A dog walker in Bath, Somerset, narrowly escaped serious injury when a large tree branch crashed down just inches from her, with the entire incident captured on CCTV footage.
Close Call at Cemetery
Yuan Zhang, 40, was leaving a cemetery with her dog when the branch fell. She recalled, 'I didn't expect that such a big branch was going to fall. I just turned to the left side because I noticed that the tree might have a problem. It just felt immediate. My dog got really scared – she totally freaked out.'
Zhang initially forgot about the incident until friends sent her the CCTV video. 'I saw the video and my friends were like 'are you ok?' It seems like the branch is super close to me, but I still had one metre of space,' she added.
Pub Owner Witnesses the Incident
Charlotte Symonds, owner of the pub where the CCTV was installed, described the noise as 'horrendous'. Her partner saw the branch fall and confirmed no one was directly under the tree, but the near miss was extremely close to hitting Zhang.
Symonds added, 'An ambulance came, and we were directing the traffic so there were no accidents. Then the police came, and they managed to keep one side of the road open.'
Council Response
Councillor Manda Rigby, cabinet member for communications and community at Bath and North East Somerset Council, expressed relief that no one was harmed. 'Our tree team was on site within an hour. They found signs of structural weakness within the branch that would not have been visible when the tree was inspected last June and was found to be in good health,' she said.
The incident highlights the unpredictable nature of tree failures, even after routine inspections. The council continues to monitor tree safety in the area.
