Watch out for trees, too

During the coverage of our Valentine's Day storm, there was a report of a man who was driving on the 163 (a major 6-lane divided freeway) when his car was hit by a falling tree. It's not a forested area. It's wide open, mostly scrub except down by Balboa Park, and if there's one thing I don't think of when I think of the 163, it's trees. But apparently they're out there ...

I haven't been able to find the story online. The man in the news report was smiling and telling his story, which is good. It could have been worse.

And, given endless time and space, you can count on something uncommon to happen again (even that tantalizing "something worse"), so here you go:

January 11, 2005 - three injured and one killed when a tree falls on cars on the 163, after more than an inch of rain. Link: SignOnSanDiego.com (Jan 11, 2005)

But the 10news.com recap of the storm has: "An 18-year-old woman died and five others were injured Tuesday when a 50-foot tree fell fell across state Route 163, California Highway Patrol officials said. The tree was one of two that fell onto the freeway near downtown San Diego at about 4:30 a.m. Tuesday ..." Link: 10news.com (Jan 12, 2005)

One thing that makes certain events seem unlikely is our short memories. But just as we can increase our search radius to find more and more trees falling on highways and killing people, we can increase our time span and get the same results. The most bizarre things have probably happened before, and can be expected to happen again.