Central Park: Fatal branch fell from maintained tree

The branch that killed a 6-month-old New Jersey girl in Central Park had been trimmed twice in the past six months and appeared healthy, city parks department officials said in a statement Monday.

"This is a city tree that stands in one of the busiest public parks in the world," parks spokeswoman Vickie Carp said in the statement.

Carp and the NYPD maintained that as far as their investigations go, the Saturday incident that killed 6-month-old Gianna Ricciutti and left her mother, Karla DelGallo, 33, in critical but stable condition at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center was an accident.

Carp said there are several organizations tasked with maintaining trees in Central Park, including the Central Park Conservancy and the Wildlife Conservation Society. She said that "in this case, the tree is on the grounds of the Central Park Zoo and is maintained and cared for by the Wildlife Conservation Society."

She said that according to conservation society reports, the tree, along with other trees at the zoo, were "pruned by professional tree care contractors" twice in the last six months - on Dec. 31 and again in March after damage to trees at the zoo following a heavy snowfall in late February.

Officials for the Wildlife Conservation Society had no comment beyond a statement released Saturday that offered "condolences" for the accident.

Parks officials on Long Island said the fluke accident is not out of the realm of possibility. Joe Montuori, Suffolk County parks commissioner, said even trees that appear healthy can suffer limb breaks and he can't fault officials in the city.

"I've been working in parks for 40 years and I've looked at trees and thought they were 100 percent and in perfect shape and you come back after a storm and a tree is hollow inside," Montuori said. "It's a very hard call. You can't predict it," Montuori said.

and areas near the park perimeter "are inspected and pruned more regularly."

With Anthony Destefano

and Will Van Sant