Ill Woman killed by Electric Company
 

Read the article here

I don't know about any of you, but this actually made me angry when I read it. She only owed $122, and they cut her power, and she was hooked up to a bloody machine. According to the video, they had sent a letter in response to the notice trying to explain the situation, and they also told the technician she needed the machine when he arrived.

And now the company says "we were unaware of the situation". Bullshit. I think they thought she was bluffing, or trying to get out of paying, and went ahead and pulled the plug. Now they're trying to act all innocent because she was telling the truth, and they're directly responsible for her murder. Somebody should be brought up on charges of murder. Either the person who ordered the power to be cut, or the technician for doing so when he was outright told she would die if he cut the power.

I'm not so sure I'd call this murder. Negligence or manslaughter, maybe, but not murder. She was given multiple notices over a period of six to seven weeks prior. That's plenty of time to make some kind of arrangements, even if it were just moving into a friend's or family's house temporarily.

It's a sad thing, but this isn't very different from some hospitals refusing care based on lack of insurance. If you can't pay for a service, then don't expect it to be given away. As much as I disagree with that philosophy, that's the way the world works.

Actually there are very specific laws about these sorts of things. Like you can't cut someones heat and power during the middle of winter in an area that reaches freezing temperature. There are also hospitals, generally state funded, that have to give you medical treatment regardless of your ability to pay. These almost seems like it'd be covered under both and I'll be rather upset if some firing doesn't happen. I mean the whole point of government subsidized utilities is to keep a heartless company from doing something like this.

What do you guys think, electricity is free?

Something similar happened here in the States when an elderly woman died because her phone company cut service after she didn't pay her bills for months, and people got all upset. Well, fuck it! Pay your bills and this sort of thing won't happen to you.

If I were that technician, I might feel somewhat guilty, but then again, I might not. It's not my job to pay your bills, or give you free service, or risk my job for you, or get you set up with a neighbor to give you electricity. "You" are an adult, so I expect you to be responsible enough to manage your life. When plan A, B, C, and D fail, people want to blame the last domino that fell. I'm not buying it.

She was only $122 behind payments. Thats a grand total of one month's worth. She was also not getting paid at the moment because of her illness, and needed the electricity to stay alive. If there were ever extenuated circumstances that call for some slack in the capitalistic rules this is it.

Think about it. The company was told full well if they cut the power they would kill her, and they cut the power anyway. So I guess a woman's life isn't worth $122.

Well as a resident New Zealander I thought I should comment.
The technician who cut the power claimed he didn't know she was on life support nor did the company. I would blame our postal service but I work for them so must defend them. And apparentely the technician was invited in to see here.
The man was a contractor, not an employee of the energy company so perhaps he felt like he had less leeway.
We are having a bit of an energy crisis here at the moment so I can understand the companys issue.
But she should have paid her bills. It's not like we're some kind of 3rd water backwater here. She was ill but we have benefits to cover such things.
She was in Mangere which is quite a notoriously poor suburb. These have been lots of benefit fraud scandals coming out of that area so one can vaguely understand how the company thought she faking it.

I just read the latest on the website of our biggest newspaper, the NZ Herald, and its still unclear just who knew what. I reserve judgement till more comes out.

If I may defend the electric company right here, I'd like to point out that the family had indeed been warned. Multiple times. They could have made alternate arrangements, stayed at a friends, or even done the easiest solution - borrow the money from a friend. I'm not saying that this woman had to die, but I am saying that the family is not entirely faultless in this situation.

My guess is that they felt the amount was so easy to cover that anyone trying to weasel out of paying would have to be faking.

I'm with this electricity company and they've always been pretty good to me. Their help-desk has always been useful and friendly. Though maybe that's just me.

I don't know how it is in New Zealand, but I do know that in the states there's compensation to teachers that are out due to major illnesses.

Not to mention she had husband and kids. IF the illness kept her immobile than they would have gotten the mail instead of her, and if they didn't handle it than it is in fact the fault of the family for not taking the proper precautions...

If the guy was going to come in and cut the power, then that concerned neighbor "Sheehan" could've let them stay at his house for at least a few hours so they could make other arrangements.

What this seems to be is people wanting to shirk responsibility and point fingers at anyone else besides them. The family, the government, the power company. Everyone is equally culpable in this.

It seems to me that some of her kids could have helped her out. I mean, a 20-year-old has a job, right? So shouldn't that kid and her husband maybe have been able to scrap together 122 dollars?