Miracle escape for mum, daughter after tree crushed car

Philippa Eckhardt was just minutes away from dropping off her daughter at primary school near Belgrave, east of Melbourne, when their car was crushed by a falling tree. But one small thing ensured her daughter walked away from the terrifying accident.

Mother Philippa Eckhardt and Charlotte, 10, were lucky to survive after the tree crashed on their car. Picture: Wayne Taylor

Philippa Eckhardt could hear people around her screaming ­orders: call emergency services, get a chainsaw, we need a helicopter.

She was in a daze, crushed inside her crumpled car, but alive.

“I was in complete shock and was pretty out of it. I’d smashed my head into the steering wheel, my back was in severe pain, I couldn’t move,” Ms Eckhardt told the Herald Sun.

“There was glass everywhere, branches through the windscreen, I could just hear people yelling out, ‘Call the fire department, get the chainsaws, get the helicopter for the child.’ It was like, what the hell has just happened?”

Both she and her 10-year-old daughter, Charlotte, escaped with broken bones but Ms Eckhardt said she feared it could have been much worse, with recent tree deaths at the front of her mind.

There had been little warning — just a deafening crack — before the tree fell in the freak accident last Tuesday.

Emergency workers help get the pair out after the tree fell in Belgrave.

A large gum tree collapsed on top of them, trapping her and Charlotte in their Subaru Tribeca in Belgrave, in Melbourne’s outer east.

Ms Eckhardt was less than a kilometre from dropping Charlotte off at Selby Primary School when the tree came down on Belgrave-Gembrook Rd, near the Puffing Billy railway trestle bridge.

The tree landed with such force it squashed the headrest where Charlotte was sitting in the front passenger seat, but fortunately the headrest cushioned the blow.

“That side of the car was just completely caved in,” Ms Eckhardt said.

“If Charlotte was a bit taller you think would the outcome have been different? It was a matter of centimetres.”

Rescuers, including an off-duty paramedic driving past, worked to free the pair.

The scene of the crash where the fallen tree came down on the car. Picture: Adam Marshall

They were both taken to hospital with fractured vertebrae.

They are now on the mend and Ms Eckhardt said they were extremely fortunate to be able to walk away from the wreckage.

“It was a close call, about as close as you can get. The first responders kept saying, ‘You are so lucky, so, so lucky,’” she said.

“We’ve got a lot to be thankful for.”

Year 4 student Charlotte said she had heard of the recent spate of falling trees.

“I’d heard about the other ones (trees falling on cars) and I was really scared. It was frightening,” she said.

Last month a 46-year-old father and his 10-year-old son were killed by a falling gum tree on Monbulk Rd, Sherbrooke.

Ms Eckhardt said she had driven along that same section of road one hour before the tragedy.

The father and son were among five people killed by falling trees in Victoria in the past six weeks.

Ms Eckhardt said she hoped the incidents would prompt greater maintenance, particularly of roadside trees.

“It’s never been as bad as it is now in terms of people being hit by trees,” she said.

RAIN AND WIND TO BLAME

A series of isolated incidents of trees being uprooted is linked to wet and windy weather, a tree expert says.

Melbourne arborist Len McKeown said there had been a surge of fallen trees in recent weeks.

Mr McKeown, who has worked in the tree industry for 30 years, said the final weeks of winter were typically when a lot of trees fell.

The wet soil weakened the root system, making it more likely trees would topple, he said.

“This particular time of year, with the change in seasons to spring, you’ve got the cold air and high winds, trees fall over,” he said.

A father and his son were killed after this tree fell on Monbulk Rd, Sherbrooke. Picture: Josh Fagan

“It’s quite common. It has been happening for years, it’s just we seem to have had a situation where we’ve had a number of cars impacted.

“We’ve had more rain at this time of year than in previous years.

“With that amount of rain and the combination of high winds you’re getting, the ground is very, very wet and the roots within the subsoil have become loose.”

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Mr McKeown said it was a tragic sequence of events that had led to multiple people being killed.

“The best of arboricultural risk assessment can’t always pick which trees are likely to fall,” he said.

“I don’t think anyone is to blame, it’s just a terribly unfortunate situation.”

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