Banks and teen "rehab" cults get free money from the government just for asking for it, but a man who worked hard his whole life didn't even have enough money to keep from freezing to death.
In Bay City, Michigan, a 93-year-old man died from the cold after the municipal utility company limited his electric use because he couldn't pay all his bills.
According to the examiner who did the autopsy, the man suffered "a slow, painful death."
The utility had placed a limiter on the man's home to curtail his power use. The limiter blows if you use too much power, and electricity is not restored until the limiter is reset.
Although this was a public utility, think how dangerous it is for any utility to have this ability. About 15 years ago, there was a similar death when a private utility in another locale cut off electricity during record cold weather.
Maybe there ought to be a law that says utilities can't cut off power once the weather gets too cold.
(Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090126/ap_on_re_us/frozen_indoors)
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Elderly man dies after electric cut off
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
This is unbelievable! Is this the way we treat our elderly? This country is really in terrible shape. There should be criminal charges filed against this utility company. Things are going to get worse before they get better. We have a country in which a lot of the politicians are theives and con artists. This is very upsetting.
ReplyDeletethis is terrible but if the electric company let everyone go free who struggled to pay electric bill how could they make it.
DeleteWhile this is a horrible situation, I'm not sure how the fact this man was elderly has anything to do with the issue. If you would still feel the same if the power was cut off for anyone with an unpaid bill after some time, then I understand how you could believe that criminal charges should be filed. I'm not one to defend monopolies like utility companies, but removing the tragedy of the situation, I'm not sure how the utility company is supposed to know who the client is that they're shutting off power to. It's not like they discriminated against this individual.I have no idea how long the bill was overdue, but at some point, what recourse does a company have for collections?
ReplyDeleteAw, the poor electric company...not having a recourse for collections.
ReplyDeletePUCO/CPSC/etc. gives the electric company a rate increase just for the asking, and we're worried about them not having a recourse to collect?
i think you should not get your lights turned off if it is so cold out and if it really hot outside. everyone should have a little respect for others. i herad you could not turn power off in the cold weather if you had small children or eldely living in a home. we all have two pay are bills but hey some times people do get behind and we all need a little more time to pay are behind payments, and we always do find the way to get the bills payed up. but componys think hey lets turn them off and you know they will find the money to get turned back on.So why give us time to pay it when they can turn us right off.
ReplyDeleteThis is just a sad and disgusting situation. You always have to realize that whenever you cut someone's power off during extreme elements, there is a potential for a tragedy like this. Even if it isn't an elderly person, it could be innocent children who have to suffer. So much of our tax money is wasted and we can't even find a way to make sure that some one is kept warm over a lousy payment. This just turns my stomach. I love my country, but I hate this greedy culture. We need to stick together like people did in New York during 911.
ReplyDeleteYou know if our government spent its money right, power and water could probably be free...at least in the colder months. Like 10 percent of the people in America have 80 percent of the wealth...TAX them! That'll bring back our economy...This will make a lot of people mad, but those who make over a million/ 6 months should definitely HAVE to help out. Its just gonna go back to most of them anyways...and I bet a lot more people will be able to pay their mortgages and car payments. Hence... a better economy.
ReplyDelete