Marsh Bend Trail driver killed by falling tree
 

At this point, I would assume there are multiple media reports. One from WESH TV: 1 dead after tree crushes car on road in Central Florida

As of 12:30, Wildwood police are asking people to stay clear of Marsh Bend Trail and McNeill Drive.

The sheriffs department helicopter and Wesh2 helicopter were both circling that area south of the turnpike shortly before noon. WESH2 had a brief story with video on their noon telecast. That was such a freak, tragic event. Prayers to the family of the victim.

I was heading north from Middleton today right about 12:15 and Community watch was blocking the road north heading into that area. I ended up going over to Sawgrass area instead, but I wondered what had happened.

Odd but I had captured a rotted limb falling off a tree back in March very close to where this incident occurred.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eixILU8PDtQ

Sad. My condolences to his loved ones, neighbors, etc .

Tree
 

Seems odd a good size oak tree would just come down with no storms or nothing like that. Do they transplant trees this size?

Weight, age, disease, heavy rain saturated ground, and Spanish moss. Any old tree with rot internally can come down any time. Rare but happens. IMO Silver maples are even worse, Hugh limbs grow latterly can fall out of them on clear day with no wind. Odds are not going to happen unless severe conditions but it happens. I use to live on Omaha Ne. Happen there with silver maples. Glad I don’t have Hugh oaks in my yard with laterally running limbs weighed down with Spanish moss when rains.

Ground moist but not saturated. Southern area has not been hit with much rain.
Tree did not appear to have any internal rot. Looked like good condition.
Roots seemed shallow, but not excessively.
Winds were a gentle breeze. 1 to 7 mph. No gusts.

Anyone with a tree within falling onto house distance is at risk. No warning, no prediction.

probability of event: minuscule, but non zero

probability that event was random: 99.99999999%

risk is therefore extremely minimal but non zero. I live on a street across from an entire row of live oaks which are exposed to North to East winds, and a hurricane passing on the wrong side of the house can create an increased probability of an event, but not moving nor selling for the risk level.

When your time is up, it's up! random with Parkinson's or driving down the road. . there are no guarantees, and the future is uncertain, sometimes, very uncertain. .

good luck to us!

Very sad story.

Does anyone know who owns the land where the tree was growing?

And was the tree rotten? Healthy trees don’t usually fall

It appears that in Florida,
landowners (private or municipal) can be liable if they knew or should have known about a tree’s dangerous condition and failed to take reasonable steps to mitigate the risk. This applies to trees on private property or in public rights-of-way.

It was on Federal property (Coleman).

Huge live oak, roots look rotted, may have been weakend by hurricanes or road widening.

They are other trees in similar shape along that road (IMHO).

We were just down that road the other day. I see so many roads with huge oak tree limbs hanging out over the road. They all should be cut back. They may look nice but they are a disaster just waiting to happen.

Reminds me of the electric utilities always getting bad PR for wanting to cut back trees off the grid lines. Citizens loose electric due to tree and it’s the utilities fault. Dom of you do and Dom if not.

As is said: The chance of being pecked to death by a flock of ducks is low, but never zero.
No matter how improbable an event is, with a large enough group, the event will happen.

Tree
 

Yea it was his time to go, TV works like the mob, the cleaners came in and wiped the site, it's hard to tell where it even happened. Didn't see anything in the paper about it either (unless I missed it)

Isn’t one of the perks posted that living in the northern areas, pretty giant mature trees, compared to very few giants in the southern areas?

Trees are always great until they fall on your property or in this case your car.

If a tree falls in the villages . . . . if nobody sees it, did it really happen?

Last year aftermath of hurricane winds in October, we counted 27 downed oaks, on our ride from 44 to Boosters.Plus the one that fell behind our house from the prairie. Yes it really happened even if you do not see it, and up to $10,000 to remove it from your private property.

My guess is this poor sole did see the tree fall, but His Family definitely knows the reality of it really did happen

Took a bike ride on the MMP along that area this morning. Hopefully the safety of that section road is being assessed.

Observed along the 2 mile stretch of MBT, there are dozens, maybe hundreds of large, broken/ dead/ diseased trees at the forest edge within striking distance of the road. They are on Coleman USP property.

Many are leaning towards the road and some have large branches over the road.

Looks like the roots of those trees were disturbed when recently widening the road and adding drainage ditches increasing the likelihood for a tree falling.

