IN man killed by tree limb while sleeping in bed..

[Dargo]

Ohmygosh! Talk about a bad surprise. This poor guy got taken out by a large tree limb while sleeping, and there wasn't even any storms or winds! If you have any large limbs over your house, you may want to trim them. Here is the AP article:


Police say a South Bend man was killed when a tree limb fell on him while he was sleeping in bed.

Police and firefighters were called to the home of 41-year-old David Wetzel about 10:30 Wednesday night. When they arrived they found a tree limb at least five feet in diameter lying on Wetzel's upper chest.

Police say the limb had crashed through the bathroom and back bedroom of the house. The coroner has ruled the death accidental. No other injuries were reported. There were no storms or strong winds in the area at the time.

(Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

 

[sneaky_pete]

Life itself is a risk, and no one gets out of here alive anyway.

 

[Bird]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( five feet in diameter )</font>

That would definitely be a freak accident, but surely they meant circumference instead of diameter.

 

[riptides]

I have always had issues with trees and insurance companies. If a tree goes unhealthy and starts dropping limbs, why doesn't insurance cover the removal.

They would rather wait until it falls on the house, or machinery and then process the claims.

Hopefully he passed quickly. Asleep. Terrible.

-Mike Z. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[Junkman]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">(
I have always had issues with trees and insurance companies. If a tree goes unhealthy and starts dropping limbs, why doesn't insurance cover the removal. )</font>

If a tree is unhealthy, then it is your responsibility to remove it. If your roof "goes unhealthy" and it starts to leak, should they replace that also? It is your responsibility to take care of your own property, not your insurance companies. Would you want your health insurance company telling you what you can and can't eat so they can make sure that you stay healthy? /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif

 

[riptides]

Perhaps the word unhealthly is not appropriate - The tree was hit by a utility company vehicle. It started leaning in a storm, acts beyond the homeowner, but influenced by God and others.

And if I could get a rate cut, by them telling me what to eat, I would consider a change in diet and stool sample for them.

I would rather them spend money upfront to fix a problem, then wait for a claim which will cost everyone more. Proactive is what I'd like to think.

-Mike Z. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[RedRocker]

That's it, the bed gets a FOPS this weekend. /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

 

[MossRoad]

It was 2.5 feet in diameter. There are few trees around here with 5' diameter trunks at ground level, let alone at branch height. The local media is here is quick to report sensational stories and frequently gets things incorrect.

The man that was killed had just gone to bed after working a hard day of roofing. His family was in another room when they heard the crash. His wife ran in and found him pinned in the bed by the branch and started attempting to get people to help lift off the branch or cut it off. He was still alive and told her he couldn't breathe. Neighbors and passers-by attempted to lift it off of him but could not. It took the fire department about an hour to get him out.

They knew the tree was hanging over the house and had talked about getting it removed, but they could not afford it, as they were quoted $7000.00 for removal. The area is heavily wooded with 100+ year old oaks. The picture in the local paper clearly shows where the branch broke off the tree and it looks pretty decayed and partly hollow at the fork in the tree where it came from.

In my experience, oaks of that size are frequently hollow or decaying. We lived in a similar neighborhood a few miles away from the fellow that was killed and I dreaded every thunderstorm or high wind as a kid. I feared for my life. Several neighbors had trees fall on their houses, branches come down through their roofs, etc... my grandmother next door was sitting on her porch on a bright sunny day when a 40+ foot branch speared through the porch roof about 8' from her. We never had tree damage to our home and we had about 65 of these killer trees on about 1 acre of land. My father and mother were proud of the fact that they only had to remove 3 trees to build a 2600 sq. foot house. I thought they were nuts. Many, many close calls.

I love the woods, but will never live in them because of those experiences. Small ornamental trees are nice. But my house will have no large trees within 1.5 times their height near my house. No, nope, never!

Sad day for that family, indeed. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

 

[Dargo]

Wow! Thanks for the update and clarification. Man, what a sad story! I saw the article in AP and, even though I couldn't imagine 5' limb (would be no body left under an oak that size!), it still was a startling story. That's awful for the poor guy and his family. Especially seeing him suffer and die under the huge limb.

 

[TBrown]

A man who works in the shipping department where I work recently had a similar, though less catastrophic, incident. He was going fishing with his father-in-law at a local lake. His FIL uses a walker and has a hard time getting around, so when they parked the truck my co-worker got out to test the ground and make sure it wasn't to soft for his FIL to navigate. A large tree branch fell on him just seconds after he left the truck, pinning him to the ground and shattering his hip. It was just a freak accident, the was no storm and very little wind. And, much like the situation Mossroad described, he lay there while family watched helplessly. His FIL couldn't move the tree or drive for help. Help did eventually arrive, but he's been out of work for nearly a month now, and as I understand it he won't be coming back for quite awhile.

We see things like that as tragic, but unfortunately nature is impartial and indifferent. Things happen, and sometimes people are in the wrong place at the wrong time through no fault of their own.