San Francisco woman remains in critical after tree branch falls on her

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- A woman remains in critical condition after a tree limb fell on her at Washington Square Park in San Francisco on Friday.

The city is responding by going tree to tree inspecting conditions to prevent another accident like this from happening.

WATCH VIDEO: Tree branch falls on woman in SF park causing severe injuries

"A lot of people don't look up and see if the trees are falling, so it's really dangerous," park visitor Helen Leung said.

Leung and her young daughters moved from a bench in the park after learning it was where a 36-year-old mother of two was sitting Friday watching her children play, when a 100 pound tree limb broke off, hitting her on the head, causing critical injuries.

On Monday, the city's head arborist was sent out to begin a visual assessment of all 60 trees at the park. Washington Square Park, which is in the heart of North Beach is one of San Francisco's oldest parks established in 1847.

The director of the US Recreation and Parks Department says the canary pine involved in the tragic incident was healthy and regularly inspected. "Were going to figure out if there's anything unique about this tree. This is a park that's actually had a lot of tree maintenance and tree assessments. And there was an assessment done in 2008, updated in 2010, there was tree work in 2013," US Recreation and Parks Department spokesperson Phil Ginsburg said.

A park regular says he was there when Friday's accident happened and he believes perhaps during our persistent drought, the trees need more watering. "If they are well watered, how come there are so many brown branches up there that aren't cut off," park visitor Mark Morgan said.

This isn't the first time a branch has injured or even killed someone. San Francisco Supervisor Aaron Peskin represents the North Beach district and believes the city should pay now to maintain trees, rather than later in tragedies and lawsuits. "I want to make sure that we're proactive and that we have assessments of all of our trees," San Francisco Supervisor Aaron Peskin said.

There are 177,000 trees in the city's canopy.