Pine tree falls on 12 yr old girl

[Koa Man]

A Cook Island pine, (incorrectly identified as a Norfolk pine in the article) fell in the early morning hours, cutting through a house and landing on a 12 year old girl sleeping in bed on March 15, 2005. She was rushed to the hospital in critical condition and remains in a coma. Recent TV news said the City (owner of the tree) and the tree contractor who did the last servicing in Nov. 2004, are being sued. A neighbor of the family said one of the tree workers told him the tree was in bad shape and should be removed. The City says they did not get any report of bad tree and relys on the contractors they hire to inform them of any problems. I know for a fact that I have reported hazardous trees twice to the City and they had them taken down right away. Here is the link to the news article and another one a couple of days later.

http://starbulletin.com/2005/03/16/news/index2.html
http://starbulletin.com/2005/03/18/news/index9.html

 

[MasterBlaster]

Geez!

 

[Ekka]

What a shame, and blame doesn't help that little girl.

Just more justification on the ill effects of topping and dumb arborists.

I worked the ratios of Prof Dr Klaus Matthecks rule and the figure was 0.22

When the cavity exceeds 0.3 the tree is extremely likely to fail, that is the guide. The formula is t/r

t is the thickness of the wall
r is the radius of the tree (from centre to outer)

so you get a 4" thick wall left (28" cavity in 36" dia trunk) so t=4
the radius is 18" so r=18

4/18= 0.22 .............well under the 0.3 minimum

There is also the slenderness test, on topped trees measuring the epicormics as well as the entire tree, the extreme hazard is when the length exceed 50 times the dia of the trunk or the epicormic branch. Most likely the tree would have failed this test too.

A VTA on this tree would've led to a resistograph test, the cavity would have been revealed, the resistograph test would have gone up the trunk to find the taper of the cavity and this tree would've been condemned ...

Bad accident? no, bad arborists! Some-one is going to get sued for this. In Germany where Prof Dr Klaus Mattheck is from, these are regular cases he is required to give evidence at in courts.

When I attended his seminars he described many arborists in engineering terms like this. The engineer has to inspect a bridge and ensure it is safe. He stands back and looks at the bridge, walks up to the supporting pillars and touches them ... then kicks them, then stomps on the ground near them. Walks along the bridge meticulously looking at bolts and welds, jumps up and down on the bridge, looks at the road surface and grins with a sense of accomplishment ... she's safe as!

Ha ha ha, a few days later the bridge collapses and kills 20 people. What an idiot of an engineer, but isn't that what a lot of people do in this business with trees.

 

[Koa Man]

I have had several calls from people who now want their pine trees removed. I have looked at several and only one I recommended for removal. Even though I told the others there is nothing wrong with your tree and I believe it is safe, they still want them out. I am removing one that is only 20 ft. tall. This incident has drummed up a lot of pine tree removals for many tree companies. All we need is a few of the tall coconut palms to fall over and I'll be having to call you guys for help.

Anyway, this is the latest news on the little girl. I copied and pasted the article from the newspaper.

Brain swelling decreases
in 12-year-old girl
hit by pine tree

By Rosemarie Bernardo
[email protected]

A Manoa woman says the swelling in her 12-year-old daughter's brain has gone down but she remains in a coma since a large pine tree struck her on the head March 15.

GIFTS FOR JULIA
Children who want to give Julia Engle stuffed animals, cards, letters or drawings can send them care of her attorney, Rick Fried, at 841 Bishop St., Suite 600, Honolulu 96813.

Julia Engle started to breathe on her own Saturday afternoon, "so that's definitely a positive thing, and also the monitor that tracks the pressure in her brain has been removed," said Debbie Engle, Julia's mother, at a news conference yesterday.

Julia still has a machine that kicks in if she does not take a breath, Engle said. Julia has pneumonia and has yet to regain consciousness, she added.

A 70- to 75-foot Norfolk Island pine tree crashed through her Manoa home on Beckwith Street and struck Julia as she slept.

Among the decorations on the walls of Julia's room at the Queen's Medical Center are a bright yellow banner from Julia's cheerleading squad at Punahou School and a colorful poster from her halau, Hula Hui O Kupuna Hala.

