Accidents Turn Trees the Color of Money : Torrance: Claims of damage caused by city-owned trees exceed police liability and traffic-related cases.

Some Torrance residents consider them to be among the most dangerous elements in the city, buckling sidewalks and making even a stroll down the street hazardous. Other times they will shatter a car’s windshield with the slightest breeze.

The culprits?

City-owned trees. Over the past five years, they are believed to account for the highest number of claims for damages against the city, topping police liability and traffic-related cases, according city risk management supervisors.

While the greenery is a welcome, colorful addition to city streets, the trees are also something of a legal and maintenance headache.

“Some are beautiful trees,” City Manager LeRoy Jackson said. “But they will lift sidewalks or crush sewers. That’s one of the trade-offs for the aesthetics of the trees.”

Jackson lightheartedly called the wooden giants “killer trees” of the South Bay, a reference to the numerous claims that have been filed in Torrance and in neighboring cities because of trees.

City officials say they have not calculated the cost of settling such claims. But the trees have taken their toll on people who have tripped on portions of sidewalks raised by tree roots, according to city records.

Lillian Propst, 84, said three of her teeth were knocked out when she tripped over a buckled portion of the sidewalk on Monterey Street near Maple Avenue in June.

“Down I went, flat on my face, there on the sidewalk,” Propst recalled, adding that a neighbor took her to County Harbor-UCLA Medical Center for emergency treatment.

Propst, in a claim filed against the city in July, sought $3,000 for pain and suffering. The sidewalk has since been repaired, but Propst’s claim remains unresolved.

“I feel I have a right to make this claim,” Propst said. “The city should have repaired it when it was first reported.”

Besides tree roots, falling limbs have also posed a problem. Beverly Thompson, a UC Irvine student who lives in Torrance, said she awoke one morning last month to the sound of a tree limb crashing down on her car on Cranbrook Avenue. She said the limb split its convertible top in several places.

“I just thought, ‘Oh my God, my car,’ ” Thompson said. “All I saw was branches. . . . If they kept (the trees) up, they wouldn’t be a menace.”

Thompson also filed a claim against Torrance, saying officials failed to properly maintain the tree. Because of the potentially litigious nature of the claims by Thompson and Propst, city officials declined to comment on them.

Thompson’s claim was just one of many filed against the city involving falling tree limbs. Others have smashed windshields and left cars dented and scratched.

Jackson, who noted that tree-related problems are common to many cities, said about 30% of the estimated 100,000 city-owned trees have matured within the past 10 years, overtaking sidewalks and sewer lines.

The most frequent offenders have been ficus and amber trees, which were planted in large numbers by developers during Torrance’s high growth of the 1950s and 1960s.

“Unfortunately, those trees have large root systems,” said Kathy Keane, an assistant to Jackson and risk management supervisor.

As a result, Torrance five years ago launched an aggressive tree-trimming and replacement program.

“We don’t (plant) ficus trees anymore,” Keane said.

Still, officials aren’t about to make woodpiles out of their trees, either.

“The trees are what make Torrance a beautiful city,” Keane said. “The trees are a trademark of Torrance.”