When school is in session, traffic is often stalled /backed up bumper to bumper taking children to school on that section in the early morning.

The problem is this tree was in the "southern area". Maybe with all the low, swampland and ponds the trees are more apt to tip over there from soft soil or rotting roots.

The trees are on Coleman USP land that was built in 2001.

Eastport area was farm /ranchland for generations.

https://www.talkofthevillages.com/fo...036-post5.html

What does that have to do with this topic? From 466A south the area is populated with swampy areas and ponds. Can you find land that would be farmable and on which to park a truck? Sure. But by and large it is still a very swampy area. Let's just hope sinkholes don't develop in those new areas in great number.

According to locals who grew up near area south of turnpike was cattle, and watermelon farms. Very few ponds or wet areas, trees were few, that were probably cleared out 50 plus years ago from rot. They agreed most Live oaks in the area probably over 100 years old. Spanish moss, causes issues eventually rot within. Prior to building not much wet prairie, except for areas that still remain untouched.

Our area is built around multiple preserves that are dry. That information comes from the locals who used to hunt between 44 and Turnpike for the last 50 years. Three different owners (mid 80s) told us they could run their airboats as kids near Lake Okahumpka Rec center. Then walk through the dry prairies to hunt, bear, boar, and rattlesnake, which is now St John’s and Richmond.

Our area is 10-12” higher than the prairie floor.

From the map of Eastport, I think the sogginess of the area is notable. No one said it is all under water.. it's just very swampy and I'm sure much terra firma has been moved and manipulated for management.
https://www.thevillages.com/wp-conte...caled.jpg.webp

Most of the trees lost large limbs or half of the tree broken. Some were uprooted, but not as many as the damaged.

I never mentioned underwater. Locals used terminology of dry prairie, prairie (maybe few inches of water) and wet prairie that holds bodies of water more than 12” deep, great for racing airboats.
Apparently local kids play toys were homemade airboats.

Two of the guys grandparents sold their property south of the turnpike to developers, so my guess is native locals account could be more accurate than map on the net.
But I am just listening to accounts, an elder @80+ years old, his son 60, and grandson 35, born and raised on the land. They had to trailer their boats to wet land north of turnpike.
The third last week said their neighbor sold their cattle farm earlier in the year, that has been in their family over 100 years. So guess is their farm could be next.

LOL - That map is artistic, all the water was added by the developer for retention ponds. Go back and look at the historical satellite images referenced in my previous post.

The area north of what was 470 has been flat, dry farm and ranch land for several generation.

Land to be developed a few miles south of what was 470 towards the Turnpike is a different story.

A friend of mine back home lost her husband the exact same way. She was in the passenger seat and was uninjured. She also became a very rich woman.

Quick reply here to #19. I also was on a bike riding along MBT coming north a day or so after the accident was all cleaned up. Did anyone notice it looked like the “rootball” of the tree was dragged across MBT being on the East side, the tree came from the West side. Just would have assumed the clean up would be to clear it off the road and maybe cut it all the way back at the root, but why drag it across MBT? Did anyone else notice this?

And I just looked at actual pictures, following the drone coverage provided by Goldwing during the time The Villages began looking and preparing south of 44 for development was a real eye opener for us. We also have the Eastport map, water is not being trucked in for any of those pictures.

Like Asianthree, I have talked to locals about the history of this area. None of them called it a swamp. It seems important to you to push that idea. May I ask why?

It was in the Daily Sun (the next day, as I recall) on page D4, next to the obit and villager pictures, along with other crime/public safety short stories.

Yeah, south of 44 is swampier than north and the comment was in relation to a large, claimed to be healthy per other statements, tree that just fell over for no reason and killed someone. I'm not pushing it, it's a fact and I offered that as a reason for the fall because of water/soil conditions the tree may have been vulnerable. PER AI: Based on the information available, there are a greater number of surface water features (specifically shallow ponds) located south of CR 44 compared to the north, although the ponds north of CR 44 are generally deeper. It's just a fact of nature and it hasn't stopped construction or the sale of homes and most the people living there are just fine with the terrain. If I say there are a lot of wet, watery spots south of 44 does that make it better? I'd rather live next to a swamp than a retention pond but to each their own. I would make paragraphs but the site has a popup that goes in the middle of a post if I do so.