Utility Freezes 93-Year-Old To Death For Overdue Bill
UPDATE: No Charges In Case Of Utility Freezing 93-Year-Old To Death
A 93-year-old Michigan man, pictured, center, died after an electricity limiter placed by the utility company on his line due to his overdue bill malfunctioned, depriving the house of enough electricity to run the furnace.
Marvin Schur owed about $1,000 on his electrical bill. The line limiter placed by Bay City Electric Light & Power blows a fuse if more than a certain amount of electricity is drawn into the house. It then requires a reset. It's unknown whether the city worker actually talked to Schur or told him how to reset it. "This (limiter) is supposed to regulate the amount of electricity he was using, but still allow enough power to run the furnace. Obviously, it didn't work," said a neighbor.
In some states, it's illegal to shut the power off in winter, a law that was probably enacted to keep billing departments from killing citizens.
Autopsy: Bay City man froze inside his home [Bay City Times] (Thanks To Miranda!) (Photo: eduardoizquierdo)
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This was on my local news last night. From the news broadcast yesterday (not mentioned in the article) it is believe that the man was trying to heat his home with his oven and not his furnace...
Can the utility be charged with anything beyond aggravated assholery? How sad.
Damn, that's cold.
These people should be tried for murder. This is beyond outrageous.
Horror indeed. Which bay are we talking about?
I bet that state does have a law against turning electricity off in the winter... and the limiter is used to "limit the law" so to speak.
I think electric companies shouldn't be allowed to turn the power off in the winter.. however, I don't see the harm limiting how much someone can use if they owe a lot. If the technology works that is.. :\
@joe18521: At least they did the meter rather than just cutting electricity though. But it sounds like they need to redesign their meter if it malfunctions and people could die... this is a very sad story.
Bay City, MI is a long way from the "Bay Area" (i.e. San Francisco) area the posting implies, not to mention probably a lot colder.
@Franklin Comes Alive!: yeah, i was thinking to myself "how do you freeze to death in california?!"
clarification ftw.
@Veeber: Yeah well... in Amarillo, TX at 11:30 today, it's 13 degrees F. Basically you don't want to deprive a 93-year-old person basic utility service unless you take them to someplace temperate so they can survive... even in Texas. A utility could also put an elderly person's health at risk in Texas in the summer by disconnecting their utilities.
OK, I don't mean to blame the victim, but how did he die from cold? I once fell asleep in my car in PA(I was sober, just letting my roommate have some alone time w/a girl) in the winter, and was woken up by me shivering so hard. I walked/sumbled back to the dorm, and once I hopped in the shower for 20 minutes, I was warm enough to stop shivering. It says he "possibly" suffered from dementia, so I wonder if that was the reason he didn't seek out help, or if there was another underlying condition which may have incapacitated him, and prevented him from going for help. I guess this is another reason if you know an elderly person who lives alone, check in on them often, just in case.
@SWM,30isoSWF_GitEmSteveDave: I understand what you are saying...but the guy is 93 years old....all bets are off
@Eddie Falkenburg: Usually with those laws, you have to contact them to let them know you are living there and make arrangements to pay.
From what I gathered, he didn't pay for while, and was just going to dump a bunch of cash on them.
@SWM,30isoSWF_GitEmSteveDave: It's probably because he's darn old.. it's infortunate but it's easier for him to fall asleep and go into a deep freeze before his brain can say "wake up, it's damn cold!" than it is for you. Even without dementia you're already have a weak heart, lungs, liver.. you name it.. pretty easy to shut him down..
@Franklin Comes Alive!: No kidding. I saw the picture of the snow in the article and thought that this is finally irrefutable proof that climate change is in full effect.
If you read the actual stories about this, it seems like it was more of an "elderly person with dementia who never should have been living alone in the first place" sort of thing than a "cruelly murdered by the utilities" sort of thing. I mean yeah, don't cut the guy's power, but if he didn't have enough of his mental faculties to know to pay the bills...nobody ever said "hey wait a minute, maybe we should check on this guy." Not the neighbors who are so accusatory, not the utilities, nobody. Very sad.
