There were only 337 production examples of the Toyota 2000GT built. Now there’s one less. At about 9:00 am this morning in the Gokayama area of Toyama Prefecture, the classic flagship car passed under a 100-foot beech. Unfortunately, that’s the exact moment the tree came down.

The unnamed 28-year-old driver from Nara Prefecture was taken to the hospital, but his injuries were limited to cuts on his arms and legs and are not life-threatening.

The same, tragically, could not be said for the car. The Pegasus White 2000GT appears to have been a particularly clean example, with original wheels and a nice exhaust.

The tree, which grew on a slope and extended over the road, was 6.2 feet in diameter at its thickest and had rotted from the inside. Apparently, local authorities had been warned that the tree was a danger. However, the surrounding area is a historic preservation site due to the gassho houses of the nearby villages, and cutting down the tree was prohibited. Now, in an effort to preserve one piece of Japanese history another has been destroyed.

Traffic on the road was closed for three hours as the tree and car were removed. NHK has a brief video about the incident.

Sadness.

Photos courtesy of mirag, Wikipedia.