Man, son escape death after tree falls on car

By Dale james / Selma Times – Journal

For someone who’d just come within inches of dying, Danny Jackson was remarkably calm.

Jackson, 24, was driving east on Parkman Avenue shortly after 1 p.m. Tuesday when fate intervened.

Actually, it was a very large tree &045;&045; or at least a sizeable portion of one &045;&045; that stepped in.

Robbie Bennett, who lives at 703 Parkman, was just coming out of his house at that precise moment when he heard what he describes as &uot;a very loud noise.&uot;

Here, Bennett made a sound intended to mimic the sound of a stick breaking.

He pointed in the direction of a very large branch of a very large hackberry tree lying in the middle of Parkman Avenue not 20 feet distant. The branch had snapped a nearby utility pole and it was lying in the street also. The flashing blue lights of a police cruiser warned approaching motorists of what was clearly evident: go around, you can’t get through here.

Just beyond the fallen hackberry branch sat Jackson’s car, it’s roof dented in and one side of its windshield smashed.

Jackson’s 1-year-old son, Quindarius, was riding in the backseat of the car when the branch fell.

Bennett picked up the narative from there.

Bennett called 911. Jackson called his family. They hugged. They almost cried. His brush with death over, Quindarius beamed at the attention he was getting.