Submitted by Aiken Jacobsen on
It is inevitable that tragic accidents sometimes happen. However, when lives are lost because of accidents caused by negligence or carelessness, families want answers. The responsible individuals or businesses must be held accountable.
In September of last year a neighborhood in San Bruno was destroyed after a gas line exploded. The explosion was accompanied by a fire and the two disasters destroyed 37 homes, injured 50 people, and left 8 victims dead. Now, the family of one of the victims is suing Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) in a wrongful death lawsuit.
The family is holding PG&E responsible for the death of their 20-year-old daughter, who was in the area visiting her boyfriend at the time of the explosion. The lawsuit alleges that the accident was caused by negligence and inaction, because PG&E apparently knew about safety problems but did not fix them. Lawyers for the family point out that the company has an abysmal safety record, and its gas operations have been cited 411 times by state regulators.
The explosion was officially determined to have been caused by faulty welding on the gas pipe. Surprisingly, PG&E had no record that the pipe had been welded together. A separate inspection by the National Transportation Safety Board in 1956 revealed that the welding was defective, but it appears there were no efforts to fix it since that time.
The lawsuit asks for compensation from PG&E, but victims and families want more than that. They want assurances that this sort of preventable accident will not happen again. They also want a clear-cut explanation of how PG&E plans to prevent accidents and personal injuries in the future.
Wrongful death lawsuits are a way that families and friends can seek justice for a death that was preventable and avoidable. The family of this victim and other victims want to hold PG&E responsible for its negligence, and to make sure that no more victims get hurt.
Source: dBusinessNews.com, "Parents File Lawsuit Against PG&E After 20-Year-Old Daughter's San Bruno Fire Death" 27 January 2011
