Blood-red sap oozes from freshly broken tree limb, Miraflores; photo by Jorge Vera
Aug. 19, 2008, Lima: More neighborhood destruction to report, resulting from poorly rerouted traffic from Av. Republica Panama (the old Pan-Americana Highway) into our neighborhood. A beautiful old tree was murdered by a reckless Lima truck driver, who had to get from Point A to Point B in as little time as possible – no matter that his vehicle couldn’t fit on our tiny streets.
And no police or guards stopped him from making an improper detour.
A 32-foot-long trailer bearing a shipping container detoured off busy Rep. Panama into the old family neighborhood of San Antonio, Lima, at approximately 3 p.m., Saturday, August 16. The oversized Ausa truck barrelled down the first block of Calle F. de Paula Ugarriza, heedless that its cargo container was larger and wider than the growth of old trees shading the street.
The truck plowed into the left side of a 40-foot-high tree at #637, tearing off its main limb and felling huge branches onto parked cars. Power and cable lines also were downed.
Shocked residents ran into the street shouting for the truck to stop. The driver came to a halt at Parque Leoncio Prado, where he was apprehended by security guards, then police, and taken to police headquarters for four hours of questioning.
Tree hit by semi-truck in Miraflores, August 2008
Initial reports indicate that the truck driver lacked a license to drive the truck.
El Fotografo and I saw the police lights flashing on Ugarriza and went to investigate.
EF was shocked when he saw the bashed tree; it had been there since he was a kid, he said. In Lima, a desert city that receives no rain, trees that tall are rare.
“Esta muerto! Esta muerto!” a distraught neighbor in her 60s said.
The driver should be charged with tree homicide, I said to EF.
Semi truck with sea crate after accident, Miraflores, Lima
I walked up to the tree to see the damage up close. The exposed wood where the huge limb had been sheared off was weeping sap — a crimson liquid that looked like blood. The red sap welled up, drop by drop.
The tree’s wound looked so human, it hurt to look at it.
The inept bureaucrats who are overseeing this chaotic road “improvements” in this city need to wake up to the damage they’re causing, I thought. I should write the mayor of Miraflores a letter.
Mayor Masias: In April you promised to bring safety and order to the process of improving the city’s streets. You promised to do better than did your predecessor, the mayor of Lima.
Is this senseless destruction your idea of making Miraflores a better place?
4 responses so far ↓
1 Alejandro // Aug 19, 2008 at 3:43 am
Arboricide is a criminal offense in some jurisdictions, but in Peru?
That first photo is heartbreaking…
2 Peruanista // Aug 19, 2008 at 4:12 am
I feel for the bleeding three and mortified witnesses. Now, everyone in your neighborhood that threes in the Peruvian Amazon are cut off every minute. Let’s all cry together now.
3 Barb // Aug 19, 2008 at 4:22 pm
Alejandro — “arboricide” is a good word. I doubt it’s criminal in Peru. As Peruanista says, they’re razing even more trees in the Amazon — staggering numbers of them. I don’t think there are laws on the books in Peru to stop them, although there may be international rulings. (And we know how dutifully Peru follows those rules, right?)
I am so weirded out by the bloody sap. Maybe some tree specialist out there can tell me if there are many trees that bleed red when you cut them.
4 Patty S. // Aug 22, 2008 at 7:31 pm
The drivers of these trucks in Lima are crazy. They will kill not just trees but people too. When you walk in the street, the trucks and combis try to run you over, no lie.
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