Family sues Texas power providers for $100M after death

Snow-covered roads at the Highlands at Westridge Community in McKinney, Texas, following a freezing winter storm. (Photo: Jiujiuer/Shutterstock)

Texas power providers the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) and Energy Corporation have been slammed with a $100 million lawsuit accusing the company of gross negligence in the death of an 11-year-old child. The child’s family claims he suffered from hypothermia after the mobile home where he lived lost electricity and heat during a freezing winter storm that caused power grid failures across Texas.

Maria Pineda, the mother of decedent Cristian Pineda, filed the wrongful death suit alleging that the utility companies “put profits over the welfare of people” when they ignored recommendations to winterize the power grid. The most recent polar vortex unofficially called Winter Storm Uri caused an epic power grid failure that left more than four million Texans without heat and electricity for days as temperatures in some parts of the state plunged to single digits.