A 29-year-old Google software engineer was k!lled in a freak accident at Yosemite National Park when a branch from a giant sequoia tree fell and struck her on the head.
Angela Lin, who worked as a software engineer for about six years at Salesforce and then Google, was hiking on July 19 with her boyfriend and two friends on a trail that wound through the Tuolumne Grove of towering sequoias.
Suddenly a large crack sounded from above, and two seconds later, several branches from one of the famously massive trees came tumbling down, according to Lin’s boyfriend, David Hua.
“One big branch struck Angela, and then there were a bunch of smaller ones directly behind me,” Hua told SFGate.
As the branches fell, Hua said he closed his eyes and by the time he opened them, Lin was sprawled face up on the ground with blood pooling around her head.
Hua said he called 911 and performed CPR until a park ranger arrived and took over.
An ambulance eventually made it to the scene, but Lin was never placed inside.
Emergency personnel later said that the falling branch had likely k!lled his girlfriend instantly, Hua said.
“It was just unimaginable that something like this could occur,” Hua said with a shaky voice, according to SFGate.
“On such a popular trail, too.”
Tuolumne Grove, the area where Lin and her group had been hiking, was closed to visitors for about a week after her de@th.
Yosemite public affairs officer Scott Gediman told SFGate the incident is still under investigation.
Hua said Lin’s loved ones have not been able to learn more from the park service, and the frustrating experience has pushed them to go to the media.
“We are seeking more information from the park service regarding this incident, especially around trail safety, maintenance and awareness of problematic trees on popular trails, and future prevention of similar incidents,” Hua said.
Traumatized bystanders have also been frantically searching for information on Lin, with one person creating a Reddit post titled “Tuolumne Grove Incident 7/19” in hopes of finding out whether Lin survived.
“I am a tourist, but was on the scene of an extremely tragic freak accident in the area trying to provide [aid], and it has been haunting me. I can’t stop thinking about it and can’t find any news articles updating about the situation,” the user wrote in a post on the Reddit thread.
“It hits so so hard because they were doing nothing wrong or careless… Life can be so cruel.”
