Quick answer: A Tree on a Vehicle — Removing a tree is planning before it is cutting: where the wood lands, what is under it, whether a rope or a crane takes the weight, and what is left when the crew drives away. A removal is finished when the drop zone is clear and the stump is dealt with, not when the trunk hits the ground.
Field note. What we see here is that access decides the price more than height does: a pine over a fence on a slope with no driveway costs more to take down safely than a taller tree with a clear drop, and the plan is where that shows up.
On the other hand, removal is not the only safe answer — a tree with one failing limb, or a lean that can be corrected by reduction, is often better kept and managed than gone.
A vehicle with a limb across it looks like a rescue scene and is usually a recovery scene. The distinction matters, because the two call for opposite actions. In a rescue, moving the object is urgent. In a recovery, moving the object is the most dangerous thing anyone can do.
People, then the structure, then the tree
If someone is inside and can get out under their own power, they get out away from the tree — out the far door, not the near one, and not through a window under the limb. If someone is inside and cannot get out, the call is 911 and the instruction is to stay still and stay belted, because the seat and the belt are the only things currently holding the roof off them.
Do not open the near door. A door is a stressed member of the shell once the roof is loaded; opening it removes a load path and lets the roof come down further.
Why driving out does not work
The instinct, if the engine still runs, is to reverse out from under the limb. Three things go wrong. The limb is caught on the roof and the movement drags it across the glass. The limb is caught on something behind the car and the car pulls it into the cabin. Or the car moves, the limb drops the last few centimetres, and it lands where the windscreen was.
A car is designed to absorb energy by deforming. That is good in a collision and bad under a static load, because the deformation has already happened and the remaining structure is carrying the limb with less margin than the designers intended.
Where the load sits
The A-pillar and the roof rail above the doors are the strongest part of the shell. The windscreen aperture is the weakest, and the glass contributes almost nothing. A limb resting across the roof rails is a load the shell can sometimes hold. A limb resting on the windscreen header, or a limb end punched through the glass, is a load concentrated on the one member that was never meant to take it.
Which is why the decision to cut or lift starts with a question about where the contact is, not how big the tree is.
Cutting versus lifting
If the limb is under tension — bent, wedged, or trapped between the car and the ground — cutting it releases stored energy and it will move. The direction is not always predictable, and the person holding the saw is beside it. Those limbs get lifted, or they get cut in small sections from the free end with the load controlled.
If the limb is simply lying across the roof with both ends on the ground, it is carrying almost nothing, and it can be sectioned from the top down. That is the easy case, and it is the minority.
The part nobody photographs
The car will need a damage assessment, and the assessor will want the tree in place. Photograph the contact point, the glass, the roof line, and the standing tree before a saw touches it. Then photograph the same angles after the limb is off. Two sets, same position, same distance.
The general sequence for any fallen tree is in the main article, and the recovery work on the trees that are still standing is in trees after storm damage.