And yes, Bay City MI is very very cold this time of year. As Madonna well knows, though she still lies and claims she's from Detroit.
Did the utility know there was a 93-year-old man living in the house? I read somewhere that he had no relatives (i.e., someone who might notify the utility about him). Also, just because someone's 93 years old doesn't mean he's frail or has health problems.
@SWM,30isoSWF_GitEmSteveDave: He was 93, his underlying condition was "old".
poor circulation+cold mean less blood to the brain and heart.
That said, while its very tragic that the man died, Im not sure I really blame the electric company. As far as the article indicates the only person who says the device didnt work was a neighbor who is making an assumption.
Sounds like they forgot to tell the guy how the limiter worked, or for all we know the guy did know. It's entirely possible he "tested" the limiter by flipping on more than his furnace. But in the end he chose to sit there instead of calling 911. He could have gotten help. You cannot blame the electric company, that he decided to sit in the cold. He would have gotten help had he called 911 or even gone next door where someone else could have called 911.
The guy literally just sat in the cold and did nothing.
Partial Socialism will fix issues like this, I say make it a right to electricity & heat. Cut out all the middle men IE: Excel energy, Georgia power & etc make it part of a civial service & national security, if we socialized this segment we would prob save 40% & get all the grid issues fixed and all the red tape to really make it effecient as it should be.
@SWM,30isoSWF_GitEmSteveDave: From what I know, a big part of hypothermia causing death is the constitution of the person. Old people are much more frail than a college student, so it is much easier for them to get croaked by Old Man Winter.
@Urusuru: If you clicked the link it's pretty obvious. Yes, they committed a typo and said Bay Area instead of Bay City. But you don't have to act helpless and lost over it.
@kittenfoo: Just think of what would happen if somebody was on kidney dialysis, or had a lung pump or something... What would happen is the utility cuts power to a house like that? Of course the utility is held responsible. The new generation of automated/ remote disconnect electricity meters are on the way into your houses. With a missed keystroke, or an angry customer service rep, your house will not have power.
@Veeber: In Texas, we have it double. You can't shut off someone's electricity in any extreme weather, be it hot or cold. That means there's periods from about the end of February to the beginning of June and the end of September to the middle of January where someone's service can be disrupted. :)
@SWM,30isoSWF_GitEmSteveDave: OK, so you, presumably a healthy young person, fell asleep in the cold and woke up and survived and you think this means that, what, no one can die from exposure? I'm guessing you were in your 20s from your story details. Are you seriously suggesting a 93 year old can take as much physical stress as a 20 y.o.? At 93 just getting in and out of the apartment is probably not a trivial matter.
Regarding the story itself: the problem with the limiting device, as I see it, is that the failure mode is power = OFF. What if the line spikes and the limiter fuse blows at 2am while a household is asleep? Then there could be dangerous ramifications even if the occupants aren't geriatric.
It's hard to come up with a solution that works for the business and the debtor, but any use-limiting solution that can result in total power loss during winter is one to be avoided.
Common sense ftw
@Veeber: They do. That is why a limiter was placed on the line that only allowed for enough power to run the furnace. The old man most likely turned on more stuff and then did not know or didn't remember how to reset the device. Or did reset it, but never turned anything off so it kept tripping.
In the end this is a case of an old guy just sitting in the cold. He could have called 911 or went next door for help. No one can be responsible for someone who doesn't take care of themselves.
The state has laws about offering shutoff protection programs to the poor and elderly, but you have to apply to your utility company and get a payment plan going. I'm not sure if it's illegal to shut off winter utilities beyond that, but the limiter is a nice workaround either way.
What probably happened is that this man didn't have the right information, didn't know how to get it, and didn't have anyone to help him. My mother once worked I&A for the regional elderly-assistance bureau, and she had a lot of trouble prying enough money out of the management for educational programs and publicity (they were too busy boinking their subordinates and handing their relatives no-bid contracts for the Christmas hams).