Engle said that children who would like to send her daughter drawings, stuffed animals or cards could send it to the office of her attorney, Rick Fried.

"Hopefully, when she wakes up, she'll see such beautiful, loving letters," Engle said.

Engle recalled the morning she found her daughter unresponsive when the tree cut through the girl's bedroom.

The night before, the family had celebrated Engle's birthday. At 5 a.m., Engle said, she and her 10-year-old daughter Christina heard a loud crash and then her car alarm.

She discovered a huge pine tree leaning against her house when she checked the garage. "And it dawned on me why my daughter Julia didn't say anything. It was near her room. I thought, 'Oh my God,'" she said.

She ran up the stairs to her daughter's bedroom and fumbled through her blankets, frantically trying to find Julia.

"And I just held her," Engle said. She yelled for help through the large hole in the wall and neighbors called 911.

"I am truly hopeful," she said. "She definitely has youth on her side. Children are resilient. We certainly hope for the best."

Engle and Christina are now staying at her mother's home nearby.

"Personally, the trees are so big that my daughter and I are fearful for our lives, because these trees are so huge. So we would feel safer if they could be a lot less tall. It's really important to have safe trees in your area," Engle said.

At the news conference, Fried read portions of the contract Nilasoni Landscape Inc. has with the city to maintain trees in Manoa, including 16 pine trees on Beckwith Street.

The contract says the company's qualified arborist "shall be responsible for examining trees for disease, decay in the trunk, presence of termites, dead or dying trees, and it should be reported immediately to the officer in charge."

Fried said a tree expert he recently hired to inspect the tree showed signs of root compaction. "There was soil compacted on top, which lets roots rot and permits the termite entryway to the tree, which (termite damage) went up to the height of 30 feet," he said.

Officials at Nilasoni Landscape would not comment. The company's arborist, David Nelson, could not be reached for comment.

The city hired consultant Steve Nimz of The Tree People to inspect the fallen tree and the other trees on Beckwith Street. According to city spokesman Bill Brennan, Nimz examined parts of the fallen tree Monday and the other pine trees along the street yesterday.

"The investigation is still ongoing," Brennan said.

 

[Koa Man]

The City hired Trees of Hawaii to cut down 7 of the pine trees. They did 4 yesterday and the other 3 will be done today. The girl remains in a coma. The City spokesman said the cost was about $3500 per tree.....I would have done that job for $2000 a tree and considered it a highly profitable job!

 

[treeseer]

The City hired Trees of Hawaii to cut down 7 of the pine trees.... the cost was about $3500 per tree

only after bad things happen do the public coffers open up for tree work.

I went to honolulu last summer to present a tree risk management workshop, of all things. I met some pretty savvy local arborists; it's a shame that the city did not hire them to assess risk. Giving that job to contractors can be ok if they are competent and ethical, but an independent view is ideal.

The trees in that town were not managed too well; topping was rampant, and over half of the urban forest was composed of two species.

People here see loblolly pines or big oaks fail in a storm and want to cut all theirs dowm. Most of them will buy and use a risk evaluation, if their rational side is appealed to. But the fearmongers get fat, preying on stupidity.

 

[Koa Man]

treeseer,
Did you get to meet Steve Nimz? Very knowledgeable guy, hired several times in various court cases as a consulting arborist and well known in the ISA Western Chapter. He was the person hired by the City to do the risk evaluation of the pine trees on that street and recommended the removals. There are still several of the trees that were deemed healthy and will not be removed.

 

[treeseer]

treeseer,
Did you get to meet Steve Nimz?

Son't recall the name; I'd know him by sight if he was there though. Too bad you didn't stop in; we gave good ceu's for the price, and the Lyon arb is a place. Anyway, see you in 07 for ISA if not sooner, I hope.

There are still several of the trees that were deemed healthy and will not be removed.

Well thank goodness they aren't clear-cutting the whole town. If this event teaches them to stop topping that'd be good. Note the quote from the resident tho; on the order of "we want them shorter so they'll be safer". That battle will never end.

