6 Month Baby Killed By Branch

sueann · 30th June 2010, 01:03 AM

I don't know how you would get over such an awful accident like that.

Quote:

Parks Commish: Tree Branch That Fell, Killed Baby Was 'Freak Accident'

City officials have examined the tree and the branch that killed a baby at the Central Park Zoo on Saturday, and the city park commissioner says they've concluded the tragedy was a freak accident -- not a criminal matter or one of negligence.
"The bottom line is the trees are very well cared for. I look at those trees every day," said Commissioner Adrian Benepe. "There is no dead wood on them, they are in great shape. But there is a certain level of unpredictability in nature and trees are a part of nature and we can no more guarantee that a tree limb will never fall than we can guarantee that there will be no rips tide at the beach, or there will be no pot hole in a street someplace."

He said the tree involved was healthy and had been pruned in the last six months.

6-month-old Gianna Riccuitti, of Union City, N.J., was killed when she was knocked out of her mother's arms by a falling tree branch at the Central Park Zoo.

Gianna's mother remains in the hospital in stable condition.

This freak accident is now the the third incident this year where someone was seriously injured or killed by a falling tree branch in Central Park. In February, a man was struck and killed by a snow-covered branch.

Last month, three women were hurt by a falling branch while they picnicked by the Ce

Parks Commish: Tree Branch That Fell, Killed Baby Was 'Freak Accident' - 1010WINS.com?

Eric Frei · 30th June 2010, 07:31 PM

Pretty unusaual for it to break that far away from the trunk on a still day.

There'd be a reason, but whether or not it was visible is another issue. Often inspections fromt he ground cannot identify problems on the tops of branches and unions.

sueann · 1st July 2010, 01:49 AM

Thanks Jayd, that looks heaps better.

Very sad.

treeshaveneeds · 2nd July 2010, 12:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ekka

Pretty unusaual for it to break that far away from the trunk on a still day.

There'd be a reason, but whether or not it was visible is another issue. Often inspections fromt he ground cannot identify problems on the tops of branches and unions.

I agree with Ekka - very unusual for this tree to break this way. It looks like a Honey Locust (Gleditsia triacanthos) and their branches are extremely strong. For a 4 inch diameter limb to shear off like this is mind boggling.

dov · 2nd July 2010, 02:25 PM

There does seem to be some split in the bark on one of the leaders to the left of the sheared limb? Perhaps that could be an indication that there is more going on here.

Eric Frei · 4th July 2010, 12:20 AM

We have a thread on SLD here.

Do Gums just drop branches? Sudden Limb Failure

Bloomberg: Baby's Death In Central Park A "Tragic" Accident - Gothamist

Quote:

Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe says the tree branch which fell and killed a 6-month-old baby and left her mother in the hospital on Saturday came from a healthy tree. "The tree limb that fell was in full leaf. There was no evidence to the naked eye looking up at it that it was in any danger of falling," he told WCBS, noting that the tree had been inspected within the last six months.

According to Mayor Bloomberg, there is no one to blame for the killer tree. He told reporters, "It’s very tragic, and trying to assign blame isn’t really something that we should be focusing on." He also added, "Only if you cut down every single tree in the city down to ground level can you guarantee that nothing’s going to fall. Unfortunately, nature works that way."

Tree specialist Bob D'Ambrosio agreed, saying the tree—a Honey Locust—broke because of a phenomenon called a "sudden branch drop." He said, "it happens only when the temperatures are very warm, very hot, a lot of humidity and no wind whatsoever," which were the conditions on Saturday. Bill Logan of Urban Arborists also told the Daily News, "This is one of the most reliable street trees, not very prone to breakage."

But the consensus that it was a freak accident hasn't stopped some park watchdog groups from lambasting tree maintenance. Central Park spends between $600,000 and $1 million a year to care for 23,500 trees, but NYC Park Advocates Geoffrey Croft said, "We don't have enough people inspecting and we don't have people doing basic horticultural maintenance on our trees." Yesterday, workers were out pruning trees near 72nd Street, what the Central Park Conservancy called "routine maintenance."

Last July, a man suffered critical injuries after a rotting tree branch fell on him near West Drive and 63rd Street. In February, a man was killed by a branch at East Drive and 68th Street. And, last month, people were injured by a fallen branch near the Boathouse.

