City Workers Chop Tree Onto Brooklyn Deliveryman

UPDATE, 6:30 p.m.: The NYC Department of Parks & Recreation says it has suspended its relations with the outside contractor hired by the department to chop down the tree.

A tree was chopped directly onto a male cyclist near Pioneer and Richards streets in the Red Hook neighborhood of Brooklyn, near Carroll Gardens, on Monday around 1 p.m., according to city officials.

The victim was transported to Methodist Hospital in Park Slope in serious condition, spokespeople with the NYPD and FDNY told Patch.

The New York Daily News reported that the cyclist was delivering Chinese food from the nearby Ling Gee restaurant.

The tree “hit him directly on the head,” a witness told the paper. “He was shaking but he wasn’t conscious. His eyes were rolled up in the back of his head. It was a horrible scene, I couldn’t believe what I just saw.”

Another witness said in an interview with ABC7 that workers with the NYC Department of Parks & Recreation, who were in the process of chopping down the tree, had tried to get the victim’s attention as the tree fell — but that it was too late.

“Our thoughts are with the individual injured in this unfortunate accident,” the department said in a statement sent to Patch. “NYC Parks is conducting a thorough investigation of this incident. There is no further immediate danger to the public.”

Aerial footage showed the trunk marked with a neon “X” and separated from its stump with a clean cut.

Sources in city government said the tree was being pruned by an outside contractor as part of the Department of Parks & Recreation’s post-Hurricane Sandy “remove and replant” program.

The department’s safety protocols require that workers set up a safe work zone with cones, caution tape and a worker on the ground to flag approaching pedestrians. Department officials are currently investigating whether this kind of zone was set up at Pioneer and Richards on Monday.