 

[Koa Man]

Finally some good news in this forum. The 12 year old girl, Julia Engle, woke from her coma a couple of weeks ago and is able to walk with assistance. She will be leaving the rehab hospital tomorrow. The city cut down all the pine trees (three) within falling distance of the Engle house, even though they were deemed healthy. This was done to ease the post trauma stress disorder the family was facing.

 

[vharrison2]

Koa, thanks for the update. She is a pretty little girl from the picture in the first artical. Glad she is going to make it.

 

[rubberducky]

That must have almost killed her parents to see that.

 

[rubberducky]

That must have almost killed her parents to see that.

 

[treeseer]

The city cut down all the pine trees (three) within falling distance of the Engle house, even though they were deemed healthy. This was done to ease the post trauma stress disorder the family was facing.

Great news that the kid is up and moving. Hope she can rebound fully.
no surprise that PTSD called for the removal of 3 healthy trees, let's hope the city is willing to better manage the rest of its trees. We couldn't get any city people to attend the last risk workshop there, as I recall; maybe now they'll get a little more proactive.

Will they stop topping their trees? Will they plant more species than just the same 2 all the time? We'll see.

 

[pbtree]

What a bummer!

 

[Koa Man]

Lawsuit filed against tree company

This is the story from yesterday's paper.

Posted on: Tuesday, May 10, 2005

Manoa family sues tree trimmer

By Ken Kobayashi
Advertiser Courts Writer

The parents of a 12-year-old Manoa girl who was severely injured when an 80-foot-tall tree fell into her bedroom sued the company hired by the city to trim the Norfolk pine.

Julia Engle

The suit yesterday by Debbie and Thomas Lee Engle, parents of Julia Engle, said Nilasoni Landscape Inc. also was supposed to maintain the tree, but failed to notify the city that the pine posed a hazard because of extensive termite damage.

"The miss by the Nilasoni people, frankly, was egregious," said the Engles' lawyer, Rick Fried.

The city, owner of the 100-year-old tree, was not named in the lawsuit. The city hired Nilasoni to maintain about 1,760 city trees, including those along Beckwith Street where the Engles live.

Fried said a decision on whether to sue the city will be made after more investigation, but he said the city has been "extraordinarily cooperative" in removing other trees and providing information.

David Louie, Nilasoni's lawyer, said he and the company would not comment.

The lawsuit does not mention the amount the family will be seeking, but Fried said it will be in the millions of dollars. Medical bills for Julia already are in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, he said.

Julia, a Punahou Middle School seventh-grader, was sleeping in her second-story bedroom when the tree that grew in a yard across the street crashed into the home in the early morning of March 15.

She suffered severe head injuries and remained at The Queen's Medical Center until April 15, when she was transferred to the Rehabilitation Hospital of the Pacific. She was released on Friday and is at home.

Fried said Julia is talking, able to read and "improving all the time," but still a "long way" from being able to return to school.

Julia faces the prospect of permanent brain damage, and it will be months before her doctors will know for sure how she will end up, Fried said.

Nilasoni was awarded the city contract to maintain city trees at $45 a tree when other bidders proposed charging as much as $110, Fried said.

The lawsuit said Nilasoni was required to have a qualified arborist to make sure people and property would be protected from injury or damage from the trees. Its workers inspected and pruned the trees along Beckwith Street in November, the suit said.

The 80-foot pine had clear signs of disease and termite damage from the sap and gum deposits, but the hazardous tree was not reported, the suit said. Fried said about 84 percent of the inside of the tree's base was hollow from termites.

Reach Ken Kobayashi at 525-8030 or [email protected].

 

[vharrison2]

Having said how sad this was, this is an interesting twist. We have bid alot of City and County jobs and rarely get them because of price. The difference between $110.00 per tree and $ 45.00 per tree is pretty substantial. Do you know anything about the company that is being sued? That will probably be a hard hit on them.

 

[clearance]

Landscapers? the tree was 80% rotten? The company I work for has done lots of hourly work for cities and munis, funny how we see garbage that should be cut down a.s.a.p. but the arborists who direct us get us to fag out trees that pose no danger. I hope the best for that girl. That company and the city should be held jointly liable.