SAN FRANCISCO—On the evening of Tuesday, May 26, a large tree limb fell in Washington Square Park in North Beach, injuring five people, including a two-year-old who was taken to a nearby hospital.
After receiving a report of a fallen tree branch and at least one injured person, the San Francisco Police Department responded to the scene at around 5:39 p.m. near Filbert Street and Columbus Avenue. Police quickly summoned an ambulance.
The affected persons sustained minor injuries, according to the police. Four of them were treated on-site by members of the San Francisco Fire Department and released from the scene shortly after. The two-year-old was hospitalized as a safety precaution. Details on the child’s condition have not been released, but it was reported that no one on the scene suffered life-threatening injuries.
According to an SFPD statement, rangers from the Recreation and Parks Department were also at the scene.
A video posted on the Citizen app, a program that sends users real-time safety notifications based on their location, shows a crowd of people gathered around the fallen branch which was sealed off by yellow cautionary tape while SFPD and SFFD officers tended to the scene.
On August 12, 2016, a similar incident took place at Washington Square Park with much more dire consequences. A 100-pound tree branch fell on San Francisco resident Emma Zhou while she supervised her daughters playing on the playground. Her injuries, which included a fractured skull and ruptured spinal cord, left her paralyzed from the waist down.
Zhou sued San Francisco for negligence and received a $14.5 million settlement from the Board of Supervisors in 2018.
The San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department and the City Attorney’s Office did not immediately respond to a comment request.
