Texas lawmakers have introduced identical bills to address safety and regulations concerning electricity lines after the electrocution deaths of three boy scouts.
Texas Rep. Chris Paddie (R-Marshall) and Texas Sen. Bryan Hughes (R-Mineola) filed identical bills that would require electric utilities to conduct annual line inspections and report inspection results to the state, KETK reported.
The legislation, which also calls for utilities to report annual fatalities and injuries caused by their power lines and equipment, comes following the 2017 deaths of three boy scouts whose catamaran struck a power line hanging over an East Texas lake.
Parents of the three boys, who were ages 11, 16 and 17, told KETK the accident was 100 percent preventable and are grateful for the proposed legislation.
"The biggest thing we can do for our boys is to make sure that this doesn't happen again, and the only way to make that happen, is to remove the root cause," said Stan Brannon, the father of one of the three scouts killed at Lake O' the Pines.
Upshur Rural Electric Cooperative announced earlier this month it buried the transmission lines that came into contact with the catamaran.
