Jen Higgins, 49, died almost instantly while she was walking with her husband Gawen and another couple – witnesses described hearing a “loud crack” before the branch fell
A PR firm boss died after a huge branch fell from a decaying tree as she took a stroll with her husband, an inquest has heard.
Jen Higgins, 49, died almost instantly when the branch fell on her while she was walking with her husband Gawen and another couple in West Didsbury on August 30, last year. An inquest heard the mature beech tree, inside a garden of a home had been pruned 15 or 20 years earlier and, as a result, had developed unseen decayed which left the wood “almost like tissue paper”.
It was heard a third of the canopy of the tree fell away. Ms Higgins’ husband, who ran the PR firm Carousel with his wife, told Manchester Coroner’s Court he and his wife decided to go out for a quick walk at around 7pm as it was a “balmy summer evening”.
He had been walking hand-in-hand with his wife when he heard a “loud crack” when the huge branch fell across the pavement, the road and the pavement on the other side of the road. “We had no time to take any kind of evasive action,” he said in a statement.
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“It was extremely sudden with no warning.” While he escaped with minor ‘bruising and scratches’, his wife ‘took the full force’ of the falling branch. “I was in a state of shock,” he said, reports the Manchester Evening News.
The inquest heard people came to their aid including off-duty medics but Ms Higgins died on the pavement. They had been walking with another couple who heard “loud screaming” and then saw Ms Higgins on her back under the branch, the inquest heard.
The coroner noted Ms Higgins ‘was clearly a much-loved wife, daughter, sister and I’m sure a dearly loved colleague and friend of many’. Ms Swift said she accepted the evidence of Mr Nugent that the tree had suffered ‘significant decay’ but that this would not have been ‘visible’.
She said there was no requirement for owners to ‘go and look for it and have it inspected’. She said on the evidence she had heard it was ‘not clear’ whether the householder or the tree surgeon he sought was responsible for checking whether the tree was within a tree conservation area.
“It’s regrettable we now know there was no Tree Preservation Order or conservation order,” she said. The coroner went on the tree had “now been dealt with professionally”.
The coroner recorded the cause of death as “multiple traumatic chest injuries” caused by “blunt force trauma to the chest.” The family declined to comment after the hearing. In a statement released following her death, they said: “The family of Jen Higgins are heartbroken to confirm she lost her life in a sudden and tragic accident.
“She was a beloved wife, daughter, sister, daughter-in-law, and aunt – a vibrant and supportive friend to many; and a dynamic and widely respected member of the Manchester business community. You will no doubt empathise with the deep and profound shock we are feeling at this moment and ask for privacy while we grieve. A further statement will be issued when we feel able.”
