PSE&G vows to make changes after sick woman died when power was turned off

<p>PSE&amp;G has vowed to improve its methods after a sick Newark woman dies when her electricity was cut off.</p>

News 12 Staff

Oct 30, 2018, 1:59 AM

Updated 2,226 days ago

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PSE&G has vowed to improve its methods after a sick Newark woman dies when her electricity was cut off.
Linda Daniels, 68, relied on an oxygen tank powered by electricity to breathe. But PSE&G turned off Daniels’ power due to a delinquent bill.
Daniels died July 5. The family said that the home was very hot and that Daniels’ backup tank ran out of oxygen. The family called an ambulance, but Daniels died an hour after the ambulance crew left.
In a report released Monday, PSE&G said that repeated human errors, systemic failure and a “lack of common sense,” contributed to the delay of restoring power at Daniels’ home.
Part of PSE&’s improvement effort will include better leadership at the utility.
“We recognize and own the need to make changes, and that includes holding ourselves accountable. Changes in leadership have been made; and we increased staffing, including more senior oversight of call center operations 24 hours a day,” a spokesperson for the company said in a statement.
The statement continued, “Each employee owns our customer experience and we are committed to working together, across teams, to solve problems from start to finish."
The report did not find the initial disconnection of service to be improper.