The worst part about that was calling it a freak accident. The hammock was attached to a DEAD tree, which it sounds like had been dead for a long time, allowing the roots to rot away completely.
It sounds like an inevitable, predicatable, and preventable accident.
I wrote to the reporter with some questions. He said that the tree had it's top cut off so it was just a trunk. He didn't know if the topping killed the tree or whether the tree was dead and the limbs were cut off, leaving the trunk.
The roots had all rotted away. Sounds like an unfortunate accident waiting to happen.
Does anyone have any jobs like this in your past? Who's responsibility is it to check the trees?
this kind of relates but may not be in the appropriate thread.
a while ago our big truck was pulling up on a job......the driver did not pay as close attention as he should have.....and with the corner of the chip box he tapped a city tree. but i mean, it was just tapped with the corner of the box. i'm sure we all got tapped harder walking through a crowded room. well the city tree broke off at the roots and rolled down the front of the truck and right into the street. the base of the siver maple was rotted away. the one next to it was in the same condition. shouldn't the nyc parks dept inspect their tree's better? since they have arborists on staff.
the hammock accident was out of ignorace , the owner saw a big trunk and figured it would hold the hammock forever. this is not the first time i heard of a story like this. 5-6 years ago the same thing happened in staten island NY.