Linda Daniels, 68, battled for her life for roughly six hours in her Newark residence desperately trying to gasp for air after the Public Service Electric and Gas Company (PSE&G) cut off her electricity supply on Thursday morning. As family members desperately pleaded with PSE&G to turn the power back on, Daniels died of heart failure.
While the family claims that they notified PSE&G of Daniel’s heart condition two years ago, after the woman was placed in hospice care, the power supply company claims they never knew the elderly lady relied on the air tank to breathe.
PSE&G had “no indication by the customer of a medical condition in the home prior to disconnection,” the electricity supplier said. Once notified of Daniels' condition, the company claimed that it began the process to restore service, which took 23 hours to complete. Power restored to Daniels’ home at around 9:00 am on Friday, after being shut off on Thursday at 10:00 am.
While claiming to be "saddened" by the "terrible tragedy" PSE&G defended their actions, stating that they have made at least “26 attempts to notify the customer since January 2018, including two visits to the residence prior to the disconnection.”
Besides PSE&G's own probe, the circumstances of Daniel's agonizing passing are now being investigated by the Newark Police Department and the Board of Public Utilities. In New Jersey, shutting off power to people with medical emergencies is against the law. Electric shut-offs are also prohibited during periods of excessive heat of over 95 degrees Fahrenheit. Newark temperatures on July 3, however, only reached 93 degrees. Daniel's family is also contemplating suing the utility provider.
that's the biggest shock to me. That's incredibly inefficient and reeks of either gross ineptitude or malice. Regardless, this isn't really lolberg because electricity companies are covered under the federal government as vital utilities and as such these individuals that operate these companies essentially act with immunity from competition. Notice how electricity companies raise their rates 8% annually despite the operational costs, materials costs, and standards of care (such as this article) have only been getting cheaper? that's because there's no competition and the 8% is a mandate.
This company should, and probably will be sued a lot of money, but it's intellectually dishonest to claim that this utility company is a lolberg ideal. Both government and private oversight was abhorrent and the state deserves just as much blame for allowing this to occur.
Easton Foster
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James Young
Yes by all means lets not pay our bills for months on end then piss our panties when the power can't be turned back on immediately. Hey, while we're at it why don't we just make electricity, gasoline, food, water and housing free? After all we shouldn't be required to pay for these things if we might die without them.
The icing on the cake. I hope PSE&G counter sues them and takes every last penny they have for wasting everyone's time.
The issue is that for utilities, it's literally just a switch turned on/off remotely at their facility to turn off the power. Other countries have the switch localized near the houses so local electricians can just shut it off and do shit, but American power companies are dicks. The 24 hours thing is just them being lazy cunts and hitting a "turn on" program at the counter and not wanting to physically go to the switch (or hit the bit on the server) to turn it on.
I have less of a problem with them having shut off power than I have with them using such a shitty network system to do their job for them, because it's likely due to not having enough technicians due to underpaying them (or at least that's usually the case with those style automated systems- the Network/Head Engineer puts it in because he can't get enough workers to even do basic maintenance and doesn't want to deal with it himself).
Ethan Gutierrez
Also if they knew this lady wasn't paying her bills and was on life support, why the fuck didn't her family rush her and the equipment to one of their houses???
Brandon Smith
I mean sorry for triple posting, but seriously. I've seen the oxygen equipment they're talking about because my mother uses it. It's literally this compressor-on-wheels you hook into a fucking wall outlet. Why the fuck didn't her family move her to a different fucking house, or just tell their neighbors it was a medical emergency, or fucking call 911 because this was a medical emergency? I get the impression this woman was a nigger or something, because the last rational decision I'd make if my mother/grandmother was unable to breath would be to leave her sitting in her fucking house while I fight and argue with a utilities company. I'd get her to safety first and THEN sue the utilities company to foot the bill, because at least then my mother/grandmother would be ALIVE. I feel like these opportunistic cunts are either fucking retarded or they intentionally let the old woman die.
Aaron Thompson
Utility monopolies are the free market in action. Electric, water, and to a lesser extent internet infrastructure are very expensive to build and maintain. Enough so, that no company wants to build all that infrastructure to get 50% of the customers. Even if the area has outrageous prices, as soon as a new company moves in prices will tank and the company that moved in will be stuck wth 50% of a competitive rate after having spent millions on infrastructure. Now you might think, "but wait! The new company is still making additional revenue!" Not quite. The company that didn't just drop several million on installing pipes/cables/etc. will now have much more capital than the new company which means they can just run at a loss until they bankrupt the company that moved in on their territory before returning to raking in the cash. In fact the threat of having a company move in and undercut you actually encourages price gouging in order to build up those capital reserves. This is why we have utilities. Goverment oversight would actually be effective if we had an actual democracy. It puts customers back in power through the vote instead of the dollar. Unfortunately politicians and sweet sweet lobbying money have undermined democratic representation. So basically we have same system you are proposing except instead now instead of that money being saved in cash reserves it goes into political donations and lobbying. The free market is not some magic idealized economic equation that automatically self corrects to reach global minimums. In real life customers don't have perfect information, the most efficient companies aren't the most effective, and entry barriers stifle competition. The government isn't a good solution, but your "solution" is the problem.
