Endesa is condemned for the death of a woman during a blackout in Aroche: “Don’t say it was bad luck”

Fernando remembers that day like a bad dream. It was January 15, 2014. For a few seconds, the power went out in his house in the Huelva town of Aroche and a real nightmare began for his family. Her 72-year-old mother went to get a flashlight in case there were new cuts, but on the way another blackout caused the woman to fall down the stairs and hit her head. She could not survive the wounds “It was not the result of bad luck,” her son wants to make clear, assuring that the supply cuts in the town were continuous. “We are tired. Every time it rains, the power goes out, leaving us exposed to situations like the one we experienced that night at my house”, he laments. In fact, days before, he himself had helped another neighbor who fell in the street after being left in the dark. After what he defines as a “fight” for eight years, the justice system has proved them right and the Provincial Court of Madrid condemns Endesa to pay compensation of more than 95,000 euros to the family, whose defense has been exercised by the law firm of Andrés Avelino Santos. Causal relationship between the power outage and the fall The sentence, which has been NIUS had access, considers it proven that the victim, her husband and her son were at home that day when there was a first power outage that lasted a few seconds. After this, and given the possibility of other cuts, the victim went to look for a flashlight and at that moment there was another blackout during which an exclamation was heard from the woman followed by a loud noise, the son confirming, shortly after, that his mother had fallen down the stairs and hit her head. Subsequently, the son put his mother in a neighbor’s car and went with her to the nearest hospital, where she died. An appeal filed by Endesa against the ruling in the first instance and ratifies it, considering that there is a causal link between the power outage and the fall. “The cause of loss of balance and fall down the stairs that caused her death originated when she hit her head as a result of the power cut,” the text collects. It was caused by no reckless behavior on the part of the woman or by her assuming a risky situation. For Fernando, the compensation is not a consolation, but it is a relief that it is recognized that his mother’s death was not an accident or bad luck. “And above all, that it serves so that it does not repeat itself and it can happen to other neighbors,” he points out. He had little hope of winning. “It was like David against Goliath,” he admits. Now he just wants to turn the page.