Speaking Of Living On The Edge...Miracle

Just answer me this...how did that happen?!

Man dangling in car 7 stories high, rescued

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Emergency workers rescued a man trapped inside a car teetering seven floors above the ground after it fell off the edge of a parking deck in Buckhead Wednesday night.

Steel cables on the side of the deck caught the car, but just barely. All four wheels appeared to be free of the deck as firemen and emergency workers struggled to reach the man.

Brant Sanderlin/AJC (ENLARGE)

Onlookers on the ground applauded the rescue at the parking deck, which is attached to the Realm condominiums in the 3300 block of Peachtree Road in Buckhead.

The driver was conscious as he was pulled from the car and taken away on a stretcher. Onlookers on the ground applauded the rescue at the parking deck, which is attached to the Realm condominiums in the 3300 block of Peachtree Road in Buckhead.

To reach the car without dislodging it, emergency workers went to the deck's top floor, one story above the car, and rappeled down the side of the building.

They reached into open windows to slip a safety harness on driver, who was the sole occupant of the car, said an Atlanta Fire Department spokesman.

The driver's condition wasn't immediately known.

Because of the way the car was hung in the cables, rescuers were unable to open the car's doors and instead reached through open windows to get to the man.

"The firefighters did a great job I'll have to give them that. That's a very unusual rescue."

said Lt. Bob England of the Atlanta Police Department.

England said the car's airbag deployed, but the man hit his head on the windshield, knocking him unconscious and keeping him still while the first rescuers on the scene studied the precarious situation.

"It looks like he sped up the ramp and went right through the wires," England said. "The wires did what the wires are supposed to do."