The city is slow to remove deadly trees even when alerted to them by public complaints, a comptroller’s audit found.
The Parks Department let 50 dead or pest-infested trees linger for more than five months in 2006, and after initial inspections, didn’t remove other trees that later fell onto cars, the 2007 audit said.
Two people, including a baby girl, were killed this year and three others left with serious brain injuries after being hit by falling tree limbs in Central Park.
Karla Del Gallo, 33, has been in a medically induced coma since June 26, when a huge limb crashed onto her head while she held her 6-month-old daughter. She doesn’t know her baby is dead, family lawyer Dino Mastropietro told The Post.
Doctors just started bringing Del Gallo out of sedation, telling husband Michael Ricciutti it appeared his wife would survive.
“That’s the only relief he’s had since this tragedy,” Mastropietro said.
Funeral services for the baby are still pending.
“Up until a day or two ago, they didn’t know if it would be a funeral service for one, or for two,” the lawyer told The Post.
Two Queens women last week alerted the city that they will sue after a limb crashed onto their Memorial Day picnic near the Central Park Boathouse, leaving one with a crushed skull.
Roberta Colores-Martinez, 52, had brain surgery and had a metal plate inserted into her head. Her daughter, Carmen Cardoso, was also hurt, court papers say.
There have been two other incidents of falling tree limbs in city parks this month, said Geoffrey Croft, president of the watchdog group NYC Park Advocates, including a pair of teenage girls who were struck by a branch in Van Cortlandt Park and a man who was hit by a limb in Madison Square Park. The man wasn’t seriously hurt.
And just last night, large limbs fell from a tree within the park at 62nd Street near Fifth Avenue. No one was hurt.
The department disputed the 2007 report, saying the trees cited didn’t warrant removal when first inspected.
Additional reporting by Aaron Feis