38-year-old woman dies after being trapped under fallen tree at Marsiling Park

SINGAPORE — A 38-year-old woman died on Thursday (Feb 18) morning after she was pinned under a fallen tree at Marsiling Park in Woodlands. 

The deceased has been identified as Dag Loke Xiao Li, national media network Mediacorp said in a statement on Thursday.

She was a senior technical coordinator at news channel CNA's studio and had worked for Mediacorp for almost six years.

“We are deeply saddened by the passing of our colleague… We have reached out to her family to offer our condolences and support,” the company said.

“She was someone that many of her teammates and colleagues looked up to. We are also providing support to our staff who are affected by this tragic loss.”

In a statement, the police said that they were alerted at 8.15am to an incident involving a woman who was trapped under a fallen tree at the park. 

Police officers at the scene found the woman motionless. 

The Singapore Civil Defence Force, which was also alerted to the incident around 8.15am, said that it used cutting equipment to extricate the woman from under the tree. A paramedic pronounced her dead at the scene.

Dr Leong Chee Chiew, commissioner of parks and recreation at the National Parks Board (NParks), said that the fallen tree was a 20m-tall Araucaria excelsa, also known as a star pine tree, with a girth of 1.3m.

It was found to be healthy based on the most recent inspection in April last year.

“We are investigating the cause of the tree fall,” Dr Leong said. “We are sad that there was one fatality. Our priority now is to accord assistance to the family of the deceased.” 

When TODAY arrived at the park at 12.20pm, the fallen tree was still there and the area surrounding it was cordoned off. Officials were also seen examining the tree.

The police are investigating the unnatural death.

In February 2017, a 270-year-old Tembusu tree toppled at the Singapore Botanic Gardens, killing a 38-year-old woman attending a public concert there.

Radhika Angara, an Indian national, died after the tree — last inspected in September 2016 and deemed healthy — collapsed. It crushed her and injured four others, including her husband and one-year-old twins.

A coroner ruled Angara’s death a tragic misadventure in 2018, saying that no one, not even experts, could have anticipated the tree falling and causing her death. 

Her husband last year brought a lawsuit against NParks for negligence in relation to Angara’s death.