Exclusive | Tree limb that fell onto NYC hot dog vendor was inspected days earlier as inspections drop drastically from 2025

The limb that fell on a hotdog vendor next to the Museum of Natural history earlier this month was from a tree that had been inspected just days earlier, according to the city Parks Department. The pin oak at West 77th Street and Central Park West stands among a grove of trees outside the museum in Theodore Roosevelt Park — and next to a row of food vendors. “This park was inspected in early September and there was no indication that the tree required further inspection or visual defects spotted prior to the branch falling,” a Parks Department spokesman said.“The tree is under Parks jurisdiction, and either forestry crews or a contractor would handle routine pruning,” the spokesman said.“If a defect was identified, which it was not, forestry staff would have inspected and addressed the concern as soon as possible.”The tree was last pruned in October 2017, “as part of routine pruning by a contractor,” the spokesman said. The number of trees the city inspected fell 33% from 88,000 in fiscal year 2025 to 59,000 in FY 2026, which ended on June 30, according to the Parks Department spokesman.The limb broke just after noon on Sept.

11 and fell on the unidentified vendor at a Nathan’s Hot Dog cart.The FDNY confirmed that it rushed a patient who had been struck by a tree to Lenox Hill Hospital, but didn’t reveal the extent of his injuries.The other vendors said the victim was recuperating at home. The victim’s name wasn’t released by authorities.“They’re trees,” said vendor Mahmoud Saber, 51.

“A big wind comes and that’s it.You never know.” A couple whose infant daughter was killed by a falling tree limb in Central Park in 2020 won a $13.75 million settlement against the city, the Central Park Conservancy, the Wildlife Conservation Society and private tree contractors.Michael Ricciutti and wife Karla del Gallo had stopped to snap a picture with little Gianna Ricciutti in front of the Central Park Zoo, when the 18-inch-diameter ...