Forensic probes underway to determine circumstances behind fatal tree fall during CT running race

CAPE TOWN - Forensic investigations are underway to determine the circumstances behind a fatal tree fall in Cape Town’s Company Gardens. 

A 59-year-old woman died when an oak tree toppled over during the Slave Route Challenge on Sunday. 

The tree struck the runner four kilometres into the race. 

ALSO READ: Slave Route Challenge organisers, authorities investigating circumstances that led to runner's death

Race organisers and city authorities maintain that all the necessary safety checks were done ahead of the event.

An arborist at Stellenbosch University, Dirk Bellsteglt, said the investigation could reveal natural phenomena that may have compromised the health of the tree.
 
"Long before the borer beetle was here, there was always centre rot in our trees and that's caused by a Fusarium fungus and can be the cause of the branch being weakened and then breaking off from wind or just simply from the weight."

The expert said that even if bugs or soggy soil were to blame, the tree’s decay would take several months. 

"But it's not as though as soon as the borer is in there that the branches are weakened. It would have to rot subsequently for it to break, but it would take at least a season before something like that would be such that branches would come down."