LILBURN, Ga. — A woman on her birthday weekend escaped without injury Sunday night near Lilburn after a tree still full of leaves came down on her car.
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Jennifer Higginbotham was taking two friends visiting from England back to their hotel around 9 p.m. on Rockbridge Road, a little past Lilburn Stone Mountain Road coming from the Lilburn area.
“It wasn’t raining, it wasn’t windy,” Higginbotham said. “There was no adverse conditions, just bam, tree.”
The trunk totaled the car, landing on the hood and windshield. Her friends went to urgent care the next morning, and she said both apparently have minor whiplash.
“There was three more feet down the road and that thing would’ve fallen on our head,” she said.
Higginbotham opened her door and stepped out immediately. She also called 911. Crews cut up the tree with chainsaws, and the car was towed.
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She said the tree stood on county property with no houses nearby.
“I really don’t know what happened,” she said. “It was so fast and there were a ton of leaves, so it definitely wasn’t dead. It’s just a fluke.”
Some neighbors told a reporter off camera they have raised concerns with Gwinnett County about trees along Rockbridge Road.
Higginbotham said she will probably watch roadside trees a bit more closely, but she hopes she will not develop a phobia.
“God is good,” Higginbotham said the day after the crash. “Not the first time I’ve felt his love and protection, and came through again.”
Gwinnett County has been asked who is responsible for inspecting trees along the road and has not yet responded.
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