It is not on the road yet, but will be soon. This box elder has been deteriorating for several years. Only a few viable watersprouts remain within about ten feet of the ground. All limbs above are gone, leaving only this decomposing trunk. Several more similarly deteriorating trunks, with more or even less of their associated canopies remaining, are barely standing nearby. Most succumbed to an unidentified pathogen a few years ago. Some were dead prior to that. This one is special because such a significant portion of its upper trunk has broken off, and now remains suspended by the unbroken portion of the same trunk and the collective canopy of adjacent bay trees. This would not be such a concern if this broken portion of the trunk was not suspended so closely to the busy road below. (The picture above shows where the trunk broke. The picture below shows its proximity to the road below.) I suspect that when the broken portion of trunk eventually falls through the canopy of bay trees, the heavier basal end will fall first, and guide the lighter upper portion to land closer to the base of the remaining trunk, and safely away from the road, but I can not be certain until it actually happens. Those who maintain the road will not remove the broken portion of trunk until this does not actually happen, and the debris instead falls into the road. I can do nothing about it because I can not direct how the broken portion of trunk will fall once it is dislodged, and the traffic on the road is nearly constant during the day. It would be safer with a crew to stop traffic while the trunk is removed, and even better if they remove all of the several decaying trunks.