A woman had a “miracle escape” after a crash left her Porsche dangling from the third floor of a car park in Florida.
The motorist’s life was saved by a tree below which stopped the vehicle plunging to the ground.
Fire crews said it appeared she had accidentally hit the accelerator of the Cayenne - worth around $106,000 (£80,000) - before crashing through the building’s wall in Coral Gables on Monday.
Aerial video from NBC News’ helicopter shows the white SUV hanging over the edge of the parking garage and wedged against the tree which held it up in San Remo Avenue, near the South Miami border.
Rescue workers used ropes to bring the woman inside to safety. She was taken to a nearby hospital in stable condition.
A “miracle” - how one tree & swiftly responding firefighters repelling off a parking garage for the rescue saved the life of a driver who they say accidentally hit the accelerator of her Porsche Monday crashing through wall of structure’s third floor. She is expected to be okay. pic.twitter.com/Y3qCLSxKvG
— Christina Boomer Vazquez, M.S. (@CBoomerVazquez) September 23, 2024
Xavier Jones, Coral Gables’s fire department division chief, said the tree “is absolutely something that produced a miracle”.
He added: “I am pretty sure that she was pretty shaken up, but looking at it from outside, she was fairly calm considering how dramatic this incident was.”
No one else was hurt, Mr Jones said.
An employee at a doctor’s office across the street reported hearing the moment of impact.
Katiana Polanco told NBC News South: “I basically heard a car peeling out, like they hit the gas by accident or trying to go really fast.
“I heard a really hard crash, so I thought it was a car crash between two cars.”
Officials used a crane to remove the vehicle. Structural engineers were called in to examine damage to the car park.
