A tourist from Indiana was hit by a falling tree branch in Central Park around 86th street on Tuesday around 3:40 p.m. and sustained serious injuries. The woman, who is said to be in her 50’s, was taken to St. Luke’s Hospital and listed in serious condition with head injuries, a fire department official told the New York Times. The woman had cuts on her face and was disoriented, the Wall Street Journal reported. “Sharon Reese was walking with her husband when a 3 inch in diameter branch from an Oak tree suddenly snapped and fell three stories hitting her in the head, city sources said,” A Walk in the Park reported.
Just last week, we reported on another falling tree branch around 96th street and the high cost of lawsuits against the city related to these types of incidents.
Photo by Geoffrey Croft/NYC Park Advocates.
Didn’t the Central Park Conservancy get a hundred million dollar gift this year?
These trees have got to be more actively managed. This keeps happening.
you expect them to predict which branches of which trees are more likely to be broken by wind gusts? Give me a break
It’s nature. It’s not predictable, and it’s not controllable. And it’s not always somebody’s fault regardless of what ambulance chasing lawyers will tell you in the hospital
from today’s NYT: “The injuries and deaths have raised questions about whether the city is doing enough to keep people safe from falling branches. A 2012 investigation by The New York Times found that officials assigned to oversee tree care were overworked and untrained, and that the system for addressing tree health was antiquated and haphazard.”
Re: “These trees have got to be more actively managed. This keeps happening.”
Ummm…let’s not be so quick to tick off the trees! Some may recall the 2008 M. Night Shyamalan scare-fest called “The Happening,” in which trees and other plants take revenge on humans for messing up this planet (altho you’d think they’d be greatful for all the increased Carbon Dioxide and abundant precipitation, wouldn’t ya?) and release a neurotoxin that makes humans commit suicide!
That film begins with a round of suicides in Central Park, even though one would think that the trees on the Fifth Avenue side would be above such base acts (as opposed to the trees here on the UWS, most of which are totally untrustworthy!)
Here’s a link to the Wikipedia.org article about the film whose director called “an excellent B movie”: