Death crash tree ‘posed a high risk’

A TREE which collapsed and killed a van driver should have been classed as posing a “high to severe risk”, a court has been told.

Landscape gardener Alex MacDonald, 25, right, died when the 150-year-old tree was uprooted in high winds and crashed on to his Mercedes van in February 2008.

Livingston Sheriff Court heard yesterday that the 50-foot-tall beech in Blaeberry Woods, West Lothian, was infected with a destructive fungus and was a danger to people using the A705 between Whitburn and Blackburn.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

But experts had decided that the tree should be monitored rather than felled.

Conservation charity The Woodland Trust, which had responsibility for maintaining the tree, has denied breaching health and safety laws.

James Gilmour, 37, site manager for the trust, told the court that “Zone A” trees next to houses or roads were inspected annually for signs of decay.

On one such inspection on December 22, 2007, he noticed traces of the “fruiting body” of a fungus on the trunk.

He said: “The best way to describe that was a black mush about 25cm wide. Any fruiting body at the base of a tree could be an indication that there’s something else happening in the tree so I’d like to follow that up.”

He wrote to arboricultural specialist Cut Above asking for a second opinion. He told the court that Cut Above’s contract manager, James Colthart, had agreed with his suggestion that the tree should be monitored rather than felled.

He made his decision despite the fungus being identified as meripilus giganteus, a known cause of decay in tree roots.

He said he had only encountered meripilus three or four times during his 20-year career as a woodsman and believed an autumn visit to identify it was “appropriate”.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

However, under questioning, he admitted that his decision not to take immediate action was contrary to advice given in his official training manual.

He also failed to report the risk immediately to his regional manager and to personally attend the second safety inspection of the tree by an external consultant as recommended.

He agreed that going by the training manual the tree should have been rated as being a much higher safety risk than a “significant”.

But under cross-examination Mr Gilmour said in his opinion the tree was not hazardous. He said: “I didn’t see anything that suggested we should have taken the tree down.”

Mr MacDonald had been on his way from his home in Whitburn to his sister’s house in Livingston when the accident happened.

The trial continues.

Related topics: