Missouri's attorney general has sued a utility over an explosion of a home that killed a 5-year-old

LEXINGTON, Mo. (AP) — Missouri's lawyer wide sued a earthy state institution Monday implicit the detonation of a location successful a tiny municipality that killed a 5-year-old boy, accusing the inferior of violating a authorities information law.

Attorney General Andrew Bailey's suit came little than a week aft federal investigators said successful a preliminary study that a Liberty Utilities worker failed to people a conception of a state enactment earlier different institution drilled into it portion installing a fibre optic cable. The April 9 explosion destroyed a location successful Lexington, a municipality of astir 4,500 radical astir 55 miles (89 kilometers) eastbound of Kansas City.

The blast killed Alistair Lamb and injured his 10-year-old sister, Cami, and their father, Jacob Cunningham. Bailey's lawsuit, filed successful Lafayette County Circuit Court, alleges that a Liberty worker “falsely” told the institution installing the fibre optic cablegram that each state lines had been marked. The suit called the detonation a “preventable tragedy.”

Bailey said Liberty violated a authorities instrumentality designed to guarantee that digging for underground water, sewer and telecommunications lines is safe. Bailey is seeking a $10,000 good for each time the conception of state enactment wasn't marked and wants a peculiar show appointed to guarantee that the institution complies with the law.

The institution said successful a connection that arsenic a enactment to the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board's ongoing investigation, it cannot remark overmuch astir the detonation oregon the lawsuit. Liberty said it volition proceed to assistance families affected by the detonation and “support broader betterment efforts.”

“Nothing is much important to america than the information of our customers, employees, and communities,” the connection said. “We stay afloat committed to moving with authorities and regulatory agencies to enactment the ongoing probe into the origin of the incident.”