When thousands of trees age, grow, strengthen and also deteriorate at a rate determined by nature
What happened?
A 12 year-old girl was playing on a rope swing in Banstead, Surrey, when a large tree branch snapped off and crushed her in November 2024. She died from blunt force trauma to the chest with traumatic asphyxia.
At the inquest, it was heard that Surrey County Council, responsible for the inspections, had failed to inspect the tree months before the accident. Two and a half years before the accident they had reviewed the tree, and removing ivy was recommended ‘to aid future inspection of the tree’. A re-inspection of the tree was scheduled for eighteen months later, but this did not take place due to prioritising other inspections.
The tree was found to have a ‘crack’ not visible from the ground after the girl’s death.
The assistant coroner dismissed criticisms of the council, and said the girl’s death was a ‘shocking accident’. He said the county council could not have reasonably been expected to do more to prevent what happened – “bearing in mind their duties and…the public resources they have to manage”, pointing out the huge number of trees. He also said there was “no sound evidence” the re-inspection would have revealed the ‘dangerous crack’.
Legal Outcome
The coroner ruled the death as accidental at the inquest in May 2026.
What can we learn from what happened?
The inquest had heard a ‘pathway for avoiding the girl’s death’ could have been putting up signs warning against rope swings. The coroner rejected this, and said “it is doubtful that vigorous children and teenagers would take much notice”.
While there may be occasions when such measures could be taken, the context here is we have hundreds, maybe thousands of trees ageing, growing, strengthening and also deteriorating at a rate determined by nature. Then we have children doing what children love to do – exploring, playing and having fun in nature. It is very difficult to legislate against accident or tragedy. The only effective way of preventing such accidents would be to build a wall around all the trees and stop access to them. As a society, we don’t want that.
The family of the girl were understandably disappointed at the verdict of accidental death. The outcome of a coroner’s inquest does not preclude any further legal action, whether criminal or civil, but it is not known whether any further action was taken.
Source of Information
BBC News Online