Couple Suing Yosemite After Being Crushed By Tree

The Tioga Road in Yosemite National Park. Photo by Florencia Marchetti.

A Eugene, Oregon couple has filed a lawsuit against Yosemite National Park after a park worker felled a tree onto the Tioga Road crushing the plaintiffs car as they were passing by.

The suit says no warning signs were posted on Sept. 16, 2008, when Lisa Thorpe drove her Honda CRV along Tioga Road with her partner, David Stone, in the passenger seat.

The suit alleges park service employee Jared Brown was felling trees nearby, cutting one in a way that caused another tree to fall “suddenly and unexpectedly into the roadway, smashing the car.”

Thorpe suffered a spinal cord fracture and was airlifted to Memorial Medical Center in Modesto, California. Stone, who was riding in the car, suffered minor injuries including abrasions to one knee.

The couple’s suit alleges that the National Park Service was negligent in failing to close the Tioga Road during the tree cutting; failure to warn motorists of potential dangers; not properly training and supervising the tree cutter; and for causing the logged tree to fall into the roadway.