Massive tree branch falls on car with people inside in Northwest DC

WASHINGTON — A huge tree branch fell onto a car with an adult and three children inside Tuesday. 

The four people were all evacuated from the car, which was on the 2800 block of Woodley Road Northwest. No one was injured. 

The Urban Forestry Division of the District Department of Transportation is responsible for all of the trees along public streets in D.C.

The condition of one tree on the 2800 block of Woodley Road was ‘poor’ when the entry was last updated on May 22, according to the UFD’s public tree map data. The arborist who added the entry wrote that the tree should be considered for removal. The open tree work orders map also shows that same tree has an pruning work order that has been open for 104 days. 

Another tree on the block is in fair condition, according to the public tree map, and has had an open pruning work order for 62 days. 

It is unknown whether either of these trees are the one that fell on the car.

This isn’t the first time this summer a tree has fallen and caused damage. A different fallen tree branch killed a woman walking her dog in Garfield Park just two months ago. Community members around Garfield Park called for more maintenance just after the woman died. And just days after that, a massive, over 400-year-old tree fell on a house and multiple cars.

According to the UFD’s datasets, it currently has 906 open removal work orders and 12,513 open pruning work orders. Tree inspection requests, which UFD notes are for urgent matters, have an estimated response time of five business days, and both tree pruning and removal requests have an estimated response time of 180 business days.