Threat of the Urban Jungle: Falling Tree Branches - TIME

Quote:

Of all the customary hazards of life in a big city, the threat of falling tree branches is not one. Yet on the warm afternoon of June 26, a limb snapped and plummeted 30 feet from a honey locust tree at the Central Park Zoo in New York City, striking Karla DelGallo, 33, and killing her infant daughter.

Raising New Yorkers' alarm, the accident marked the third of its kind in Central Park in less than a year. And in its immediate aftermath, city officials could not determine which agency was responsible. (See 10 things to do in New York City.)

Neither could they determine why the branch fell. In the two other accidents, the reasons had been clear. The branch that dislodged from a pin oak on the west side of the park in July 2009, severely injuring a young Google employee, was rotting. In February, when a limb broke off an American elm near a picturesque park walkway around East 69th St. and killed a 46-year-old Brooklyn man, it had been weighed down with heavy snow.

On Monday, city officials said that the limb that killed the 6-month-old girl on Saturday was healthy and had not appeared in any danger of falling. Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the accident was likely "an act of God" and that while tragic, such accidents could not be completely avoided.

"Only if you cut down every single tree in the city down to ground level can you guarantee that nothing's going to fall," the mayor said in a press conference. "Unfortunately, nature works that way."

Bill Logan, a private arborist who teaches pruning and tree identification at the New York Botanical Garden's School of Professional Horticulture, had inspected the honey locust at the zoo and declared it healthy. "It seemed to have an intact root system," Logan says. He adds that when assessing a tree's health, one looks for signs at the base of the tree that indicate whether it is capable of sustaining its branches. "You look for missing bark, lesions along the bark and fungi on the trunk for evidence of circulation problems. You make sure the tree can get nutrients up to the leaves where the business happens, where the fruit is made," he says. (See pictures of New York City.)

Typically, in trees that are symptom-free, the threat of a branch breaking off on its own is low. But in some cases, a phenomenon called "sudden branch drop" may occur, in which heat and humidity cause a limb to spontaneously fall. "Limbs drop sometimes. That happens," says Bob Redman, a certified arborist who inspects and treats trees throughout the New York area. "It's pretty rare if you go back in time."

To help reduce the risk of freak accidents, the 25,000 trees in Central Park are regularly inspected and pruned — a responsibility that falls within the purview of the Central Park Conservancy, the private, nonprofit organization that accounts for most of the park's maintenance, operations and budget. The group's competence has been questioned following the recent accidents: two lawsuits are pending — one involving the Google employee injured in February, and the other filed by the family of the Brooklyn man who died last July. In the latter case, the conservancy is accused of being negligent for not having removed a tree that had been deemed dangerous two months earlier.

The rest of New York City's 5.2 million trees are maintained by the City Parks Department, which in 2009 responded to 8,500 reports of hanging limbs, removing dead or potentially dangerous portions of foliage. Each year the Parks Department routinely inspects the city's trees by community board district — in total, the urban forest numbers more than one tree for every two New Yorkers and covers one-quarter of the city's 305 square miles in canopy.

Those numbers are likely to grow, since Bloomberg announced in 2007 an effort to plant 1 million new trees in New York in 10 years, as part of an initiative to improve public health and the environment. Sixty percent of the trees to be planted along streets, parks and public spaces will be funded by the city, and the government is encouraging homeowners, corporations and nonprofits to plant the other 400,000 trees.

The hope is that plants and people can continue to peacefully co-exist. "It's amazing that trees are able to live in some of the places we make them live," Logan says. "But we make that happen. There are some streets where the trees are happy as clams."

Eric Frei · 30th August 2010, 10:32 AM

Dangerous Central Park Trees Ignored by Conservancy, Report Says - DNAinfo.com

Quote:

August 29, 2010

The Central Park Conservancy reportedly fails to maintain many of its trees.

MANHATTAN — Officials may try to chalk up the rash of deadly tree accidents to "acts of God."

But they're a little more predictable than that, a new report says.

The Central Park Conservancy ignores its own warnings about the proper maintenance of many of its trees and also fails to properly keep track of some that could pose a threat to visitors, the New York Post reported.

The conservancy has a complete directory of every tree in the park that includes recommended care and maintenance warnings to keep them healthy.

But that doesn't mean the conservancy keeps track of the possible dangers they create for pedestrians in the park, the Post reported.

"Caring for trees is one thing," Alan Shapey, a lawyer for one of the families whose loved one was killed by a tree in the past two years, told the paper. "Evaluating them to determine if they pose a hazard to pedestrians is something else entirely and requires a risk assessment by a trained arborist."

