Newport to cut down trees

Newport Beach officials announced Tuesday evening that the city will remove 100 trees in the area of Irvine Avenue where a felled eucalyptus crushed a car and killed a driver last week.

Blue gum eucalyptus will be removed along Irvine between Dover and Westcliff drives.

Irvine will be closed in both directions through 5 p.m. Thursday. Schools, businesses and residents were notified.

Dover Drive and Tustin Avenue were called likely detours, but the Newport Beach and Costa Mesa police departments were still ironing out the street closure in the area near the cities’ shared border.

Haeyoon Miller, 29, of Tustin, died Thursday after a 10-ton tree crushed her Hyundai while she waited at a stoplight.

The city of Newport Beach, which maintains the trees inside Costa Mesa city limits, hired an independent arborist to analyze the row of trees.

The arborists recommended that the trees be removed, City Manager Dave Kiff said in a statement.

—John Canalis

Twitter: @JohnCanalis