ZERO defects limb falls| woman dead

Eric Frei · 10th August 2009, 05:21 PM

Montclair woman, killed by falling tree branch, called a teacher's teacher - NJ.com

Quote:

Montclair woman, killed by falling tree branch, called a teacher's teacher

Saturday, August 08, 2009
Halley Bondy
FOR THE STAR-LEDGER

Members of the family of former Montclair resident Mary Katherine Ladany, 23, describe her as a detail-oriented person who was always one step ahead of the game.

"She always had her projects and homework done in advance," said Ladany's father, John Ladany. "She was the kind of person who always kept lists."

Her friends and family were devastated on Wednesday to learn that Ladany, who worked as a public school math teacher, was struck and killed by a falling tree branch while jogging near her home in Philadelphia.

John Ladany said a viewing will be 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Monday at Moriarty Funeral Home, 75 Park St., Montclair.

Philadelphia police officer Tanya Little said, at about 6:30 a.m. Wednesday, Ladany was jogging along Wissahickon Creek with headphones on and was struck in the head by a large falling branch.

Ladany was pronounced dead at the scene from "multiple blunt force injuries," according to Philadelphia Department of Health spokesman Jeff Moran.

Philadelphia's parks and recreation commissioner Michael DiBerardinis said the limb was part of a tulip poplar tree, one of many that line the creek, and fell from about 45 feet up.

He said arborists inspected the tree twice after the incident, and they could not detect any problems.

"Unfortunately, if the tree doesn't shows signs of disease or aging or undermining, it's impossible to determine whether a branch will fall," DiBerardinis said.

"We couldn't see any evidence our severe weather caused the problem either."

TrevMcRev · 10th August 2009, 09:32 PM

Over-extended end-heavy lateral branch???

Poor taper/ low diameter/length ratio???

The fact that the species is snappy as???

Eric Frei · 12th August 2009, 12:30 AM

Falling tree limbs unlikely - should you worry? | Philadelphia Inquirer | 08/10/2009

Quote:

Like Mary Katherine Ladany, the 23-year-old math teacher who was killed on Wednesday by a falling branch, Robert Park was running down an idyllic wooded path on a summer day when he was struck by a tree.

The freak accident in 2000 nearly killed Park, a physicist and writer who lives in College Park, Md. A pair of priests who happened upon him lying unconscious under the tree administered last rites, he later found out.

Insanely unlikely things can happen to us, but Park, who is savvy about risks, doesn't think worrying about them helps.

"As a physicist, my big complaint was that people don't consider the odds and [continue to] worry about things that are terribly unlikely," he said. "I never worried about things that were unlikely, and it came back to bite me."

Officials say Ladany's death on Forbidden Drive was apparently a freak incident, not the result of any avoidable hazard.

"We did a more thorough investigation and found it was a healthy tree," said Mike DiBernardinis, commissioner of Parks and Recreation. Experts say a number of factors, from the weather to heavy vine cover, might have led a healthy-looking 90-foot tulip poplar to lose a massive branch. But all agree that such events are rare.

DiBernardinis said the park commission tries to watch over its estimated 2.5 million trees, looking for uprooted, diseased, and aging ones that pose a danger, "but in this instance the daily routines along the trail didn't pick it up." He said park arborists would conduct a sight survey as soon as today to look for diseased trees.

About 700 people a year die from falling or thrown objects, said Robert Anderson, chief of mortality statistics at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That number includes rocks, debris, and manmade objects that fall or are thrown. A much smaller subset of victims are felled by trees or branches.

Experts agreed such a thing can happen even in a well-maintained park.

"Trees lose limbs randomly for all kinds of reasons," said Timothy Dugan, a forester with the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. "Trees have a strong ability to cover up problems internally."

They can even keep producing leaves when they're dying inside, he said.

Several factors might make trees more precarious now. Many are supporting woody vines called lianas, said Alfred Schuyler, a professor of botany at the Academy of Natural Sciences. Those vines, especially English ivy and Oriental bittersweet, aren't native to this area and can weaken trees.

The weather poses another danger, said Eva Monheim, a certified arborist and professor of environmental design at Temple University. This year has been the first to give us normal rainfall after a series of dry years, she said. Dry years can weaken the root systems of trees though they may appear alive and healthy above ground. Add saturating rains and strong winds, and an apparently healthy tree could fall over, she said.

She said all the foot traffic through city parks also weakens trees by compressing the soil and essentially squeezing out the air. Still, she saw no problem with park maintenance.

Other things are far more dangerous, the CDC's Anderson said.

Car crashes, for example. They kill about 40,000 people every year.

People tend to overestimate small risks thanks to the fallacy of the small sample, said risk consultant David Ropeik, author of the book How Risky is it, Really? to be published by McGraw-Hill in March.

Even though a man was injured by a tree in Central Park on July 29, for example, that does not mean the risk is increasing. "It's the same thing with cancer clusters and people freaking out because a study associated product X with disease Y," he said.

We also tend to worry more about risks when we think we don't have control, he said. People who write text messages while driving pose an obvious risk to themselves and others, but they delude themselves into thinking they're in control.

Park, the 2000 tree-fall victim, understands that unlikely events will happen on occasion, such as a strange coincidence that took place the day he returned to the scene of his accident a year later.

