‘We dodged a tragedy’: Cohasset police officer escapes injury when large tree falls on cruiser

COHASSET, Mass. — A Cohasset police officer saw the giant tree falling towards him and his cruiser, and ran.

Police said that officer escaped injury on Saturday afternoon, when that large tree fell onto his cruiser, crushing the vehicle.

“We dodged a tragedy today, and I’m so thankful that the officer is o/k,” Cohasset Police Chief William Quigley said in a statement.

The tree fell after the officer responded to the area of South Main Street and River Road around 1 p.m. for a report of low-hanging wires.

“While the officer was outside of his cruiser, a 2018 Ford Police Interceptor, he heard a loud snap and saw that a giant tree was falling towards him and his cruiser,” police said in a statement.

“The officer quickly ran down South Main Street, and the tree crushed the roof of his police car and part of the passenger cabin,” police said. “The officer was uninjured, and the cruiser wrecked beyond repair.”

Police shared several photographs of a large tree on top of the cruiser, which sat on the side of the road with a cracked windshield and other damage.

The tree fell as the region was experiencing high wind gusts during Tropical Storm Lee.

In Maine, a 51-year-old motorist died after a large tree limb fell on his vehicle Saturday on U.S. 1 during a period high winds. The man was the first fatality attributed to post-tropical cyclone Lee.

In Cohasset, “This incident is an excellent example of why we always encourage people to stay indoors during these storm events,” Quigley said.

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Tree crushes Cohasset Police cruiser (Cohasset Police)

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