This article says the tree was dead. The original says the tree was dead for two years. It is no secret that dead trees are hazardous. If you look at a tree which has been dead for years, it looks like it has been dead for years.<p>IANAL, so I won&#x27;t discuss the law, but if I were operating that BNB, I would feel personally liable. It was a failure on their part to allow that tree to remain standing (let alone with a _swing on it_) and an ethical failure to take responsibility for other people&#x27;s safety without fully understanding what was involved.<p>That said, it is a human error I&#x27;ve made myself (fortunately without fatal consequence).<p>I am reminded of the parable of the young reformer and the old guard politician. The reformer wants to remove a fence which is blocking a path, because it is inefficient to detour around it and he sees no use for it. The old guard says that, regardless of inefficiency, he won&#x27;t allow the reformer to destroy something for which he sees no use, because it is very unlikely that their predecessors invested time, energy, and budget to just to frustrate his movements. Taking the fence down would invite unknown consequences on to his constituents.<p>AirBNB, Uber, and similar start ups are taking a crow bar to regulations they do not understand.