Eleven year old Cristian Pineda’s family were told it would only be rolling blackouts.
The day before his death, Cristian, who had immigrated to the United States with his family two years ago, happily played in the snow. Snow he was experiencing for the first time.
That evening he shared a bed with his three year old brother, huddled under blankets to keep warm.
“The blackouts instead lasted days. The failure to adequately inform Plaintiffs of the length of the blackouts prevented them from properly preparing for the lack of power, or leaving the area. Accurate information might have saved Cristian Pineda’s young life,” the lawsuit alleged.
The six grader was found the following day by his mother, unresponsive.
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.
The Pinedas were without power and heat for two days and during that time temperatures plummeted to as low as 10 degrees in their area, the lawsuit states.
The family and their attorney accuse Texas power providers Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) and Energy Corporation of putting profit before people.
Attorney Tony Buzbee told ABC News on Sunday. “There are a lot of decisions that were made a long time ago that led to the death of this young man. That is unacceptable.”
Buzbee said he now represents seven families who lost loved ones as a result of the severe weather and said more lawsuits will be filed against the power companies.
“Cristian’s lawsuit is the first and his lawsuit should be the first,” Buzbee said. “This kid is going to change Texas and God bless him for that.”
ABC News (go.com)