HYDE PARK — A section of 53rd Street was shut down Wednesday after a truck struck and brought down a tree.
According to witnesses, the truck was driving east in front of Hyde Park Bank, 1525 E. 53rd St., at 3:15 p.m. when the top of the cab got stuck on a branch of the locust tree.
Witnesses said, as the truck moved forward, it pulled the tree down and the stoplight next to it.
Installation of fiber optic cables at two University of Chicago-owned buildings on 53rd Street has pushed eastbound traffic into what is normally a parking lane.
Witnesses said it would have been difficult for the truck driver to avoid the limb with lanes blocked off for construction.
The driver of the truck could not be located for comment.
Police cordoned off both lanes of 53rd Street while crews from the city’s Department of Streets and Sanitation called in a forestry team to remove the tree.
The Streets and Sanitation workers said it was being treated as an emergency and the felled tree and stoplight would be removed before the end of the day.
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