Bad luck and negligence: combination puts park goers in SP at risk – 07/07/2023 – Na Corrida

Bad luck and negligence. Alone, these elements can result in accidents. But when they meet, tragedy is certain. It goes for the Titanic, for the Concorde and for our domestic routine.

When only one of these elements appears, there is a chance that the accident will not happen.

That’s what I witnessed last week.

I go to Parque da Aclimação, in São Paulo. It has a wide lane around a pond with herons, is heavily wooded and relatively empty on weekdays. The asphalt strip forms a circuit of almost 1km, ideal for those who train with a spreadsheet, like me. Need to run 10 km? Just do 10 laps. A beautiful place, I recommend it.

Last Saturday (7/1) I was jogging in Parque da Aclimação when I was surprised by a branch about 3.5m long lying on the asphalt track. As it takes me about 5 minutes to make a complete turn, I conclude that that piece of wood had just fallen.

Imagine the damage that a piece of wood weighing about 30 kilos (my estimate when lifting the branch) could cause falling from a height of 10 meters. Luckily, there was no one between the branch and the ground at the time of the incident. I reinforce here that it was very lucky, considering the movement of the park on a sunny Saturday morning.

There were no people, but there were wires. They were pulled, and almost knocked over two metal posts that supported them. I tell this only to illustrate the violence of the fall.

Nobody is hurt. It was luck, pure luck. This part you probably already understood. Now I will deal with another point: negligence.

As soon as I saw the branch on the ground, I asked park security if there shouldn’t be a ban on the site, until an assessment revealed that that dry tree would no longer pose a risk to visitors. I received an answer that there would be isolation, I was satisfied and left.

On Sunday, I went back to the park. People walked under the aforementioned tree, unaware of the risk that the walk could pose. The trunk was moved to the corner of the road, the asphalt was clean, and life went on as if nothing had happened.

I was pissed. I went to the park administration, identified myself as a regular at the place – I really am – and asked if there shouldn’t be a ban or, at least, a warning for anyone passing by. The “in charge” of administration said no, and gave some of the worst explanations my ears have ever heard. I will omit the details out of respect for the liver of the dear reader.

I got even more pissed off. Amazing how the common citizen can be ignored by the authorities simply for being what he is — an ordinary citizen. This time, I identified myself as a journalist – I really am – and repeated the question about the interdiction. He was firm in saying that he would not close the stretch. Five minutes later, the number of cones and ribbons on the stretch where the tree is would put any CET operation to shame.

I questioned the Green and Environment Secretariat (SVMA) about what happened. In a note, the SVMA states that “all municipal parks are inspected monthly, sometimes more than once”. The note also says that “there were inspections on the 21st and 28th of June, and in that month pruning was carried out on 13 tree specimens, and the tree in question has a removal report scheduled to be attended to next week”.

With the note, the SVMA acknowledges that the report recommended cutting down the tree – or “suppression”, in technical language. I understand that the operation cannot be carried out immediately, given the size of the city of São Paulo. But shouldn’t the area under the tree have been preventively isolated, since the “arboreal specimen” was dry and condemned, at risk of falling? This note does not clarify.

After reading all this, you must be wondering: after all, what happened at Parque da Aclimação? Anything. Nothing happened. No one was hurt, everyone was fine.

But there is a point for reflection. Remember at the beginning of the text, when I wrote that tragedies are the result of bad luck and negligence? This time, the only reason the worst didn’t happen was because luck was on the side of the park’s visitors.

How long are we going to depend on luck alone?

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