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California Utility Found Guilty of Violations in 2010 Gas Explosion That Killed 8

SAN FRANCISCO — A federal jury on Tuesday found California’s major utility company, Pacific Gas and Electric, guilty of safety violations at the time of a 2010 gas pipeline explosion that killed eight people and destroyed a neighborhood in a San Francisco suburb.

It was one of the country’s deadliest gas explosions and underscored glaring weaknesses in America’s aging infrastructure.

Pacific Gas and Electric had faced 12 criminal charges of negligence and obstructing an investigation into the fiery pipeline rupture in San Bruno, a city of 42,000 just south of San Francisco. The jury found the company guilty of five counts of safety violations and the one count of obstruction, according to Jim Ruane, the mayor of San Bruno. The company was found not guilty on the remaining counts.

Pacific Gas and Electric, a private company, had initially faced a maximum fine of $562 million but, in a move that puzzled many court observers, federal prosecutors reduced their demands to $6 million. The change was made Aug. 2, when the jury was in its fourth day of deliberations. Prosecutors have yet to explain the change.

The company said in a statement after the verdict that it was “committed to re-earning” the public’s trust. “While we are very much focused on the future, we will never forget the lessons of the past,” the statement said.

Pacific Gas and Electric has already paid more than $1.7 billion in fines and restitution for the Sept. 9, 2010, explosion. Two investigations, by the National Transportation Safety Board and the California Public Utilities Commission, faulted the company for management lapses and a preoccupation with profits over safety.

Mr. Ruane said he hoped the verdict would result in independent oversight of the company’s pipeline network.

“They still don’t know for many, many miles of lines what they have in the ground,” Mr. Ruane said of the company.

He said the judge, Thelton Henderson of United States District Court, had wide discretion in imposing oversight of the pipelines.

The section of pipeline that ruptured was installed six decades ago, according to the California Public Utilities Commission. The blast was one of a number of deadly disasters, including a 2011 explosion of an 83-year-old gas main in Allentown, Pa., and an explosion in East Harlem in 2014 that raised awareness of what experts say are thousands of gas leaks across the United States every year.

The investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board found that the rupture had occurred in a spot where workers installed substandard pipes in 1956.

The safety board faulted the company for taking an hour to shut off the gas after the explosion and said the slow response was particularly worrying given the possibility of earthquakes in the area. The San Andreas fault runs not far from the pipeline.

The California Public Utilities Commission concluded that Pacific Gas and Electric had a corporate culture that emphasized “profits over safety” and that it had kept shoddy records of its pipelines.

Last year, the company paid a $1.6 billion fine levied by the commission. The company has also settled several cases with residents; paid $50 million to help rebuild the road, sewage systems and other infrastructure destroyed by the explosion; and agreed to a $70 million settlement to establish a nonprofit fund for the city as compensation.

During the trial, federal prosecutors said the company had obstructed the investigation by providing insufficient data to the National Transportation Safety Board and by “pre-interviewing” witnesses.

Records entered as evidence at the trial showed that the utility had cut its budget for pipeline inspection by 26 percent in 2009, the year before the explosion. The prosecution also showed an internal document from 2008 that said profits were the company’s top priority; safety was fifth, or last.

Pacific Gas and Electric argued that the prosecution was relying on “sound bites” about corporate greed and that there was no evidence records were intentionally destroyed.

In addition to killing eight, the explosion injured 58 people, destroyed 38 homes and damaged 70 others.

“When I stood on that hill and watched the flames, I thought, ‘What a horrible, horrible accident,’” said Mr. Ruane, the mayor. “Then we found out it was preventable.”

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section A, Page 11 of the New York edition with the headline: California Utility Convicted in 2010 Explosion That Killed 8. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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