This is why, incidentally, I opted for the plan that averages my gas/electric bill over a 12-month period. Right now 30 degrees looks like a heat wave, so even though I keep the thermostat at 64, we're going through gas at a rate I don't even want to contemplate. But if this man didn't have information or people to help him, he wouldn't have much way of getting enrolled in that kind of plan either.
@SWM,30isoSWF_GitEmSteveDave: If you were warm enough to shiver, you weren't dangerously hypothermic in the first place.
Before everyone goes ape shit... there was a thread about this on another site where it was established---
* He was over 4 months behind on his bills
* HE TURNED HIS OWN FURNACE OFF
* He had been using his stove to heat his home
It's indeed a sad situation, but it seems like he had become incompetent or at least unable to live alone, and that is what resulted in his death--not some evil utility company.
@Corporate_guy: @Corporate_guy: "The guy literally just sat in the cold and did nothing."
Or, the device failed while he was asleep and he was unable to do anything about it, because he was dead before he knew what was happening. Besides, if he can't afford to pay his electricity bill, how do you know he had a phone?
The best thing about this? According to other sources, the guy had some cash waiting on his table ready to pay his bill: [www.wnem.com]
@Urusuru: When it's Bay Area, capitalized (as it was above before it was corrected), I believe it means San Francisco and the other localities around San Francisco Bay.
@CumaeanSibyl: I agree that he probably didn't have anyone to help him out. Usually people's kids will either help out with the bills or point them toward the available programs for the elderly...this guy didn't have kids and his wife died. Unfortunately he probably had no idea that there are programs to help people with this. It's sad.
The electric company could have, and should have, done the right thing and reached out to him with some help instead of just saying "Sorry, you're SOL old guy." What an awful way to die.
@Corporate_guy: Death from hypothermia usually involves a stage of pronounced apathy and confusion. Given that they said he might have had some dementia, there's a good chance he wasn't thinking clearly to begin with. He might have fallen asleep and slept through the first stage or so. He might have thought he was warmer than he was. We don't really know because we're not him, we weren't there, and I'm presuming neither of us is a medical examiner.
It's more than a little harsh to suggest that 'he sat around in the cold and did nothing.'
@SWM,30isoSWF_GitEmSteveDave: You had a warm dorm and shower to stumble back into; this man's alternative was to go outside. He also probably didn't have warm water let alone hot due to the lack of power, and since he was a widower with no children he probably didn't really have anybody to call about the problem other than 911, who he wouldn't have thought to call until he physically couldn't.
Please don't underestimate the power of shame and pride, either. To go next-door to a neighbour you hardly know, knock on the door out of the blue to politely request the chance to warm up because the power company cut you off? It's practically begging, something that's probably abhorrent to a man who was self-sufficient for 70-odd years.
@Corporate_guy: It looked to me like they concluded the device malfunctioned. But don't let any facts stop you from theorizing ways to blame the victim.
He was going to die soon anyway.
He should have paid his bills, instead of being a deadbeat.
Personally, I think that more deadbeats should freeze to death.
@emis: What makes you try to use your stove rather than your furnace?
That is what I don't understand.
93? Poor guy...he had so much to live for!
My state is one of those states that won't shut off power over the winter. Good thing too, cause those fuckers aren't seeing any money until I can afford to pay my bill, or April, whichever comes first.
@Marc McDonald: seriously! come on man, maybe there were a lot of circumstances surrounding the story, but he didn't deserve this, and being disrespectful about it is just plain stupid, don't be a jerk!
If you get cold enough, you don't wake up shivering. Your body just goes to sleep and shuts down.
@Corporate_guy: At 93? Sheesh, I'm a huge advocate of personal responsibility but for crying out loud, have some compassion for the elderly.
I sure hope there's someone looking out for ME if I'm lucky enough to make it to 93.
Even loan sharks know that killing someone who owes you money means you won't get paid.
I'm really surprised that in a cold state there won't be a law on the books like this. I can kindof understand if this were maybe Texas where it's unlikely to get this cold.