A WOMAN sustained fatal injuries on her way home from work when she was struck by part of a tree in high winds, an inquest heard yesterday.
Lynda Collins (45), Woodbine Avenue, Booterstown, Co Dublin, a mother of three, had left work at the ESB and was walking along Waterloo Road, Dublin, when she was struck by part of a mature horse chestnut tree near the junction with Upper Baggot Street, just after 5pm on February 3rd last.
Anthony McDonnell told an inquest the wind was very strong as he walked along the path on Waterloo Road when he heard “a cracking noise”.
“I heard the creaking and the snapping and I saw the tree falling down. The lady across the road was walking in the opposite direction to me. When she heard the tree snap, she looked up and it looked like she froze for a second. Then she ran, but in the path of the tree,” said Mr McDonnell, one of seven witnesses, many of whom were upset as they gave evidence of the incident.
Motorist Daniel Fitzpatrick described hearing a “huge bang” and then realising a tree had come down on the bonnet of his car.
Mr Fitzpatrick said he had a “lucky escape” and that his vehicle was a “write-off.”
Dublin City Coroner’s Court heard there were many pedestrians in the area at the time and that a large number of passersby, including an off-duty paramedic and a hospital doctor on his way home from work, went to Ms Collins’s assistance.
Robert Halligan, who saw the top half of the tree fall on Ms Collins, told the coroner Dr Brian Farrell that about 15 people tried to lift the tree, which was lying across almost the width of the road, off Ms Collins. A school desk was also used in the attempt to lift the tree.
Motorist Patrick Kennedy took a two-tonne garage jack from his car and managed to lift the tree until members of Dublin Fire Brigade arrived and got Ms Collins out, using two airbags.
An off-duty member of the Dublin Fire Brigade, Amanda Guilfoyle, who was on her way to work when she came upon the accident, said there were no signs of life.
The coroner commended all the members of the public who tried to assist. Ms Collins was taken to St Vincent’s University Hospital where she was pronounced dead, but the coroner said it appeared she died at the scene.
Her death was due to multiple thoracic injuries.
The inquest heard that the tree, which was in the grounds of the International School of Dublin at Pembroke Road, Dublin, had no obvious defect at the point of failure and was not decayed or soft, but that it had an internal defect, an internal crack, which would have increased its vulnerability to shearing.
Joseph McConville, an arboricultural consultant who carried out an inspection of the tree at the request of the Garda, said he did not believe that an examination would have identified the significance of the defect prior to failure and that the weather was a very significant contributory cause of the failure.
Mr McConville said it would have taken a “climbing inspection” to identify the defect.
The inquest heard it was up to the owner of the land on which the tree grew to ensure it was not a threat to the public.
The tree, one of a group of three, was subsequently cut down, as were the two other trees.
Dr Farrell said the risk factors for the incident were the high winds on the evening and the internal defect.
“This was a tragic accident,” he said, recording a verdict of accidental death.
“We are all, as members of the public, concerned about this sort of situation in high winds,” Dr Farrell added. “There are a lot of trees close to the road.”
However, he said it was difficult to see what he could recommend and said he would allow the facts to speak for themselves.
He expressed his condolences to her husband, Richard Collins, and to the family.