Falling Tree Limb Struck Child Near Kidspace Three Months Ago, Foreshadowing Tuesday’s Accident

Foreshadowing this week’s fallen pine tree disaster, a local mother tells about a similar but smaller accident three months ago when a tree limb fell on her seven-year-old son in almost the same location in Brookside Park outside Kidspace Children’s Museum.

Eight children aged six to eight were injured — two critically — about 4:50 p.m. Tuesday when a 75-foot-pine tree suddenly fell on them. Thursday morning, the two most seriously injured remain hospitalized.

Responding to that accident, local resident Charlotte Martin posted on Pasadena Now’s Facebook page “This is RIDICULOUS. That’s exactly where [my son] was hit three months ago.”

Martin said at approximately 12:30 p.m. on April 4 as she and her family left a birthday party which had been held inside Kidspace, she heard a loud crack and then a scream behind her.

Martin said she turned around to see her 7-year-old son had been knocked to the ground by a large and heavy tree limb, she estimated to have been about 12 feet long.

The Eucalyptus tree branch had fallen a mere 50 yards away from the pine tree that plummeted to earth this week, she said.

“It was just the scariest thing I’ve ever encountered as a parent,” Martin said.

Martin said Pasadena police and fire department paramedics were called to the scene to render aid to her son. The City of Pasadena has not yet responded to Pasadena Now’s request for information about this incident.

The branch struck the whole left side of her son’s face, Martin said, leaving him with two black eyes and a gruesome welt on his cheek.

“I can’t tell you how close it was to his eye, it was so close to blinding him. He’s so lucky, he’s so lucky,” Martin said.

Martin said a police officer cautioned off the tree with yellow tape after he noticed another dead branch at the top.

The City of Pasadena paid for the cost of the paramedics’ treating her son’s injuries, she said.

Martin said she has been leery about visiting Kidspace and the surrounding area since then.

“The coincidence of a tree going down in the same part of the park, it really freaks me out. I just cried,” Martin said. “I just assumed since [my son’s accident] happened, that would be taken care of.  I don’t know what’s going on in that park.”

Disease from a fungus or insects, a windstorm, or too much rain are the reasons Horticulturist Rachel Young at Descanso Gardens said often cause trees too suddenly uproot and fall.

“One things that people don’t realize is pine trees don’t have the longest life span, they are a shorter lived tree. It could be [the tree that fell Tuesday was] toward the later part of its life,” Young said.

William McKinnely, a Glendale certified arborist , told Pasadena Star News the cause was likely a root fungus rather than a drought that toppled the pine tree.

The City of Pasadena has retained an independent arborist to report on the cause of Tuesday’s tree accident. The arborist has not yet concluded his investigation.

“I hope the two kids that are in critical condition fully recover as quickly as possible. It makes you scared to take your kid anywhere,” Martin said.

“I just hope they get to the bottom of it. I certainly won’t be going there again, it makes me sad. I love that museum, I love that whole area, we go to Pirate Park, I love the Rose Bowl, we won’t be going,” Martin said.