Lawsuit claims brain damage from falling pine cone

A military veteran who said his skull was crushed by a 16-pound (7-kg) pine cone as he rested in the shade of a conifer grove at a San Francisco park has sued the USA government, saying employee negligence led to his injuries.

Sean Mace was napping and reading underneath a pine tree at the San Francisco Maritime National Historic Park when the 16-pound pine cone fell, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

Surely I’m not the only person who assumed that the above sign, posted to a fence at an Francisco’s Maritime National Historical Park, was a few sort of art prank, like the activities of the Billboard Liberation Front or that No Tech Zone guy.

He underwent two brain surgeries and is going to need a third.

Mr Mace was reportedly lying down in the park, waiting for the air show to begin, on October 12 a year ago when the pine cone, or “seed pod”, plummeted from the coniferous Araucaria bidwillii tree.

Court papers also say he’s been left with “severe and likely irreversible cognitive defects” after the surgery to relieve swelling caused by internal bleeding on his brain.

A man who was hit by a giant pine cone that fell from a tree in a park has launched a £3.28million lawsuit.

The cones dropped by the Australian trees can grow in excess of 14 inches (35 cm) in diameter and weigh more than 40 pounds (18 kg). Five days later, another surgery was required to further relieve pressure building inside his skull, the lawsuit reads.

In response to the lawsuit, the Park Service has already implemented changes to the park.

The trees responsible are not native to the area and were allegedly planted by the park staff. The suit says that the park failed to post any signs that would warn park goers and that it was “violating numerous park policies requiring the removal of exotic species that create safety hazards”, according to according to SF Gate. ‘This park is full of tourists and schoolchildren.