Falling tree branches have killed three people and injured two in the past two years.

In late June, six-month-old Gianna Ricciutti was killed and her mother Karla DelGallo seriously injured when a tree branch snapped and fell on them as they posed for a family photo at the Central Park Zoo.

The Central Park Conservancy has refused to take the blame for the branch that killed Ricciutti, arguing that that tree was the responsibility of the Wildlife Conservation Society.

But lawyers for the victims of fallen branches will argue in court that the conservancy’s tree database is often insufficient or the recommendations are ignored, according to the Post.

The database showed that even when workers tend to a dangerous tree once, they fail to follow up with proper care, the paper reported.

In 2009, a branch that severely injured a woman near the Central Park Boathouse fell from a tree that had been pruned once and declared a priority — and never tended to again, the Post reported.

“Their failure to timely inspect and maintain the tree... directly resulted in severe injuries to our clients," lawyer Andrew Smiley told the paper.

Budgetary issues may be partly to blame.

The maintenance budget for the trees dropped from $472,352 in 2008 to less than $300,000 in 2009, and then back up more than $380,000 in the past fiscal year, the Post reported.

The number of maintenance tasks performed on trees also soared from nearly 4,000 in fiscal year 2008 to more than 14,000 in 2009.

treeshaveneeds · 1st September 2010, 12:15 AM

Good to see you're using your own name Eric - More credibility!!

The article is interesting -- so they spent an average of $120 per tree in 2008. but only $20 per tree in 2009. What could they possible do for $20 -- pole pruning?

If manhattan is anything like Toronto, they have lofty goals and great ambitions, but follow through is not the same. Same problem as tending in Forestry; at least in the cities, liability forces a certain level of assessment and removal of dangerous trees.

Steve Tipton · 1st September 2010, 06:18 PM

$400,000 seems a pretty modest budget for the trees in Central Park!!!!!!!!!!

Eric Frei · 26th September 2010, 03:01 PM

Central Park Ignores "Dangerous" Trees - Gothamist

Quote:

August 30, 2010

Central Park Ignores "Dangerous" Trees

The Central Park Conservancy has been using a program called TreeWorks to determine which trees in the park are in need of attention and care. Trees are tagged with labels like "Priority 1" and "immediate action," and are ideally attended by CPC employees. However, the recent series of injuries and deaths caused by falling tree limbs in the park has sparked an investigation into how well the system works. According to the Post, it doesn't.

One spokesman said the park is still in the process of "implementing" the TreeWorks software, while another said the labels are "simply defaults in the software on a field that is not filled out...It's misleading that those fields are there at all." And sometimes trees are assessed far too late. Roberta Colores-Martinez's skull was crushed by a falling oak branch near the Boathouse in May. In September 2009 the tree was labeled a "Priority 1," but nothing more was done until after the accident.

Spokeswoman Vickie Karp said trees are inspected on a four-year cycle and, "Their standards and upkeep are exceptionally high. Unfortunately, nature is unpredictable, and limbs can fall even from healthy and well-pruned trees." But Alan Shapey, lawyer for the man killed by a falling limb in February, said the CPC isn't qualified to make those assessments. "Caring for trees is one thing. Evaluating them to determine if they pose a hazard to pedestrians is something else entirely and requires a risk assessment by a trained arborist."

According to the Central Park Conservancy data, 11 trees were designated "Priority 1" near the Literary Walk, yet none have been pruned in the past year, and trees near the Central Park Zoo have not been inspected in the past 15 months. Besides the Boathouse accident and the falling limb in February, a 6-month-old infant was killed by a falling branch outside of the Central Park Zoo in June.

Eric Frei · 26th September 2010, 03:23 PM

Central Park tree maintainers ignore dangerous trees that maim and kill - NYPOST.com

Quote:

Trees labeled by the Central Park Conservancy as dangerous often go untended for months, sometimes with deadly results, records obtained by The Post show.

In one case, a pest-infected tree on the verge of dropping heavy branches onto a pedestrian walkway was slated for removal -- twice -- but nothing was done. In February, seven months after the initial warnings, a limb from the tree struck and killed an Albanian immigrant, Elmaz Qyra.

