3 March 2017 Last updated at 16:27 GMT
The 80-year-old Monterey Cypress tree was cut down at a house on a road alongside Archbishop Benson School in Truro, Cornwall.
Cornwall Council is investigating the accident and has written to the house owner summoning him for an interview under caution.
The house owner could not be reached for comment.
Parent Shelley Bishop saw the tree come down with her children: "Luckily nobody was in the car but in theory children could have been crossing there, or walking on that piece of pavement.
"If somebody had been stood there they would have been crushed."
Parents are angry that a large tree was cut down, falling across a pavement near a primary school at its closing time.