Hamilton Park is nice and all, but to come all the way from Randolph to walk your dogs...

The tree snapped like a twig. There is almost no root structure.

How Ironic...



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Truck making delivery to co-op in Downtown Jersey City hits limb and brings tree down on two parked cars

Wednesday, March 23, 2011
By TERRENCE T. McDONALD
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

A tractor trailer carrying organic foods to a Jersey City co-op yesterday afternoon clipped the limb of a tree on Ninth Street on the north side of Hamilton Park, ripping the tree out of the ground and sending it crashing onto two parked cars.

The cars were unoccupied at the time. The drivers and passengers of both were at a service inside St. Michael's Church and there were no reported injuries.

Maria Desmond, of Rutherford, who had accompanied her sister to church, said she heard a muffled crash during the service but didn't think anything of it. When the service ended, she walked out of the church and found her red 2009 Cadillac under a 50-foot silver maple.

"Last time I'm bringing my car. I'll let her bring hers," she said.

Jesse Wolf, the truck driver, said he was heading south on Jersey Avenue, turned left on Ninth Street and then clipped the tree limb.

"Made the turn, straightened out, and as soon as I straightened out - boom!" said Wolf, 30.

According to city spokeswoman Jennifer Morrill, Ninth Street is not a truck route, though trucks are allowed on the street if the drivers are making deliveries to local businesses.

The tree that Wolf's truck hit was not dead, but city workers will check on other trees on the street to be sure they are safe, Morrill said.

Randolph resident Nick Adams, a dog walker, was in the park walking a Siberian husky and a dachshund when he saw the truck come around the corner of Jersey Avenue and Ninth Street.

Adams, 21, said he wasn't paying too much attention until the tree fell onto the cars. The truck did not appear to be speeding, he said. "It was something else," Adams said. "It was kind of cool to watch."

Wolf was issued a ticket for violating a city ordinance banning trucks weighing over 4 tons, according to police spokesman Lt. Edgar Martinez.

Notice there was really no root structure on the tree... hitting the branches should not have taken it down.

It was only time before it feel... it probably was diseased.

I've had a tree taken out by truck, and another damaged several times. It's by tall trucks parking, not driving down the middle.

Everyone who got new trees planted needs to take this as a warning, PRUNE YOUR TREES 12 FT HIGH ON THE STREET SIDE!!! I know it's painful to do to a small tree and makes it look like crap, but depending on the species a truck can be deadly. Maples seem to just break off a branch easily, but flowering pears will split down the middle.

I keep warning my neighbors with a cherry that overhangs the street that it's just a matter of time. The JC Parks & Forestry guy that cut up my downed pear tree told me that the city program for tree planting really screwed up with the species choices, they should never have planted those low wide cherries on the curbs and the pears are too damn fragile.

Wow..... sucks for the owner of that scion. but hey he/she can look at it this way, they can get a better looking car.

Witnesses said he clipped the upper branches which pulled the whole thing down and over. The tree appeared pretty diseased.

Jesus, how the hell did he manage to take out the entire tree?