By Nina Mandell
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN — Officials may try to chalk up the rash of deadly tree accidents to "acts of God."
But they're a little more predictable than that, a new report says.
The Central Park Conservancy ignores its own warnings about the proper maintenance of many of its trees and also fails to properly keep track of some that could pose a threat to visitors, the New York Post reported.
The conservancy has a complete directory of every tree in the park that includes recommended care and maintenance warnings to keep them healthy.
But that doesn't mean the conservancy keeps track of the possible dangers they create for pedestrians in the park, the Post reported.
"Caring for trees is one thing," Alan Shapey, a lawyer for one of the families whose loved one was killed by a tree in the past two years, told the paper. "Evaluating them to determine if they pose a hazard to pedestrians is something else entirely and requires a risk assessment by a trained arborist."
Falling tree branches have killed three people and injured two in the past two years.
In late June, six-month-old Gianna Ricciutti was killed and her mother Karla DelGallo seriously injured when a tree branch snapped and fell on them as they posed for a family photo at the Central Park Zoo.
The Central Park Conservancy has refused to take the blame for the branch that killed Ricciutti, arguing that that tree was the responsibility of the Wildlife Conservation Society.
But lawyers for the victims of fallen branches will argue in court that the conservancy’s tree database is often insufficient or the recommendations are ignored, according to the Post.
The database showed that even when workers tend to a dangerous tree once, they fail to follow up with proper care, the paper reported.
In 2009, a branch that severely injured a woman near the Central Park Boathouse fell from a tree that had been pruned once and declared a priority — and never tended to again, the Post reported.
“Their failure to timely inspect and maintain the tree... directly resulted in severe injuries to our clients," lawyer Andrew Smiley told the paper.
Budgetary issues may be partly to blame.
The maintenance budget for the trees dropped from $472,352 in 2008 to less than $300,000 in 2009, and then back up more than $380,000 in the past fiscal year, the Post reported.
The number of maintenance tasks performed on trees also soared from nearly 4,000 in fiscal year 2008 to more than 14,000 in 2009.
