Arboricultural hazard risk assessment

It would be difficult to miss sensationalist news coverage of the dramatic and sometimes tragic consequences of the structural failure of trees. People who own or manage trees are increasingly required to implement costly systems for assessing and managing risk associated with failure.  Much of the perceived requirement to implement comprehensive hazard management strategies comes however from the fear of litigation not from the quantum of risk.  The ratio of tree-related deaths over a recent six year period is one in 10 million averaged over the national population.  The HSE would put this risk into the "broadly acceptable region" and regard it as insignificant and adequately controlled.  However, this low national risk does not remove the liability of a tree owner/manager from a common law duty of care it simply provides a little perspective.

Having had the misfortune of being the first expert on the scene of a tragic accident involving a tree falling across a line of children as they queued up for lunch at school and subsequently providing expert testimony to the coroner, I have an understanding of the moral dilemma concerned with risk management.  The debate about the level and frequency of risk assessment and the degree of action taken should a significant risk be highlighted is ongoing but one thing that is certain is trees that could cause harm or damage should they fail must be assessed regularly and reasonable action taken to reduce any significant risk to an acceptable level.