Husband pays tribute to woman killed by falling tree

A WOMAN who was killed when she was hit by a fallen tree has been described by her husband as an “incredibly upbeat and generous person”.

Lynda Collins died instantly when she was struck by the tree while crossing Waterloo Road in Dublin during high winds on Thursday evening. She would have been 46 yesterday.

Her removal will take place to the Church of St John the Baptist, Blackrock, on Tuesday morning for funeral Mass afterwards at 11am.

Richard Collins said the death of his wife had been a “one in a million chance” and had left him and their three children, Georgia (14), Robert (13) and Juliana (7) devastated.

Mrs Collins (née O’Brien) was the daughter of former Fine Gael TD, government chief whip and Dublin lord mayor Fergus O’Brien.

She grew up in Ranelagh and attended Trinity College Dublin. She and her husband met while working as accountants in KPMG and had been together 21 years.

The couple worked in eastern Europe and in the UK before settling in Booterstown.

Mr Collins said his wife was noted for her desire to help other people and had volunteered for both the Barrett Cheshire homes and the Society of St Vincent de Paul while a student in Trinity College. In recent years she had done an “unbelievable job” in looking after the couple’s youngest daughter, who is epileptic.

Mr Collins said he would not have achieved his status as the finance director of Superquinn without his wife’s support. “Our plan was to pay off our mortgage and have a much easier life in our 50s together. My job has been very demanding and I wish I had spent more time with my family.

“She was a great person and I wish I had appreciated her more when she was alive.

“The support people have given us has been brilliant. It is great to hear that people care. If nobody said anything it would be a very lonely place for us.”

Mrs Collins went back to work part-time in the ESB last year. A statement from the company expressed condolences to the family and said her colleagues were “profoundly shocked and saddened by the tragedy”.

The tree, which was located on private property, blew down in a gust of wind at about 5pm on Thursday. Within seconds dozens of people had surrounded Mrs Collins to try to assist her. She was eventually freed by a Dublin Fire Brigade crew.

Former Dublin lord mayor Cllr Mary Freehill said the tragedy highlighted the need for local authorities to be able to control potentially dangerous trees on private property. “We discovered that Dublin City Council doesn’t have the power to enact such byelaws. I have been pushing this continuously,” she said.

However, a spokeswoman for the city council said it did have powers under the Roads Act to deal with trees on private property if they were potentially dangerous to vehicles or pedestrians.

She said they had received no complaint about the tree that killed Mrs Collins and described the incident as a “tragic freak accident”.