Nathan Bennett
Utility monopolies are government control in action. They are called public utilities for a reason you sheepish subhuman. "Government oversight" and democracy are beyond useless. The average man knows nothing about anything, let alone the average woman. They don't know who does, either, for that matter. Incentives matter and politics is the artful use of theft, nothing more and nothing less. This happened under your superior governments reign, don't forget that.
She paid $500 dollars just two days before her death so that indicates she is going to pay them gradually until it is fully paid. The bill cost should be $900.00, not $1,400.00.
Christian Taylor
You have no idea what the fuck you're talking about. They pull the meter out of it's socket and replace it with a plastic safety plug to turn off the power. They put the meter back in to turn it on. It requires an actual human to arrive in a truck to do that.
That said, I still have to wonder why it takes 23 hours, not two or three. Of course, the bigger question is, why didn't someone call 911 for this woman?
Parker Morgan
Gov sits in "free marketers" pocket. Not yours, youre faggot larp'er.
Eli Powell
every argument made against libertarians just makes me like and respect libertarians more, and respect the left and the right less.
Mason Parker
How about picking the bitch up and bringing her to a working outlet, what the fuck
They didnt kill anyone, the shut off power to a non payment residence, period. The family murdered her with neglect. Anyone could have saved this woman. The family is blaming the company because then they can delude themselves into thinking they didnt kill her. Dont make it seem like a company wrung its hands together as it murdered an old woman.
Asher Flores
Here's a protip: You reply to other posts by clicking on the post number.
Eli Scott
Yeah and if I placed a pillow on her head I wouldn't be killing her either, just cutting of the flow to air. :^)
Samuel Ortiz
*off
Elijah Sanders
samefag
Ayden Brown
I'm not a libertarian anymore (only a Christian society is worth of liberty) but you're a retard.
Owen Rogers
Thats a bullshit example and you know it
Aiden Sanders
That's a Zig Forums tranny, logic is futile.
Grayson Martin
The company knows a residence has not paid. If the employee does not shut off said power the employee will be fired and lose his ability to support himself. Its not the same as intentional murder and the residence was warned multiple times. You cant place the irresponsibility of other people on anyone. Its a tragedy yes but its not anyones fault but the old woman and her family. If the woman couldn't comprehend her situation and didnt pay due to being oblivious then she should not have lived on her own to begin with.
Jace Gutierrez
So is everyone just skipping this part?
Nathan Hernandez
>public Company Are you actually retarded or just pretending? A "public" company is a privately owned company that is publicly traded on a stock market. How am I supposed to take your viewpoint seriously when you don't even understand basic business principles?
Neither of you have addressed the issue of monopolies or how the free market would resolve that. it wouldn't All you have said is the government is bad the government is evil. Government oversight is an attempt at addressing a problem that already existed, namely monopolies. They still existed prior to the creation of utilities for the reasons I just layed out for you. The difference with having them as utilities is that there are price controls and if those prices are allowed to rise people notice and vote for new representation. It is not as effective as a competitive market, but unless you can explain to me how you will introduce competition into a sector with such a high entree barrier, I will stick with the broken bureaucratic system that only price gouges a little bit over the efficient at not competing unregulated system that price gouges a lot.
Nathaniel Johnson
you're both insufferably homosexual tbh
Xavier Torres
The difference between a voluntaryist society and an authoritarian one is that you're on the centralized "please don't suffocate me" list by choice instead of by force. That you would use a freak accident under any societal organization to spin it this way or that is just fishing for (You)s
Mandated use of utilities is a real issue and I don't disagree with you in that aspect, but I am specifically addressing the issue of monopolies. Do you have an argument as to why an unregulated market would prevent monopolies when it hasn't in the past?
Connor Perry
No magic bullet, no. The only solution I have is to force direct democracy into such decisions that affect law or infrastructure.
Parker Long
Good!
Logan Green
You just went full retard.
Lucas Richardson
Oh jeez, my mistake pal. I guess I thought no reply number would imply I was talking to OP, but I guess not.
Jonathan Robinson
She should have had her own molten salt nuclear reactor that she could use to sell power to the whole neighborhood and never have a problem with income or people turning the power off.
Christopher Scott
The fate that waits for every boomer. Enjoy your negro and spic nurses, street shitter doctors, and catching the corporate dick all while alone because you pushed your family away.
You brought this on yourself. 60 million will not make it to reap their full social security benefits.
Lucas Price
Wow it's almost as if stupid people do stupid things and then place the blame on others to make up for it!
More on this in a moment
Apparently so
That said, I still have to wonder why it takes 23 hours, not two or three For you and everyone else in this fucking thread who apparently lives on Sesame Street let me break it down for you. This is the key part of the story. Ask yourself realistically if they would be high on your priority list.
I'd have to tack on a tick surcharge. Ticks love tall grass and one bite can make you allergic to red meat. Making you a soyboy because tofu is the only protein that you can eat without dying.
