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SAN FRANCISCO (KTVU) – The family of a woman who was left paralyzed by a falling tree branch on Monday filed a claim against the city of San Francisco, alleging the city was negligent because the tree was improperly pruned.
Emma Zhou was paralyzed when the falling branch struck her on Aug. 12 while she was visiting Washington Square Park in San Francisco’s North Beach neighborhood. The incident occurred as she watched her two daughters on the playground.
The complaint alleges that city workers were negligent when they last pruned the pine trees by using a technique called “tree topping.”
Zhou’s attorney, Jeremy Cloyd, said the trees show evidence of topping, which is the process of removing large branches from the top of the tree. Cloyd said that can result in new growth that is weak and subject to breaking.
“At that topping cut, you can see that it starts to form branches that spread out like an octopus and that’s what we see in the tree that caused Emma’s injury,” he said.
Cloyd said the incident was not a freak accident as city officials have called it, but a preventable one.
“The city could have avoided this by not cutting the tree in the first place,” he said. “The city could have avoided it secondarily if they went out and inspected it and identified the problem.”
Cloyd said tree topping violates the city’s own pruning standards and laws, which indicate that topping is illegal.
A spokeswoman for the San Francisco City Attorney released the following statement: “We are always saddened when tragic accidents occur, and our thoughts are with Ms. Zhou and her family. Our office is in the process of reviewing the claim.”
Zhou’s husband, Tony Tan, said the accident has completely changed how they live.
“She can only move her arms and talk,” he said. “She can’t even move her head.”
He added that he wants to prevent another tragedy in the future, which is why the family is pursuing a claim against the city.
“I don’t want anybody to get hurt again or a differently family to get hurt or killed by a branch like that,” he said.
By KTVU reporter Cristina Rendon.