DETROIT (WXYZ) — Three people were taken to the hospital Friday morning after their vehicle smashed into a downed tree on Seymour Street in Detroit.
According to police, two of the crash victims are in serious condition while the other is in critical condition.
Roberta Cutts, who lives on Seymour, says the tree had been in the street since around 6 p.m. on Thursday. The crash happened at around 2 a.m. Friday. Cutts says this is the second tree to fall in the neighborhood within a month.
“Few weeks ago, the tree up the street... fell on my neighbor’s house and it stayed there almost two weeks,” Cutts said.
It’s unclear why the uprooted tree wasn’t removed immediately.
The city of Detroit does have a dead, diseased and dangerous tree removal program. Jerrell Harris, deputy director of the General Services Department with the city of Detroit, sent 7 Action News a statement about the program. It reads in part:
“To date, we have completed 126 tree services (trimming and removals). We opened the program in April 2023 and received over 7,000 requests by July. We are not currently taking new requests as we work to service as many people as possible. We are prioritizing our seniors and people with disabilities. Our vendors started performing tree services in August. We are working to onboard additional tree service vendors and expect to have them out working soon.”
Cutts says she didn’t contact the city about the tree that recently feel, but she has previously called them about other trees.
“When they finally get here, they do their job. It’s cleaned up real good. You can barely tell there’s a tree that even fell,” Cutts said.
