For the fourth time since 2018, a falling tree has caused a death in Greater Morristown.
The latest victim was driving eastbound on Mendham Road in Morris Township on Wednesday when a branch struck her Nissan Murano and another vehicle.
She was pronounced dead at Morristown Medical Center after the 7:34 a.m. incident, said Morris Township Police Capt. Robert Shearer.
He declined to release information about the deceased because the investigation is ongoing.
A woman who had been heading west in a Mercedes SUV sustained minor injuries, Shearer said. Neither vehicle had passengers.
The accident occurred near 178 Mendham Road, Shearer said. Morris County is drying out from heavy rains dumped by a nor-easter this week. It’s not clear whether the storm was a factor in this tragedy.
Recent storms have been deadly in Greater Morristown.
Last November, 33-year-old Jessica Veliz was walking her dog along Fairmount Avenue, near Burnham Park in Morris Township, on a stormy day when she was fatally struck. Veliz was an avid horseback rider and volunteer with the Woman’s Club of Morristown.
In August 2020, a tree company employee, Jody Terwilliger, 58, was killed by a falling limb near Craig Road and Sussex Avenue in Morris Township, during the cleanup after Tropical Storm Isaias.
Tanya Blaine, 57, of Roselle, died a few days after a tree crushed her Nissan Sentra on Ford Avenue in Morristown after a thunderstorm in June 2018. A passenger also was hospitalized.
There have been close calls, too. A teenaged driver miraculously emerged unscathed after a storm toppled an enormous tree onto his family’s Toyota Tacoma, outside St. Peter’s Episcopal Church on South Street in Morristown in August 2018.
A number of homes have been hit by falling trees as well.
