Con Ed Tries To Shift Blame To The City

With lawsuits piling up on its shoulders, Con Edison is trying to do something about the mess they created, killing one woman, severely injuring another and bringing a section of the city to a halt. The word I'm looking for here isn't "accountability" because they are doing their best to stay as far away from owning up to their actions as possible.

From AM New York:

The utility facing multiple lawsuits over a massive steam pipe explosion has filed legal papers saying the city may be to blame for the blast.

A notice of claim filed by Consolidated Edison says the July 18 explosion, which left a woman dead of a heart attack and injured about 40 people, "may have been caused, in whole or in part, by acts or omissions of the city."

Filing a notice of claim is the first step toward a lawsuit. But Con Edison spokesman Michael Clendenin described the utility's notice, filed Monday, as "a routine procedural matter, necessary in the event the investigation determines that the city's infrastructure contributed to the steam rupture."

The city is far from perfect, but what happened on 3rd Ave. and 41st Street back in July was the result of a faulty steam pipe. Those steam pipes are maintained by the utility and there was work being done in that area on those pipes by Con Edison.

The accruing lawsuits are in the hundreds of millions of dollars, both from businesses that have lost the ability to function and the family that lost Lois Ellen Baumerich when she suffered cardiac arrest attributed to the explosion. It was truly a miracle that only one person lost their life in that melee. Now Con Edison should stand up and take what is coming to them, and not try to escape blame by pinning it on the city.