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Decaying trees removed from along road where two children died

1 min read

JEROME (AP) – A property owner has paid to remove about 60 dead or dying trees from the side of a Western Pennsylvania highway where two children in a passing car were killed by a falling tree last year.

Eight-year-old Ryleigh Friewald and her 6-year-old sister, Macayla, were killed when a falling tree landed on the car their mother was driving along Route 403 in Conemaugh Township. That’s in Somerset County about 50 miles southeast of Pittsburgh.

The girl’s mother, 27-year-old Ashley Lichty, and two younger sisters, 5 and 3, escaped injury, as did Lichty’s boyfriend, who was driving. She was eight months pregnant with his child when the tree fell on June 24.

WJAC-TV says a local tree service has recently removed about 60 rotting trees to keep them from falling, too.

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