Friday, October 22, 2010

First lawsuits filed against PG&E over San Bruno pipeline explosion

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. - Five families filed lawsuits on Oct. 19 alleging that PG&E knew its pipeline was "defective" and posed extreme danger to the community.
At a state Senate hearing, tearful victims pressed state and utility officials to remove the pipeline from their neighborhood.
One of the lawsuits came from Susan Bullis, who lost her husband, Greg,
50; her son William, 17; and her mother-in-law, Lavonne, 82, in the
Sept. 9 blast that destroyed 37 homes. The remains of the two older
Bullises were so badly burned that they had to be identified using DNA
technology.
The lawsuit blames the deaths on PG&E, alleging that the utility knew Line 132 was "defective." PG&E's internal documents said a portion of that line, just miles from the site of the explosion, had an unacceptably high risk of failure.
"Yet (PG&E) has failed time and again to take any action to protect the
citizens imperiled by it," the Bullis lawsuit alleges.
PG&E spokeswoman Katie Romans said the utility had not yet received copies of the lawsuits and declined to comment.


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