Woman hospitalized after tree branch fell on her in Central Park

A woman was hospitalized in serious condition Tuesday after she was hit by a falling tree branch in Central Park, the FDNY said.

The unidentified woman, who was on vacation from Indiana, was knocked unconscious around 3:30 p.m. after the branch fell some 40 feet to hit her near 86th Street and Central Park West, according to the FDNY and Geoffrey Croft of NYC Park Advocates.

She was taken to St. Luke's Roosevelt Hospital, where she remained last night. The hospital didn't respond to a request for comment.

Witnesses said the woman, who was walking with her husband and believed to be in her mid-50s, was bandaged and bleeding from her head, and then when she awoke she didn't know what happened to her, Croft said.

This was the second time in a week that someone was hit by falling tree branch in Central Park, a 46-year-old man was hospitalized with minor injuries after a branch fell onto him near 96th Street and Central Park West.

The city just settled a lawsuit from a Google engineer who was hit by a falling branch in 2009 for $11.5 million, and Croft said falling branches is an increasingly prevalent problem at the city's parks.

"It's clearly a problem, and we're calling on the city to track these incidents and preserve the evidence so they can analyzed," Croft said. These incidents "are happening more often."

However, falling branches are anything but a new problem. In 2010, a 6-year-old girl was killed after a branch fell on her in the Central Park Zoo, and earlier that year, a 46-year-old man was killed by falling branch. Ten major lawsuits relating to falling branches have been filed in the pastdecade, according to the Times.