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In a second update by the National Parks Board (NParks) in the evening of Feb. 18, the agency said that Marsiling Park remains open and safe for members of the public to visit.

This statement comes after a freak accident that happened earlier in the morning where a 20m tree fell onto a woman who was exercising in the park at around 8:15am.

All remaining trees at Marsiling Park checked

Leong Chee Chiew, the Commissioner of Parks and Recreation of NParks, said that all trees at Marsiling Park have been checked on Feb. 18 following the accident, as a precaution.

The 20m tall Araucaria excelsa, resembling a pine tree with a girth of 1.3m, was about 20 years old.

The tree was last inspected in April 2020 and was found to be healthy back then.

The next inspection was supposed to be held in October 2021.

After checking the remaining trees in the park on Feb. 18, the park is safe for the public to visit, NParks assured.

Woman identified as Mediacorp staff

NParks is investigating the cause of the fall.

According to Yahoo, the deceased was a 38-year-old woman who worked in Mediacorp as a senior technical coordinator with the studios team.

Friends of the deceased told The Straits Times (ST) that she started exercising recently as part of her New Year resolution.

ST also reported that the woman was wearing noise-cancelling earbuds while she was jogging, as such, she likely did not hear the loud crack of the falling tree.

Trees are pruned and checked more frequently during bad weather

NParks added that its tree management regime is formulated based on international standards determined by the International Society of Arboriculture (ISA).

Trees in Singapore are generally inspected in six to 24 months, depending on the age and locality of these trees.

During adverse weather conditions, tree inspections are more frequent to reduce the risk of tree failure incidents. Mature trees are also pruned, including crown reduction and crown thinning, to reduce the wind resistance of the entire canopy.

"As an added precaution, we introduced advanced inspections on trees more than 4m in girth since November 2016," NParks said.

Overall, the number of annual tree incidents has dropped from 3,100 cases in the year 2001 to about 420 in 2019 and around 340 cases as of end-2020.

Top image via Google Maps by woelly william