FAYETTEVILLE (KFSM) – The city of Fayetteville will not pay the medical bills for the jogger who suffered serious injuries from a tree that fell on her at a Lake Fayetteville trail in November, according to a letter sent to her by the city Monday.
The letter from city attorney Kit Williams states the trail environment “contains inherent risks” and therefore the city is not financially at fault for the falling tree or the injuries to Candice Carlsen on Nov. 10.
Carlsen was released from the hospital Nov. 26 after her leg, knee and wrist were shattered by a portion of a tree that fell on her on the Lake Fayetteville trail while she was jogging. So far she has undergone three surgeries and will require several more, Carlsen said.
“It was horrible,” she said. “I heard the cracking. I couldn’t tell where it was coming from until I saw it coming down on my head.”
The incident severed an artery in Carlsen’s leg and caused compartment syndrome in the same leg. Doctors almost had to remove the leg. It remains non-functional, she said.
Carlsen expects hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical bills stemming from her treatment. She said she sent a letter to the city while hospitalized asking if they could cover her medical bills.
“It is the city’s responsibility to offer safe environments, particularly along exercise trails, as the very nature of exercise trails is for citizens to use them,” Carlsen’s letter to the city reads. “I am asking that the city do the right thing and step up and take care of all of my current and future medical expenses associated with this accident.”
The city’s response to Carlsen states, in part, “(W)ith over 60 miles of trails within the city, it is not feasible for city staff to identify every tree that poses a potential hazard, particularly during periods of excessive wind speeds. Furthermore, there was no indication that the tree was a potential hazard before the top of it broke off in the heavy wind.”
The city’s letter states wind speeds at the time were recorded between 23 and 28 miles per hour, with gusts between 37 and 40 miles per hour.
The city attorney’s letter also sites sovereign immunity, which protects the city from paying compensation concerning alleged personal injuries, unless those injuries are from misused city equipment for dangerous city infrastructure. Carlsen’s incident is not included in the exemptions, Williams states in the letter.