Two cars crashed into a fallen tree just in front of 4200 of Massachusetts Ave. around 6:15 p.m. on March 1.
Police arrived on the scene after the drivers and passengers had evacuated their vehicles and blocked off a section of Massachusetts Avenue. No one was injured, although the front ends of both cars suffered considerable damage.
This was not the only incident that night ,and many trees were in danger of falling due to the snow and ice, according to Metropolitan Police Officer Simmons who was at the scene.
Sandra O’Brien, one of the drivers, said she saw that the tree was about to fall and began to brake. Her car began to skid due to the icy road conditions and she quickly tried to turn the car around, she said.
“I just got out of the way as best as I could because I couldn’t imagine the tree falling on the car with the kids in the car,” O’Brien said.
O’Brien, who is a resident of Northwest D.C., was accompanied by her husband and two children, as well as her daughter’s friend. The driver of the second car, who declined to speak with the Eagle, was carrying no other passengers and did not seem to see the tree falling. He hit it head-on, according to O’Brien.
Emile O’Brien, 12, said the family and his sister’s friend were headed to a Washington Capitals hockey game that night.
“I have the jitters. It’s my first ever car accident,” he said. “This has never occurred that it would happen to me.”
An Eagle reporter contacted MPD Second District seeking a timeline for removing the tree from the road and was transferred to 911.
Dispatch did not have record of the down tree in the area, and a representative said public works crews would be sent out to out to assess the situation.
Eagle staff writer Samantha Hogan contributed to this article.
