Tree that crushed cars in Golden Gate Park was 80
The massive eucalyptus tree that crushed four cars and injured two people in Golden Gate Park on Monday was 80 years old when it fell, parks officials said Tuesday.
Little else is known about the tree or the reason for its dramatic tumble into traffic on 19th Avenue, which bisects the park. Eleven people were inside the cars when the 100-foot tree came crashing down, and paramedics treated two of them for injuries.
“Healthy trees can and do fall during storms or when the ground is saturated,” said Tamara Aparton, a spokesperson for the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department.
San Francisco has recorded close to 2 inches of rainfall since Jan. 1, according to the National Weather Service. One inch of that total arrived Saturday during heavy weekend storms that dropped flooding rains across Northern California.
“While the recent rain was impressive, it is nothing unusual for January and didn’t break any records,” said Chronicle staff meteorologist Anthony Edwards.
It was unclear Tuesday whether the tree was at risk of falling. The department said it was examining its records to determine when its health was last assessed, Aparton said.
San Francisco firefighters who responded to the park around 4 p.m. posted photos of the tree’s trunk sprawled across the roadway, where it landed atop several cars in motion.
The road was temporarily closed in both directions, causing major delays as crews used chainsaws to clear the fallen tree. City arborists also removed a second, smaller tree adjacent to the one that fell, Aparton said.
“We’ll continue to inspect for remaining and immediate hazards over the next couple of days,” she said, noting that arborists and heavy machine operators “remain on call 24/7 during the winter.”
Golden Gate Park is home to 27,000 trees, accounting for one-fifth of the San Francisco park system’s 131,000 trees. A Chronicle analysis of tree canopy data found that tree cover blankets about 54% of the park and surrounding areas.