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City flattens Fiat while trying to remove dangerous tree

HUNTINGTON, W.V. — Mondays are already difficult, but starting your week with a tree falling on your car is a whole other level. It happened to one student in West Virginia and the city is to blame.

The old tree along Washington Avenue in Huntington was determined to be potentially dangerous. A few weeks ago a limb was blown off and landed on a parked truck's windshield.

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In a bizarre twist, in an effort to remove the tree, a young woman's car was destroyed.

"You go get a tree cut and it takes out a car. Come on now, we can do better than this," neighbor Billy Tatum told WSAZ.

Tatum was on his porch Monday morning playing cards and watching a city crew work on cutting down the tree.

"It sounded like a beer can getting flattened; it was just crunch," said Tatum. "It flattened it like a pancake from the back seat to the tail. I was like, 'Whoops.'"

A city spokesperson said the city employees involved were negligent and protocol was not followed. He said the city is committed to resolving the issue as quickly as possible.

Neighbors said there were no signs or warnings posted asking them to move their cars.

The student who owns the car didn't want to talk about the incident, but her mother said she hopes they get the workers trained so this doesn't happen to anybody else, and she hopes the city replaces her daughter's car.