Falling Tree Kills Pregnant Woman in NYC Park

A 60-foot oak tree crashed onto a New York City woman who was sitting on a bench in a Queens park last night, killing her before she reached the hospital. Making the tragic story even crueler: 30-year-old Yingyi Li-Dikov was 6 months pregnant. A witness describes an awful scene to the New York Post: "There was just so much blood. The tree just crushed her." Li-Dikov was a Chinese immigrant who graduated from Ithaca College in 2009 and was married last year, the New York Daily News reports.

"I don’t think I’ll find another girl like her. I know I won't," says her husband. They were expecting a girl. The incident in Queens' Kissena Park is the latest in a string of similar accidents in the city, says an NYC parks advocate, who cites at least a dozen injuries tied to falling tree branches in the past two months. (Here's one such example.) It's time to improve local tree maintenance, says state Sen. Tony Avella. "You can't keep saying it’s an act of God." (Sadly, it's not the first tragedy in recent days to befall a pregnant woman.)