Tree Fell on Your Driveway: What to Do Right Now

Stand clear of the trunk, the root plate, and every limb, and look up before you walk anywhere near it. A fallen tree is rarely finished moving. The part on the ground can be resting on a limb that is still under load, and the canopy overhead may still be holding broken branches that have not dropped yet.

Do not walk up the trunk to inspect the far end. Do not step over it to reach the car. Walk the driveway edge, or the lawn, and keep a distance at least equal to the height of whatever is still standing.

Nothing about a downed tree is stable until someone has looked at what is holding it up.

If the tree is touching a power line, or a line is down anywhere in the tangle, stop and call the utility first. That call comes before any call about the driveway, because the driveway is not the problem until the wire is handled.

Check for a wire, check whether anything is trapped under the trunk, and check whether the tree is still connected to the ground by its roots. Those three answers decide who you call and in what order.

1. A wire. Any contact between the tree and an overhead or downed line means the utility gets the first call. Do not touch the tree, the car, a metal gate, or a fence that could be energised.
2. What is underneath. A car, a trailer, a fence, a mailbox, a gas meter, a well head, or a person. A person under a trunk is a 911 call, not a tree call.
3. The root plate. If the trunk is still attached to an upturned disc of soil and roots, the tree can rock or roll back. If the trunk is severed clean from a stump, it is lying where it fell.

Take photos from a safe distance before anything is moved. Those photos are what an insurance adjuster and a tree crew both want to see, and they cost you nothing to take while you wait.

You can clear small limbs and brush by hand, and you should leave the trunk and anything under tension to a sawyer. Limbs under an inch or two across, lying flat on pavement with nothing on top of them, are safe to drag aside with gloves on.

The trunk is a different job. A tree lying across a driveway is usually supported at two points, the stump end and whatever it landed on, and the middle is carrying load. Cutting the wrong spot releases that load and the trunk drops, kicks sideways, or pinches the bar. A limb bent under the trunk is a spring: cut it and it can throw back at chest height.

If a car is under the tree, do not drive it out and do not start cutting around it. A branch resting on sheet metal can shift the moment the weight above it changes, and a windshield is not a structure.

Call the utility if a wire is involved, call 911 if someone is hurt, and call a tree removal service for the tree itself. Say the address, say whether any line is down, say whether a vehicle or structure is under the trunk, and say whether the tree is still rooted.

That last detail changes the equipment and the plan. A tree that has tipped but not separated has to be worked from the top down or pulled against its lean. A tree that has snapped off at the stump is a bucking and hauling job. If you can say which one you are looking at, the person on the phone can tell you what to keep clear of before anyone arrives.

Driveway work in this part of Ohio tends to involve the same few species: silver maple, pin oak, honey locust, and the occasional willow. Maples and willows are the ones that come up by the roots in wet ground, which is why the root plate matters so much here.

Do not burn anything on the driveway while you wait, and do not park a second car where a limb could reach it. Keep the path to the house clear so nobody has to duck under the trunk to get in or out.

The price of removing a tree from a driveway depends on access, the size and species of the trunk, how much of it is under load, and what it is resting on. There is no honest number to give over the phone, because the same tree costs different amounts depending on whether a truck can reach it and whether a car has to come out from under it first.

Ask what the job includes before you agree to anything:

• Is the trunk cut into firewood lengths and left, or hauled away?
• Is the stump ground, or does it stay at driveway level?
• Is the driveway swept and blown clean afterward?
• Does the price change if a wire has to be dropped by the utility first?
• Is the estimate written, and does it name what is excluded?

Ask for the quote in writing and ask what happens if the trunk turns out to be hollow. A hollow maple weighs far less than it looks and behaves differently under a saw, and that is a conversation worth having before the work starts, not during it.

If you want the wood, say so at the start. If you do not, say that too, because hauling and disposal is part of what you are paying for.

Wire first, people second, tree third, car last. Work down that list and nothing on it gets worse while you wait.

1. Move everyone inside or to the far side of the house, away from the lean.
2. Call the utility if any line is down or touching the tree.
3. Call 911 if anyone is trapped or hurt.
4. Photograph the scene from a safe distance.
5. Call a tree removal service and describe the trunk, the load, and what is underneath.
6. Leave the trunk alone until someone who works with saws and rigging has looked at it.

If you are in Akron and a tree is down across your driveway, call us at the number on this page and describe what you are looking at. We will tell you what to keep clear of, and we will tell you what the job involves before anyone touches it.