Screams erupt as light pole falls on boy, his nanny sitting in hammock at Oregon park

A child and his nanny were injured when a heavy light pole fell on them in an Oregon park, local media reports.

The incident happened on June 23, when the boy and his nanny were sitting on a hammock tied between the pole and a tree in Portland’s Irving Park, KOIN reported.

Seemingly out of nowhere, the pole collapsed on the two of them, KATU reported.

Bystanders heard “a loud crash and screaming,” KPTV reported.

Aliya Smyth, who was at the park with her 6-year-old child, told KPTV the incident was “traumatic to see,” and that she feared the boy had been killed.

“There were people helping out, trying to lift the pole, it’s really heavy — it looks like it’s made of cement,” Smyth told the outlet. “There was somebody giving him CPR.”

Another witness, Debbie Frank, told KATU that there was “a lot of screaming.”

“What I learned was a well-meaning nanny, doing something fun, had hooked up one side of the hammock to the lamp post and one side to a tree,” Frank told KATU. “Figured that it would hold the weight. It didn’t.”

The boy and his nanny were both taken to a hospital nearby, Portland Fire & Rescue told KOIN. The boy was “seriously injured,” officials told the outlet.

In a statement, Portland Parks & Recreation told KATU that the agency is investigating the incident, and that it’s a violation of city code to mount things to structures in city parks.

Signs in the Portland park where the incident occurred now warn passersby that the poles could be unstable, KPTV reported.

Portland Fire & Rescue and Portland Parks & Recreation did not immediately respond to requests for comment from McClatchy News.

This story was originally published June 29, 2022 at 5:26 PM with the headline "Screams erupt as light pole falls on boy, his nanny sitting in hammock at Oregon park."