Tree falls across Palisades Interstate Parkway, prompting calls to trim back dead trees along roadway

The tree fell across the Palisades Interstate Parkway between northbound exits 10 and 11 on Saturday.

Diane Caruso and Lee Danuff

Mar 27, 2023, 9:27 PM

Updated 559 days ago

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A tree fell on a major roadway in Rockland County this weekend, prompting some in the community to demand that New York’s Department of Transportation take steps to improve safety.
The tree fell across the Palisades Interstate Parkway between northbound exits 10 and 11 on Saturday.
State police say it happened around 5 p.m. Traffic had to be rerouted.
On March 14, state police confirmed that another tree fell shortly before 4:30 p.m. near mile Marker 32.3 in Stony Point.
Neither incident resulted in accidents or injury, but it prompted a call for action by some residents. 
Nicole Gerber says the fallen trees remind her of May 2019, when a tree landed on her car on the parkway. 
She and her son were driving south from Orange County when the accident badly injured both of them.
She and others online are asking for the roadways tree lines to be trimmed back and to have any dead trees removed.
News 12 saw maintenance crews working Monday afternoon between exits 15 and 16.
As News 12 previously reported last Father's Day, 48-year-old Anthony Apostolico died and his two kids were injured when a tree fell on their pickup truck as they drove north on the Palisades through Stony Point. 
A Department of Transportation spokesperson said in part, "Safety is always NYSDOT's top priority and in the most recent incident, trees fell along the Palisades Interstate Parkway following recent rains that saturated soils and weakened resistance to high winds."