Click on picture to enlarge and view caption.

By Andrea Gemmet

Almanac Staff Writer

The driver of a silver Toyota who was injured when the top of a redwood tree crashed through his windshield as he was driving on Santa Cruz Avenue in Menlo Park on Monday has been identified as Mohammed Nizam of Hayward.

Mr. Nizam was taken to Stanford hospital, according to Officer Tony Mendoza of the Menlo Park Police Department. He was treated and discharged.

The accident occurred near Hillview Middle School at around 10:30 a.m.

After being struck by the tree, the car, emblazoned with the Discovery Cab Co. logo on its doors, crashed through the wooden fence in front of David Eline's home on Santa Cruz Avenue, and then through a chain link fence into his neighbor's front yard. It came to rest only a couple of yards away from the car parked in the home's driveway.

"I heard the crash of the tree limb literally going through the car, and then I heard the crash of the car going through the fence," Mr. Eline told The Almanac.

He said a strong gust of wind snapped the treetop with an audible popping sound. The tree is one of a stand of large redwoods at the corner of Olive Street and Santa Cruz Avenue, opposite Hillview Middle School.