A large eucalyptus tree fell onto a shared taxi shortly after midnight on Friday on Bernardo Leighton Street in the municipality of Villa Alemana, in the Valparaíso Region. The three people in the vehicle sustained no serious injuries.
According to BioBioChile, firefighters reported that no one was seriously injured. T13 reported that the passengers suffered minor scratches and that the car was damaged. The tree fell at the intersection of Bernardo Leighton and Martín Rivas, opposite the Carmen Bascuñán condominium.
The falling tree also knocked down a streetlight pole. Firefighters, Chilean police, Villa Alemana municipal security officers and electricity distributor Chilquinta arrived at the scene and worked into the early hours.
Chilquinta reported on its website that it restored electricity after a series of outages overnight and into the early hours of Saturday. Traffic in the area also resumed, according to BioBioChile.
Patricio, a resident who lives next to the site, told T13 that he arrived home with his family minutes before the tree fell. He said they went outside after hearing the crash and helped the occupants, whom he described as young people with bruises. An ambulance and firefighters arrived afterward, and the passengers were taken to an emergency clinic to have their injuries assessed.
"If the trunk falls, it kills all three of them," said the resident, who explained that only a branch struck the vehicle.
The same resident said they had asked the Municipality of Villa Alemana several times to maintain the trees. According to his account, the response was that they had to wait for them to fall. The sources do not include a municipal response to that allegation or specify who is responsible for the trees on that street.
Bernardo Leighton Street runs alongside Troncal Sur, one of the main roads connecting municipalities in the Valparaíso Region. Clearance work continued on Saturday morning, and according to the resident, another tree he considers dangerous remains in the area.
