For the second time this year in SWPL Park, someone has been killed by a falling tree branch. Specifically, a mother was critically injured and her infant killed when an angry tree randomly dropped a heavy branch from 40 feet on their heads. The father was taking a picture of them at the moment of impact.
People don’t think about the myriad ways we can die gruesome, horrible deaths. I’m sure our brains are wired to avoid thinking like this, so that we all don’t turn into paranoiacs. Paranoia is probably bad for reproductive fitness. The next time you’re hiking or having a picnic in the park, look around at the thousands of trees surrounding you which could leap into a murderous rage at any moment and drop branches on your head from a great height.
According to the Tree Care Industry Association, there were 407 deaths in the United States between 1995 and 2007 caused by storm-related falling trees. But how many deaths by falling tree happen in calm weather, when a tree decides to inexplicably unload a major limb on an unsuspecting nature lover?
When I was a kid, I read a massive tome called “Trees”; a 500+ page book categorizing all the native tree species of America and describing their attributes in florid, somewhat archaic language. I loved that book. Little did I know that I was enthralled by a potential assassin from above. Joyce Kilmer had it wrong.
I think that I shall never see
a killer as stealthy as a tree
Trees are truly the dark triad badboys of florae — vain, beguiling, and psychopathic.