The unheeded warnings are documented in a voluminous database -- provided only grudgingly after weeks of questioning by The Post -- of 13,867 Central Park trees. The conservancy, a private organization tasked by the city with maintaining Central Park, "didn't even have to give you this report," a Parks Department spokeswoman said. Yet taxpayers will shoulder the cost of the multimillion-dollar lawsuits filed in the two deaths and two serious injuries that have occurred in the park because of falling tree limbs in the past 13 months.

The first major incident happened in July 2009, when Google engineer Sasha Blair-Goldensohn was hit by a 100-pound oak limb, suffering brain and spinal-cord damage. Conservancy records show that tree had been inventoried in December 2007, but no inspections or work on the tree were recorded until after he was injured.

The accident reversed what had been a trend of the conservancy spending less and less on tree maintenance. Funding for care had dropped to $282,450 in the fiscal year ending June 2009, from $472,352 two years before. It jumped back up to $386,698 in the fiscal year ending in June. From July 2008 to June 2009, meanwhile, the conservancy performed 3,941 maintenance tasks on its trees, records show. In the year after Blair-Goldensohn's injury, the number of maintenance tasks soared to 14,245.

But the efforts didn't prevent a limb from falling near the Central Park Zoo in June and killing 6-month-old Gianna Ricciutti and severely injuring her 33-year- old mom, Karla del Gallo.

The conservancy says that particular tree isn't its responsibility -- even though it catalogs dozens of trees in the same area. A conservancy spokesman says it falls under the auspices of the Wildlife Conservation Society, the zoo's operator. The society, also a private entity, didn't respond to requests for comment.

Alan Shapey, the lawyer representing Qyra's family in a wrongful-death suit, says the conservancy doesn't do enough to ensure the public's safety.

"The CPC does not assess the structural integrity of trees and branches overhanging paved pedestrian pathways to determine if they pose a hazard to pedestrians," he said.

"Caring for trees is one thing. Evaluating them to determine if they pose a hazard to pedestrians is something else entirely and requires a risk assessment by a trained arborist."

Conservancy officials and park managers have been quick to label the deaths and serious accidents as "acts of nature" -- but have been slow to give details on tree maintenance.

The conservancy's records, for instance, say the American elm that killed Qyra was a "Priority 1" problem. Other trees are tagged as needing "immediate action" or "attention required."

Parks Department officials and the conservancy say the designations are meaningless.

The conservancy has used a computer tracking program called TreeWorks for three years but is still in the process of "implementing it," spokesman Scott Johnson said.

"It's a factory preset -- we don't use 'Priority 1' or 'immediate attention,' " he said.

The terms "are simply defaults in the software on a field that is not filled out" by the conservancy, said Parks spokeswoman Vickie Karp. "It's misleading that those fields are there at all."

That's small comfort to the Qyra family, Shapey said. "We'll see if a jury understands the meaning of 'Priority 1' and 'immediate attention,' " he said.

Even when the conservancy tends to a troubled tree once, it doesn't revisit the problem for months.

On May 31, Queens resident Roberta Colores-Martinez's skull was crushed by a falling limb near the Central Park Boathouse.

The conservancy had pruned the oak in September 2009 and declared it a Priority 1 but didn't record any further work on it until nine months later, after the 52-year-old woman suffered serious brain injuries.

"Their failure to timely inspect and maintain the tree . . . directly resulted in severe injuries to our clients," lawyer Andrew Smiley said.

Karp insisted the park's trees are well maintained.

"Every tree is inspected on a four-year cycle," she said. "Their standards and upkeep are exceptionally high. Unfortunately, nature is unpredictable, and limbs can fall even from healthy and well-pruned trees."

The Central Park Conservancy, whose role as park manager was made official in 1998, employs 80 percent of the maintenance staff and provides the majority of the $25 million annual budget through fund raising. While the city provides some direct funding for Central Park's capital projects, it also pays the conservancy $4 million to $6 million in management fees annually.

Geoffrey Croft of the watchdog group NYC Park Advocates noted that Central Park receives more care than any other green space in the city -- but that might not be enough.

"Clearly, we cannot have people getting hurt. There has to be much greater accountability," he said.

Records provided by the Central Park Conservancy on 13,867 trees show it often takes months for the group to prune or remove trees that its own inspectors have labeled “Priority 1.” The Conservancy says the designation is “meaningless.”

