Palm Tree Topples, Injuring Worker At University City Hotel

SAN DIEGO, CA — A landscape worker was seriously injured Thursday when the four-story-tall palm tree he was trimming at a University City-area hotel toppled over with him lashed onto it.

The accident at the Embassy Suites by Hilton San Diego-La Jolla in the 4500 block of La Jolla Village Drive was reported shortly before 11 a.m., according to police and the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department.

Medics took the victim, an employee of Arbor West Tree Surgeons, to Scripps Memorial Hospital La Jolla. His name and details on the nature of his injuries were not released.

Joe Jaha, a supervisor with the tree-services company, told reporters the trimmer had been fully outfitted with safety gear and was about 30 feet up the shallow-rooted, roughly 40-foot fishtail palm when it fell over.

The worker was alert and coherent while being tended to by emergency crews, Jaha said.

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--City News Service