The heavy rains and high winds at the end of March caused the death of a 4-year old in a Madrid park when a tree fell on him.

As a consequence, four Madrid parks, including the one where the fatal accident occured, Parque de El Retiro, have remained closed to the public whilst the rest of the trees are being checked for their stability.

But it is not only the parks, because the central street, the Paseo de la Castillana, has seen many tress removed. In fact, number of trees cut down as a precaution in the city has reached 730 trees.

The problem has been that the pine trees in the parks are within grass-covered areas where the soil has become completely waterlogged, which has weakened the roots’s grip on the trees surrounding area. Pine trees prefer little rain and rocky ground, where their very persistent roots find their way down into rock fissures, which anchors them.

The accident took place at 13.30h on a Saturday afternoon, just half an hour after the City Hall had taken the decision to close the city’s park because of the danger of branches coming down in the high winds.

The boy had been accompanied by his father, who also received injuries to his leg, when the falling tree struck them.

One last relevant point: in December last year the City Hall had announced the expenditure of 30-million euros on carry out checks on the city’s 545,000 trees on the municipality’s books.

(News: Madrid)