* Metropolitan Museum
More than a dozen trees listed Priority 1 in October 2009, but no inspections recorded since

* Strawberry Fields
Twenty months between recorded inspections or work on at least seven trees

* Tavern on the Green
Two years or more between inspections for 20 trees

* Literary Walk
Eleven trees designated Priority 1, but no recorded prunings for a year

* Alice in Wonderland
One tree’s first recorded inspection results in Priority 1 designation two years after inventory; two other trees’ first recorded inspections come 10 months after inventory and result in Priority 1 designations

* Central Park Zoo
Work recorded on one tree 17 months after Priority 1 designation; other trees have no inspections recorded in last 15 months

Elmaz Qyra, 46

The Brooklyn man was walking home from work on Feb. 25 when a snow-laden tree limb fell, killing him.

Tree: Signs of limb failure noted in August 2009; slated for removal in December 2009; removal ordered Jan. 13 but not carried out

Roberta Colores-Martinez, 52; Carmen Cardoso

Picnicking on May 31 under an oak near the Central Park Boathouse. Colores-Martinez and relatives were posing for a photo when a limb snapped, crushing her skull and injuring Cardoso, her adult daughter. Colores-Martinez had to have a metal plate inserted into her head.

Tree: Pruned in September 2009, but not returned to after the winter

Karla del Gallo, 33; Gianna Ricciutti, 6 months

Mother and baby were posing for a picture under a tree near the entrance to the Central Park Zoo on June 26 when a limb broke, killing the infant and leaving del Gallo in a medically induced coma for weeks.

Tree: The Central Park Conservancy says the Wildlife Conservation Society is responsible for the tree. The society would not return calls, but conservancy records for trees nearby show several were left uninspected for nearly seven months before the tragedy.

Sasha Blair-Goldensohn, 33

The Google engineer was heading to work on July 29, 2009, when a 100-pound oak-tree limb fell and hit his head, leaving him with brain and spinal-cord damage.

Tree: Inventoried in December 2007; no record of pruning or action until Aug. 3, 2009

Eric Frei · 26th September 2010, 03:24 PM

Central Park tree maintainers ignore dangerous trees that maim and kill - NYPOST.com

Quote:

Trees labeled by the Central Park Conservancy as dangerous often go untended for months, sometimes with deadly results, records obtained by The Post show.

In one case, a pest-infected tree on the verge of dropping heavy branches onto a pedestrian walkway was slated for removal -- twice -- but nothing was done. In February, seven months after the initial warnings, a limb from the tree struck and killed an Albanian immigrant, Elmaz Qyra.

The unheeded warnings are documented in a voluminous database -- provided only grudgingly after weeks of questioning by The Post -- of 13,867 Central Park trees. The conservancy, a private organization tasked by the city with maintaining Central Park, "didn't even have to give you this report," a Parks Department spokeswoman said. Yet taxpayers will shoulder the cost of the multimillion-dollar lawsuits filed in the two deaths and two serious injuries that have occurred in the park because of falling tree limbs in the past 13 months.

The first major incident happened in July 2009, when Google engineer Sasha Blair-Goldensohn was hit by a 100-pound oak limb, suffering brain and spinal-cord damage. Conservancy records show that tree had been inventoried in December 2007, but no inspections or work on the tree were recorded until after he was injured.

The accident reversed what had been a trend of the conservancy spending less and less on tree maintenance. Funding for care had dropped to $282,450 in the fiscal year ending June 2009, from $472,352 two years before. It jumped back up to $386,698 in the fiscal year ending in June. From July 2008 to June 2009, meanwhile, the conservancy performed 3,941 maintenance tasks on its trees, records show. In the year after Blair-Goldensohn's injury, the number of maintenance tasks soared to 14,245.

But the efforts didn't prevent a limb from falling near the Central Park Zoo in June and killing 6-month-old Gianna Ricciutti and severely injuring her 33-year- old mom, Karla del Gallo.

The conservancy says that particular tree isn't its responsibility -- even though it catalogs dozens of trees in the same area. A conservancy spokesman says it falls under the auspices of the Wildlife Conservation Society, the zoo's operator. The society, also a private entity, didn't respond to requests for comment.

Alan Shapey, the lawyer representing Qyra's family in a wrongful-death suit, says the conservancy doesn't do enough to ensure the public's safety.

"The CPC does not assess the structural integrity of trees and branches overhanging paved pedestrian pathways to determine if they pose a hazard to pedestrians," he said.

"Caring for trees is one thing. Evaluating them to determine if they pose a hazard to pedestrians is something else entirely and requires a risk assessment by a trained arborist."

