TEXAS power providers Electric Reliability Council of (ERCOT) and Energy Corporation in the United States have been hit with a US$100 million lawsuit accusing them of gross negligence in the death of a child whose family suspects he suffered hypothermia when they lost electricity and heat in their mobile home during a historic cold snap.

The mother of 11-year-old Cristian Pineda filed the wrongful death lawsuit in Jefferson County District Court, alleging the utility giants “put profits over the welfare of people” by ignoring previous recommendations to winterize its power grid, which sustained an epic failure last week and left more than 4 million customers without heat and electricity as temperatures in some parts of the state plunged to single digits.

“Despite having knowledge of the dire weather forecast for at least a week in advance, and the knowledge that the system was not prepared for more than a decade, ERCOT and Entergy failed to take any preemptory action that could have averted the crisis,” the lawsuit states.

Cristian died Feb. 16 in his family’s mobile home in the Houston suburb of Conroe while sharing a bed with his 3-year-old brother under a pile of blankets in an attempt to stay warm, according to the lawsuit.

The sixth grader, who migrated to the United States two years ago with his family, was a healthy boy who on the day before his death was playing in the snow for the first time in his life, his mother, Maria Pineda, told the Houston Chronicle. Maria Pineda found her son unresponsive the next day and called 911 while attempting CPR, according to the lawsuit.

While the Pineda family contends the child froze to death, the official cause of death is pending the results of an autopsy, according to the Conroe Police Department.

Entergy released a statement saying, “We are deeply saddened by the loss of life in our community. We are unable to comment due to pending litigation.” ERCOT officials said it initiated emergency rolling blackouts Feb. 15 after a snowstorm blanketed much of Texas. The agency said it took drastic action to avoid a catastrophic statewide blackout.

“Because approximately 46 percent of privately owned generation tripped offline this past Monday morning, we are confident that our grid operators made the right choice to avoid a statewide blackout,” ERCOT said in its statement.

But the lawsuit — filed on behalf of Maria Pineda and the estate of Cristian Pineda by attorney Anthony Buzbee — contends that power was turned off for “those who were most vulnerable to the cold.”

(SD-Agencies)