could have saved Christian Pineda's young life,” the lawsuit states.

The lawsuit states that Pineda's house had no electricity or heat for two days, and during that time the temperature in their area dropped to 10 degrees (-12 C).

Instead of informing customers that rolling blackouts would be extended, ERCOT sent out social media messages telling customers not to do laundry on Valentine's Day and to "turn off the fancy new appliances they bought during the pandemic and only used once." »

The lawsuit also noted that following a severe winter storm in 2011, the FEC and the North American Power Reliability Corporation issued a report informing ERCOT that "Texas needs additional winterization of its energy infrastructure."

According to a report cited in the lawsuit, a large number of units that went offline or failed to start during the 2011 storm demonstrated that “generators, exposed to prolonged cold weather and strong winds, do not work as they should.”

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In an interview last week, an ERCOT spokesman suggested that at least some of the recommendations have been implemented.

“In 2018, it was just as cold, just as windy, and we had very few power plants offline,” said ERCOT Senior Director of Operations Dan Woodfin. “It turns out that these best practices and what manufacturers have been doing in this regard are working.”

“Rather than invest in infrastructure to prepare for the winter storms that are sure to come and possibly leave people without power, service providers choose to put profits over people's well-being, and ERCOT has allowed them to do so,” the lawsuit states.

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