After their two children died in a falling tree accident, mother and father lease billboard ‘to save lots of one other life’

An Indiana mom and father are alerting folks about an ignored hazard after the tragic lack of their two younger youngsters final 12 months.

On April 23, 2022, Crystal and Brian Clark, together with their son Xander, 9 and daughter, Ziva, 8, went out to Indian Oaks, a close-by campground that the household steadily visited.

It had been pretty windy that day however the solar was shining, Crystal Clark informed Fox Information Digital.

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“I made a decision after [lunch] we should always go for a golf cart trip as a result of it was a phenomenal day,” Crystal Clark added.

After seeing some mates go for a trip, the Clarks determined to do the identical and meet up at their favourite fishing spot.

“Ziva was taking their fish off [the line] ‘trigger that was one in every of her favorites issues to do, after which she’d kiss it after which she’d toss it again within the water,” stated Crystal Clark.

“She liked every thing,” she added. 

“She liked each animal, fish or not.”

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Xander was very excited to go fishing that day, however the household determined to as a substitute go for another trip on the golf cart, with the mother and father within the entrance and the youngsters within the again, earlier than settling all the way down to fish.

“The paths are at all times open. Individuals drive their vehicles to get to their campers, so it isn’t prefer it was in a rural space that wasn’t used typically,” Crystal Clark famous.

The household had determined to make their manner again when the mother and father heard a loud noise.

“It was so loud, you did not know which course it was coming,” Crystal Clark recalled.

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“We did not know till it was too late.”

A tree had collapsed onto a Ford F-150 and the branches fell on high of the Clarks’ golf cart, which then rolled off the roof, hitting their youngsters within the again — lower than six inches behind their mother and father.

Each youngsters have been pronounced lifeless on the scene, FOX 59 in Indianapolis reported on the time.

After their youngsters’s deaths, it took the Clarks about seven weeks to return to their household’s beloved campsite. 

But whereas there, Crystal Clark shared a “loopy concept” together with her husband that she stated she’d been interested by for some time.

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“What do you consider doing a billboard with the youngsters on it to attempt to unfold consciousness to save lots of one other life?” Crystal Clark stated she informed her husband.

“You are worried about your youngsters falling out of a tree. You do not fear a couple of tree falling on them.”

Brian Clark didn’t suppose it was “loopy” in any respect.

Crystal Clark stated that in October, she reached out to an organization about promoting on a billboard, however she had a tough time at her first go.

She then took to her personal Fb web page to unfold consciousness concerning the necessity of checking timber after a storm or windy day.

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“Right this moment is a windy day. Please examine your timber. Please remember, you would save a life,” she wrote on Fb.

“The subsequent factor I do know, I get a contact from Lamar billboards,” Crystal Clark stated.

The corporate “heard what occurred,” she stated, “and have been very a lot wanting to assist us.”

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On the week of March 6, 2023, Lamar Promoting put in the Clarks’ billboard.

It reads: “Test your timber! After Storms, Heavy Rains and Windy Days. You’d save a life! Xander and Ziva Clark — killed by a falling tree 4/23/2022.”

“I bawled by eyes out at simply useful they’ve been,” Crystal Clark stated of the corporate.

After the primary billboard went up, Lamar put up 9 digital billboards throughout central Indiana, with out telling the Clarks and with out asking for any further payment — however merely “out of the kindness of their coronary heart,” Crystal Clark stated.

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The Clarks at the moment are centered on spreading their warning within the hope that “no one else has to cope with what we’re coping with,” Brian Clark informed Fox Information Digital.

“[The] backside line is simply to get anyone to suppose and examine one thing earlier than, , it occurs to them, too.”

— Brian Clark

“Crystal says it on a regular basis, ‘You are worried about your youngsters falling out of a tree. You do not fear a couple of tree falling on them,'” he stated. 

Whereas falling timber might look like a “freak accident,” they don’t seem to be as uncommon as folks suppose, the Clarks stated.

By way of their outreach, the couple stated, they’ve heard from individuals who have discovered themselves in related conditions.

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“It is simply one thing that you do not take into consideration … [The] backside line is simply to get anyone to suppose and examine one thing earlier than, , it occurs to them, too,” stated Brian Clark.

Bert Cregg, a professor within the Division of Horticulture on the Michigan State College School of Agriculture & Pure Assets, wrote in an internet article, “Broken timber and hanging tree limbs are extraordinarily harmful. Timber which are broken in storms typically have decay or different hidden defects and may drop with out warning.”

As well as, varied varieties of harm can happen to timber “from violent climate,” based on Lindsey Purcell, an city forestry specialist at Purdue College’s Division of Forestry & Pure Assets.

“All elements of the tree needs to be inspected throughout a post-storm evaluation,” Purcell famous in an informational on-line brochure about timber and storms.

The unimaginable might have occurred at Indian Oaks, however that place will at all times be filled with fond recollections of the youngsters, the Clarks famous.

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“Of the three years that we have been on the market, that was most likely essentially the most our youngsters grew,” Brian Clark stated. “Being away from computer systems, and video games and TVs … Our youngsters obtained that freedom to have the ability to be outdoors and do issues that not everybody will get to do regularly.”

The kids each liked the outside and have been very lively, their mother and father stated.

Rain or shine, their son Xander could possibly be discovered taking pictures hoops, even when it meant he was “slipping and sliding everywhere in the porch,” Brian Clark stated. 

Daughter Ziva was a aggressive gymnast with aspirations of going to the Summer time Olympics, and if that didn’t work out she would attempt to go for the Winter Olympics and be knowledgeable snowboarder, Brian Clark stated with fun.

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Xander, a 3rd grader, liked science and math and dreamed of being a scientist.

“Xander was at all times the one asking all of the questions. He at all times liked to be taught,” Brian Clark stated.

Ziva was often known as the “firecracker” of the 2.

The second-grader loved serving because the “assistant” in school by serving to her classmates with initiatives, or being the primary one to volunteer to deliver a pal to see the nurse, Crystal Clark stated. 

“She would draw out his enjoyable and he would reel her in and train her issues as effectively.”

— Brian Clark about his late youngsters

As brother and sister, the youngsters have been the proper pair and “have been stability” of one another, Brian Clark stated.

“She would draw out his enjoyable, and he would reel her in and train her issues as effectively,” he added.

Crystal Clark stated she has been amazed by the outreach and the responses the household has obtained to their story.

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Whereas they’re going to proceed to lift consciousness, the mother and father have discovered this time of therapeutic to be very emotionally and bodily draining, they stated.

“You suppose it could be simple as a result of we’re speaking about our children, however it’s additionally as a result of we have misplaced them [that it] hurts,” Crystal Clark stated. 

“We wish to discuss them however the grief of it is simply actually onerous.”

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The Clarks hope the billboards are working and that their message is stopping one thing like this from taking place to anybody else.

“We actually may have simply saved a life by placing this on the market,” stated Crystal Clark.