The state Department of Occupational Health and Safety is investigating in Preston after a tree ame down on the First Selectman earlier this month.
“I think I’m very lucky. I think it was a close call,” First Selectman Bob Congdon said. “I never saw it coming, that's for sure."
On May 16, the town leader received a complaint about a branch that blocked River Road, so he showed up and cleared it himself, then another one snapped.
“I heard a loud crack like a tree breaking. That's all that I remembered,” Congdon said.
Congdon said there was no time to react and it fell right on him. Minutes later, a neighbor found Congdon lying in the street and dialed 911.
“I probably would have been there until a car went by. ... I’m very thankful,” he said.
Congdon was rushed to the hospital with severe injuries. He had internal bleeding, broken ribs and required staples in his head.
Tuesday was his first full day back to work.
“It’s incredible how much better I feel day by day,” he said.
State Representative Timothy Bowles placed the call to Congdon about the problem on the road in his neighborhood.
“I was very shocked,” Bowles said. “Any time I feel there’s an issue of that nature, I’ll be calling the foreman of the Public Works Department and not the First Selectman.”
“It is surreal that it happened,” Congdon said.
He knew the outcome could have been much worse, considering a falling tree killed a woman in East Hampton on Monday afternoon. It was a tragedy he said could have easily happened to him too.
"You hear a tree break and I don’t know if you can react fast enough to get out of the way,” Congdon said
