A 4-year-old girl from Australia has died after a palm tree fell on top of her, according to PEOPLE. She was playing in a backyard on Saturday, July 19, when the tree fell. The accident also injured an 11-year-old boy at this Tiwi home in the city of Darwin.
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Palm Tree Crushes 4-Year-Old Australian Girl To Death
Northern Territory Police Force released a statement on Facebook after the tragic incident. “Around 1:55pm, the Joint Emergency Services Communication Centre received a report that a 4-year-old female was struck by a falling palm tree at an address in Tiwi while playing in the yard,” it said.
Once they arrived at the scene, they rushed the young girl to Royal Darwin Hospital. Unfortunately, she did not make it, and they pronounced her deceased upon arrival at the hospital.
“An 11-year-old male was also struck by the palm tree and suffered non-life-threatening injuries,” it added. The authorities don’t believe this incident to be suspicious, although investigations are still ongoing.
We are still waiting for the coroner’s report to find the cause of death. Still, it’s likely physical trauma from the falling palm tree.
This death is just one of a few tree-related deaths in the Northern Territory. According to Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), a tree branch fell and killed a South African woman at Darwin’s botanic gardens nearly two years ago. She was simply walking along with her partner when the branch struck her.
Similarly, in 2013, another falling palm tree crushed a Coomalie Council worker at Batchelor just south of Darwin. Although these are just accidental circumstances, NT-native arborist Ben Kenyon told ABC these were nonetheless tragedies.
“For a person to be in exactly the wrong spot at exactly the right time, is really rare,” said Kenyon. “Quite often, it is a bit of a freak event. [My] thoughts go out to the family for sure — it’s tragic.”
Kenyon also mentioned how important it was to maintain the health of your backyard trees. This is especially true for tropical areas like the Top End. The arborist explained how a fungi could get into a tree trunk, killing it within three to 12 months.
“A very similar fungi in a similar tree in the southern states may take 5-10 years,” he elaborated. “It’s just far, far quicker with the growth rates that you have and the humidity and the style of tree that you have in the Top End.”