Conservancy officials and park managers have been quick to label the deaths and serious accidents as "acts of nature" -- but have been slow to give details on tree maintenance.

The conservancy's records, for instance, say the American elm that killed Qyra was a "Priority 1" problem. Other trees are tagged as needing "immediate action" or "attention required."

Parks Department officials and the conservancy say the designations are meaningless.

The conservancy has used a computer tracking program called TreeWorks for three years but is still in the process of "implementing it," spokesman Scott Johnson said.

"It's a factory preset -- we don't use 'Priority 1' or 'immediate attention,' " he said.

The terms "are simply defaults in the software on a field that is not filled out" by the conservancy, said Parks spokeswoman Vickie Karp. "It's misleading that those fields are there at all."

That's small comfort to the Qyra family, Shapey said. "We'll see if a jury understands the meaning of 'Priority 1' and 'immediate attention,' " he said.

Even when the conservancy tends to a troubled tree once, it doesn't revisit the problem for months.

On May 31, Queens resident Roberta Colores-Martinez's skull was crushed by a falling limb near the Central Park Boathouse.

The conservancy had pruned the oak in September 2009 and declared it a Priority 1 but didn't record any further work on it until nine months later, after the 52-year-old woman suffered serious brain injuries.

"Their failure to timely inspect and maintain the tree . . . directly resulted in severe injuries to our clients," lawyer Andrew Smiley said.

Karp insisted the park's trees are well maintained.

"Every tree is inspected on a four-year cycle," she said. "Their standards and upkeep are exceptionally high. Unfortunately, nature is unpredictable, and limbs can fall even from healthy and well-pruned trees."

The Central Park Conservancy, whose role as park manager was made official in 1998, employs 80 percent of the maintenance staff and provides the majority of the $25 million annual budget through fund raising. While the city provides some direct funding for Central Park's capital projects, it also pays the conservancy $4 million to $6 million in management fees annually.

Geoffrey Croft of the watchdog group NYC Park Advocates noted that Central Park receives more care than any other green space in the city -- but that might not be enough.

"Clearly, we cannot have people getting hurt. There has to be much greater accountability," he said.

Records provided by the Central Park Conservancy on 13,867 trees show it often takes months for the group to prune or remove trees that its own inspectors have labeled “Priority 1.” The Conservancy says the designation is “meaningless.”

* Metropolitan Museum
More than a dozen trees listed Priority 1 in October 2009, but no inspections recorded since

* Strawberry Fields
Twenty months between recorded inspections or work on at least seven trees

* Tavern on the Green
Two years or more between inspections for 20 trees

* Literary Walk
Eleven trees designated Priority 1, but no recorded prunings for a year

* Alice in Wonderland
One tree’s first recorded inspection results in Priority 1 designation two years after inventory; two other trees’ first recorded inspections come 10 months after inventory and result in Priority 1 designations

* Central Park Zoo
Work recorded on one tree 17 months after Priority 1 designation; other trees have no inspections recorded in last 15 months

Elmaz Qyra, 46

The Brooklyn man was walking home from work on Feb. 25 when a snow-laden tree limb fell, killing him.

Tree: Signs of limb failure noted in August 2009; slated for removal in December 2009; removal ordered Jan. 13 but not carried out

Roberta Colores-Martinez, 52; Carmen Cardoso

Picnicking on May 31 under an oak near the Central Park Boathouse. Colores-Martinez and relatives were posing for a photo when a limb snapped, crushing her skull and injuring Cardoso, her adult daughter. Colores-Martinez had to have a metal plate inserted into her head.

Tree: Pruned in September 2009, but not returned to after the winter

Karla del Gallo, 33; Gianna Ricciutti, 6 months

Mother and baby were posing for a picture under a tree near the entrance to the Central Park Zoo on June 26 when a limb broke, killing the infant and leaving del Gallo in a medically induced coma for weeks.

Tree: The Central Park Conservancy says the Wildlife Conservation Society is responsible for the tree. The society would not return calls, but conservancy records for trees nearby show several were left uninspected for nearly seven months before the tragedy.

Sasha Blair-Goldensohn, 33

The Google engineer was heading to work on July 29, 2009, when a 100-pound oak-tree limb fell and hit his head, leaving him with brain and spinal-cord damage.

Tree: Inventoried in December 2007; no record of pruning or action until Aug. 3, 2009

Eric Frei · 26th September 2010, 03:24 PM

Central Park tree maintainers ignore dangerous trees that maim and kill - NYPOST.com

Quote:

Trees labeled by the Central Park Conservancy as dangerous often go untended for months, sometimes with deadly results, records obtained by The Post show.

