Woman paralyzed after freak hammock accident

Thanks, I'm getting ready to start hammock camping and this will be in my mind while selecting trees.

Is there good ways to "test" the tree? The summer shouldn't be too hard but it is cooler here in FL so that is when I plan to head out. By then the leafs will all have fallen and the live trees will look like the dead ones.

What's "freak" about putting a shear load on an obviously dead/rotten tree trunk, and not expecting structural failure?  Observation, and common sense, might have averted this unfortunate incident...

Ouch.... IIRC there was another incident recently where a hammock was attached to an old chimney. The strain pulled the chimney onto the hammocker.
Just be careful whatever you attach it to.

Not sure where you're reading into the "obviously" dead/rotten part.  You can find plenty of trees with green leaves, healthy looking bark, etc. - which are rotten on the inside as the article suggests. 

To the first response - I'm no expert, but beyond the obvious (bark peeling off, dead branches, cracks, mold/moss/etc.), a lot of people consider the perfect tree to be one that you can wrap your arms around and touch your elbows.  Trees that size are small enough that they won't be rotted out, strong enough to hold you, small enough to be flexible and not produce branches which could kill you if they fell.

To this, and a "how can you tell ?" post --- the OP spec'd a birch tree as the failing hammock anchor... Most dead trees are pretty obviously dead, regardless of season, because they're, well, obviously "dead". Birch, however, with its rot-resistant bark (which makes the almost perfect tinder), can conceal an unsound trunk beneath bark.  Any woodsman would know this, and also observe the tree, and probably test its integrity with a thunk or two with axe poll or etc. before relying on its structural integrity. Ignorance is dangerous, often punished...

Most hammock campers would or should just avoid birch trees altogether.