Bad parking job leaves car dangling from Austin garage

[September 10, 2016]  By Jon Herskovitz

AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - A man who failed to stop when pulling into a rooftop spot of a nine-story parking garage in Austin, rammed through protection wires and avoided a deadly fall when one wire wrapped around an axle, leaving the car dangling on the building's side on Friday.

The 24-year-old man, who was not identified by police, was pulled to safety back into the garage. He said he was unable to stop the vehicle that went off the top of the building and flipped over until it was caught by a wire, police said.

"The driver was (miraculously) able to climb out of the sunroof and make his way safely back into the garage," the Austin Fire Department wrote on its Facebook page.

The man was not injured.

"I have a strong feeling the driver is going to have a great appreciation of what it means to be alive from this point forward," said James Davis, 29, a cellphone software developer who was one of about 100 people watching the car dangling.

The car was eventually lowered to street level by firefighters who used a wiring system to slowly move it.

Firefighters lower a car from a nine-story parking lot in Austin, Texas September 9, 2016 after the driver broke through protective wires while parking on the roof and the vehicle avoided crashing to the ground when one of the wires attached itself to the axle. REUTERS/Jon Herskovitz

"From what we understand, the driver accidentally hit the gas instead of the brake," the department said.

(Reporting by Jon Herskovitz; Editing by Andrew Hay)

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