In one case, a pest-infected tree on the verge of dropping heavy branches onto a pedestrian walkway was slated for removal -- twice -- but nothing was done. In February, seven months after the initial warnings, a limb from the tree struck and killed an Albanian immigrant, Elmaz Qyra.

The unheeded warnings are documented in a voluminous database -- provided only grudgingly after weeks of questioning by The Post -- of 13,867 Central Park trees. The conservancy, a private organization tasked by the city with maintaining Central Park, "didn't even have to give you this report," a Parks Department spokeswoman said. Yet taxpayers will shoulder the cost of the multimillion-dollar lawsuits filed in the two deaths and two serious injuries that have occurred in the park because of falling tree limbs in the past 13 months.

The first major incident happened in July 2009, when Google engineer Sasha Blair-Goldensohn was hit by a 100-pound oak limb, suffering brain and spinal-cord damage. Conservancy records show that tree had been inventoried in December 2007, but no inspections or work on the tree were recorded until after he was injured.

The accident reversed what had been a trend of the conservancy spending less and less on tree maintenance. Funding for care had dropped to $282,450 in the fiscal year ending June 2009, from $472,352 two years before. It jumped back up to $386,698 in the fiscal year ending in June. From July 2008 to June 2009, meanwhile, the conservancy performed 3,941 maintenance tasks on its trees, records show. In the year after Blair-Goldensohn's injury, the number of maintenance tasks soared to 14,245.

But the efforts didn't prevent a limb from falling near the Central Park Zoo in June and killing 6-month-old Gianna Ricciutti and severely injuring her 33-year- old mom, Karla del Gallo.

The conservancy says that particular tree isn't its responsibility -- even though it catalogs dozens of trees in the same area. A conservancy spokesman says it falls under the auspices of the Wildlife Conservation Society, the zoo's operator. The society, also a private entity, didn't respond to requests for comment.

Alan Shapey, the lawyer representing Qyra's family in a wrongful-death suit, says the conservancy doesn't do enough to ensure the public's safety.

"The CPC does not assess the structural integrity of trees and branches overhanging paved pedestrian pathways to determine if they pose a hazard to pedestrians," he said.

"Caring for trees is one thing. Evaluating them to determine if they pose a hazard to pedestrians is something else entirely and requires a risk assessment by a trained arborist."

Conservancy officials and park managers have been quick to label the deaths and serious accidents as "acts of nature" -- but have been slow to give details on tree maintenance.

The conservancy's records, for instance, say the American elm that killed Qyra was a "Priority 1" problem. Other trees are tagged as needing "immediate action" or "attention required."

Parks Department officials and the conservancy say the designations are meaningless.

The conservancy has used a computer tracking program called TreeWorks for three years but is still in the process of "implementing it," spokesman Scott Johnson said.

"It's a factory preset -- we don't use 'Priority 1' or 'immediate attention,' " he said.

The terms "are simply defaults in the software on a field that is not filled out" by the conservancy, said Parks spokeswoman Vickie Karp. "It's misleading that those fields are there at all."

That's small comfort to the Qyra family, Shapey said. "We'll see if a jury understands the meaning of 'Priority 1' and 'immediate attention,' " he said.

Even when the conservancy tends to a troubled tree once, it doesn't revisit the problem for months.

On May 31, Queens resident Roberta Colores-Martinez's skull was crushed by a falling limb near the Central Park Boathouse.

The conservancy had pruned the oak in September 2009 and declared it a Priority 1 but didn't record any further work on it until nine months later, after the 52-year-old woman suffered serious brain injuries.

"Their failure to timely inspect and maintain the tree . . . directly resulted in severe injuries to our clients," lawyer Andrew Smiley said.

Karp insisted the park's trees are well maintained.

"Every tree is inspected on a four-year cycle," she said. "Their standards and upkeep are exceptionally high. Unfortunately, nature is unpredictable, and limbs can fall even from healthy and well-pruned trees."

The Central Park Conservancy, whose role as park manager was made official in 1998, employs 80 percent of the maintenance staff and provides the majority of the $25 million annual budget through fund raising. While the city provides some direct funding for Central Park's capital projects, it also pays the conservancy $4 million to $6 million in management fees annually.