"The story gets even more unbelievable," he said. He went to the exact place where he was struck, he said, and as he passed the broken-off trunk of the tree that nearly killed him, he passed two elderly men walking. "You know that tree fell on a guy last year," one of them said.

When Park said he was that man, one of the two began to tear up. It turned out they were the priests who found Park pinned under the tree and gave him last rites. They decided to throw him a champagne party to celebrate his survival.

Park said that in his case there was a dangerous situation: the tree had been obviously dead. He's now on a commission to help keep the trail safer but still considers his accident a freak act. "You can't live your life worrying about improbable events or you'll never get out of your house."

TrevMcRev · 12th August 2009, 08:37 AM

Doesn't wash with me.

All anyone keeps saying is it was a "healthy tree"

What about the "structure of the tree"

I've seen a lot more failures due to tree structure than tree health.

Poor health can create weak structure over time, but a tree can be of perfect health and have poor structure.

It's this mentality that perpetuates the general publics opinion that any tree of size is dangerous & could just randomly drop a branch & kill treir kids.

Health is one consideration, but a good Arborist understands a trees structural weaknesses and can offer ways to improve its structural design.

Eric Frei · 12th August 2009, 06:36 PM

No signs of decay in that picture.

I would say it was likely an over extended limb, heavy tip, self lions tailed, too horizontal, likely to have fibre buckling underneath within 0.5m of trunk.

Many trees I look at here have the same things, reduce, thin, fall arrest but when looking en-masse this gets very difficult to service.

That in turn means come back to targets and occupancy rates. Look at paths, roads etc.

Just today I revisited a quote I did back in December. Both husband and wife standing there and the husband started saying how I said the large spotty gum was safe and could stay ... his wife saw the look on my face and said "stop putting words in his mouth" ... and I said "I would never ever say that because even absolutely healthy and structurally sound trees fail".

What we do is reduce the likelihood of failure but in no way guarantee it.

shortstack · 15th August 2009, 01:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ekka

No signs of decay in that picture.

I would say it was likely an over extended limb, heavy tip, self lions tailed, too horizontal, likely to have fibre buckling underneath within 0.5m of trunk.

Many trees I look at here have the same things, reduce, thin, fall arrest but when looking en-masse this gets very difficult to service.

That in turn means come back to targets and occupancy rates. Look at paths, roads etc.

Just today I revisited a quote I did back in December. Both husband and wife standing there and the husband started saying how I said the large spotty gum was safe and could stay ... his wife saw the look on my face and said "stop putting words in his mouth" ... and I said "I would never ever say that because even absolutely healthy and structurally sound trees fail".

What we do is reduce the likelihood of failure but in no way guarantee it.

it sure is a scary world we work in.

If I was a sparky (electrician) and said, that light fitting is going to kill someone, I would get some attention, if I say, that branch may fall, I get nothing. Until it falls of course......

Therrin · 15th August 2009, 09:29 AM

*makes a mental note to stay away from places named "Forbidden Drive" *

10th August 2009, 09:32 PM	#2
TrevMcRev Mature Tree Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Posts: 1,594	Re: ZERO defects limb falls\| woman dead Over-extended end-heavy lateral branch??? Poor taper/ low diameter/length ratio??? The fact that the species is snappy as???

12th August 2009, 08:37 AM	#4
TrevMcRev Mature Tree Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Posts: 1,594	Re: ZERO defects limb falls\| woman dead Doesn't wash with me. All anyone keeps saying is it was a *"healthy tree"* What about the *"structure of the tree"* I've seen a lot more failures due to tree structure than tree health. Poor health can create weak structure over time, but a tree can be of perfect health and have poor structure. It's this mentality that perpetuates the general publics opinion that any tree of size is dangerous & could just randomly drop a branch & kill treir kids. Health is one consideration, but a good Arborist understands a trees structural weaknesses and can offer ways to improve its structural design.

12th August 2009, 06:36 PM	#5
Eric Frei Admin - Owner Palm & Tree Services in Brisbane Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Brisbane Posts: 12,994	Re: ZERO defects limb falls\| woman dead No signs of decay in that picture. I would say it was likely an over extended limb, heavy tip, self lions tailed, too horizontal, likely to have fibre buckling underneath within 0.5m of trunk. Many trees I look at here have the same things, reduce, thin, fall arrest but when looking en-masse this gets very difficult to service. That in turn means come back to targets and occupancy rates. Look at paths, roads etc. Just today I revisited a quote I did back in December. Both husband and wife standing there and the husband started saying how I said the large spotty gum was safe and could stay ... his wife saw the look on my face and said "stop putting words in his mouth" ... and I said "I would never ever say that because even absolutely healthy and structurally sound trees fail". What we do is reduce the likelihood of failure but in no way guarantee it. __________________ Protect your rights to work - Join Australian Tree Association My businesses:- Qualified Brisbane Palm and Tree Lopping \| Stump Grinding Brisbane \| Brisbane - Gold Coast Consulting Arborist

15th August 2009, 09:29 AM	#7
Therrin Former Member Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Bakersfield, Ca Posts: 2,497	Re: ZERO defects limb falls\| woman dead makes a mental note to stay away from places named "Forbidden Drive"

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