Alister Baird (72), of Waikouaiti, is concerned about several trees and branches hanging over footpaths and roads in Dunedin’s CBD, saying all it would take would be for someone to be in the wrong place, at the wrong time, for a tragedy to occur.
It was a situation he knew all too well.
Mr Baird’s wife, Den Thi Baird (51), died in November when a branch fell and landed on the car she was travelling in on State Highway 1, north of Dunedin.
The couple, along with Mr Baird’s brother-in-law, were travelling to Dunedin after picking up Mrs Baird from Christchurch Airport a couple of days earlier.
She had just returned to New Zealand from her native Cambodia after months away.
But their trip was cut short when a large branch fell and crashed on to their car, crushing Mrs Baird, who was sitting in the back seat.
It has been five months since his wife’s death, and Mr Baird was still emotional as he talked about that day.
"She called out ‘Alister’. I think she could see how bad it was."
He drives past the site of the crash frequently, when he travels from Waikouaiti to Dunedin.
"It sort of goes through your mind over and over."
During his frequent trips to Dunedin, he became worried about four branches on trees at Queens Gardens in particular, as well as a pair of trees at a bus stop near Logan Park High School.
"Someone’s going to be in the wrong place at the wrong time again, especially with the cars going past there," he said.
"People look at them and think they’re only light branches, but they can hurt somebody."
Council parks and recreation acting group manager Scott MacLean said the council regularly carried out routine maintenance of trees, which was paid for from its annual tree maintenance budget of $734,000.
"We use several methods for carrying out tree risk assessments, which are done either following requests from the public or as a result of our regular tree inspection schedule."
Visual assessments were also carried out following any incident, such as after a branch broke off a tree in Queens Gardens in February.
The council has received four requests for maintenance of trees in Queens Gardens in the past year.
Risk assessments carried out during the same period in the area did not identify any concerns, Mr MacLean said.
The trees were also checked following the February incident and no immediate work was required.