Geoffrey Croft of the watchdog group NYC Park Advocates noted that Central Park receives more care than any other green space in the city -- but that might not be enough.

"Clearly, we cannot have people getting hurt. There has to be much greater accountability," he said.

Records provided by the Central Park Conservancy on 13,867 trees show it often takes months for the group to prune or remove trees that its own inspectors have labeled “Priority 1.” The Conservancy says the designation is “meaningless.”

* Metropolitan Museum
More than a dozen trees listed Priority 1 in October 2009, but no inspections recorded since

* Strawberry Fields
Twenty months between recorded inspections or work on at least seven trees

* Tavern on the Green
Two years or more between inspections for 20 trees

* Literary Walk
Eleven trees designated Priority 1, but no recorded prunings for a year

* Alice in Wonderland
One tree’s first recorded inspection results in Priority 1 designation two years after inventory; two other trees’ first recorded inspections come 10 months after inventory and result in Priority 1 designations

* Central Park Zoo
Work recorded on one tree 17 months after Priority 1 designation; other trees have no inspections recorded in last 15 months

Elmaz Qyra, 46

The Brooklyn man was walking home from work on Feb. 25 when a snow-laden tree limb fell, killing him.

Tree: Signs of limb failure noted in August 2009; slated for removal in December 2009; removal ordered Jan. 13 but not carried out

Roberta Colores-Martinez, 52; Carmen Cardoso

Picnicking on May 31 under an oak near the Central Park Boathouse. Colores-Martinez and relatives were posing for a photo when a limb snapped, crushing her skull and injuring Cardoso, her adult daughter. Colores-Martinez had to have a metal plate inserted into her head.

Tree: Pruned in September 2009, but not returned to after the winter

Karla del Gallo, 33; Gianna Ricciutti, 6 months

Mother and baby were posing for a picture under a tree near the entrance to the Central Park Zoo on June 26 when a limb broke, killing the infant and leaving del Gallo in a medically induced coma for weeks.

Tree: The Central Park Conservancy says the Wildlife Conservation Society is responsible for the tree. The society would not return calls, but conservancy records for trees nearby show several were left uninspected for nearly seven months before the tragedy.

Sasha Blair-Goldensohn, 33

The Google engineer was heading to work on July 29, 2009, when a 100-pound oak-tree limb fell and hit his head, leaving him with brain and spinal-cord damage.

Tree: Inventoried in December 2007; no record of pruning or action until Aug. 3, 2009

30th June 2010, 07:31 PM	#2
Eric Frei Admin - Razor sharp and independent 2 X Diploma Level 5 qualified arborist Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Brisbane Posts: 12,820	Re: 6 Month Baby Killed By Branch :( Pretty unusaual for it to break that far away from the trunk on a still day. There'd be a reason, but whether or not it was visible is another issue. Often inspections fromt he ground cannot identify problems on the tops of branches and unions. __________________ Protect your rights to work - Join Australian Tree Association My businesses:- Qualified Brisbane Tree Lopping \| Stump Grinding Brisbane \| Brisbane - Gold Coast Consulting Arborist

1st July 2010, 01:49 AM	#3
sueann Former Member Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: Hunter Valley Australia Posts: 599	Re: 6 Month Baby Killed By Branch :( Thanks Jayd, that looks heaps better. Very sad.

2nd July 2010, 02:25 PM	#5
dov Over mature heritage tree Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: Melbourne Posts: 651	Re: 6 Month Baby Killed By Branch :( There does seem to be some split in the bark on one of the leaders to the left of the sheared limb? Perhaps that could be an indication that there is more going on here. __________________

1st September 2010, 12:15 AM	#8
treeshaveneeds Veteran Heritage Status Join Date: Jun 2010 Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada Posts: 1,399	Re: 6 Month Baby Killed By Branch Good to see you're using your own name Eric - More credibility!! The article is interesting -- so they spent an average of $120 per tree in 2008. but only $20 per tree in 2009. What could they possible do for $20 -- pole pruning? If manhattan is anything like Toronto, they have lofty goals and great ambitions, but follow through is not the same. Same problem as tending in Forestry; at least in the cities, liability forces a certain level of assessment and removal of dangerous trees.

1st September 2010, 06:18 PM	#9
Steve Tipton Over mature heritage tree Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: Sydney Posts: 823	Re: 6 Month Baby Killed By Branch $400,000 seems a pretty modest budget for the trees in Central Park!!!!!!!!!! __________________ Heightmaster

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