Man Injured By Falling Tree Branch In Central Park

The man injured was the cousin of my closest friend. He and his wife have two young children, the youngest being just 6 mos old. The family is obviously shocked and terribly distraught- the truth is he may not make it. I suppose I shouldn't be, but I'm really sickened and disappointed by the callousness of some of these comments. There are some of you for whom I wish... an experience that may realign your sense of empathy. For those of you that care- thank you for your concern.

Here's hoping for a speedy and full recovery but from the description of his condition it looks very scary right now.

I'm sorry you had to read the callous comments on here. I had a friend who died, it was reported on Gothamist, and people said some pretty horrible things in the comments section.

I hope your friend's cousin makes it.

With all the rain this summer (Central Park has had double it's normal amount of rain for June - July) it's no wonder trees are coming down.

Rarely does rain cause a tree or branches to fall. Freezing rain yes, normal rain no. It's the wind action that cause most trees either to fall or have it's structure weakened.

rain will not make a healthy tree branch break.

I'm saying alot of trees are not healthy.

I don't disagree with you. If I worked for the parks department tree division I believe I would be expected to know what a healthy tree looks like and what a diseased rotten hulk looks like. From that observation I would either prune or cut down the tree.

Getting back to my original observation, a four inch diameter limb would probably be no longer than 20 to 30 feet. Not a thing that you would like falling on your head, but not a real serious item to cut up. At two feet a cut one is talking fifteen cuts, plus delimbing. I can delimb and cut up a fully developed 12" diameter tree within less than an hour by myself. How can it take two hours to clean up a 4" branch? Perhaps cleaning up the blood made the difference, but it still seems like a long time.

True, the rain won't make a branch fall. But saturated soil, with a heavy canopy due to June's high rains can make a tree more unstable. And lookin at the NWS Radar, we should have similar stories comin up in a few hours.

Nasty lineup of storms coming from the southwest. Should be interesting tonight.

It took two hours to clear the debris from a 4" limb? What were they using dull handsaws and rose pruning tools? One guy with a small limbing saw (I would recommend a Stihl model number MS200T with a 14" chain) could delimb and cut up the branch in less than five minutes.

I sure hope the poor guy recovers soon.

It's cheaper for the parks dept. to employ tweezers and chiuauas to clean up debris.

4 inches in diameter, doesn't say how long the limb was. Man, that sucks.

I said it before, the trees in brooklyn are in terrible condition.

Mold on the outside dead on the inside.

When they started falling over years ago and killed a correction officer on some highway it should of opened eyes.

With the ground saturated they are going to be tumbling down.

Just wait for the winter, ice buildup will really multiply the problem.

Just one more reason I HATE BLOOMBERG.

Shame on him the man that neglects commoner needs for the money honey.

Uagh. Poor guy, this is the kind of news that reminds you that other people have it worse than you.

When your number's up, you could stay home that day and have the ceiling fall in on you -- no escaping the reaper.

so... is this guy ok?

I hate to be a bummer, but CBS 2 is reporting that the man is in a coma at the hospital after suffering from cardiac arrest. He is listed in critical condition...

ha, yeah. After reading all the comments, that was my question too.

Later, at a press conference, Bloomberg announced a plan to cut down 2,000 trees in Central Park, saying, "We are sending some of these trees for well-deserved rest up in the sky, wherever trees go ... they’re a danger to human beings jogging." (:-P)

I clicked on the face for the heck of it.

Didn't get the geese part. g1

Milk-out-nose replies above!

The Maples did it. They claimed the Oak was just too lofty, and grabbed up all the light.

I have a feeling the man will sue the Park's Department, because the city is obviously responsible for random acts of nature.

Obama just invited the tree to the White House for a beer.

Law & Order: Special Branch Unit

why no mention of the tree's species? was it a white ash, a black locust, an american chestnut, a yellowood?

Ask and ye shall receive—just updated with that info!

thanks for the info!

i was also not very well trying to mock the people who always ask for the race of the perp in the different attack stories, but having read the updates about the person's condition, i feel bad for making light of the situation. :(

Talk about getting wood!!!

Morning Wood!

Oh no you di'nt...

Million Fewer Trees NYC!

Tree reform now! We need an expensive government program and a thousand page bill passed by the senate to deal with this problem.

Payday!

Trees are a menace to New Yorkers. Bring on the Central Park Airport.