Friday, January 23, 2004
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Car falls four stories from garage; two die

Detective blames freak accident on driver confusion

A car lies crushed after falling from the fourth floor of a parking garage at the Golden Nugget. Photo by John Locher. Las Vegas police examine a car lying upside down in an alley near a Golden Nugget parking garage Thursday. The car crashed through a wall and plunged from the garage's fourth floor after the driver failed to stop in a parking space. Photo by John Locher.

An elderly couple died Thursday afternoon when their car crashed through a parking garage wall in downtown Las Vegas and plunged four stories to the ground.

In what police called a freak accident, the driver of the 2002 Toyota failed to stop while pulling into a spot at a Golden Nugget garage on the corner of Carson Avenue and First Street.

Witnesses told police the car pulled into a parking spot and accelerated before jumping a concrete curb and plowing through the wall.

"Right now it just appears to be a freak accident," Detective Doug Nutton said.

The preliminary cause seemed to be confusion by the driver, he said.

The car was registered locally, but the couple's identities will not be released until the coroner's office notifies next of kin, he said.

Anthony Saunders of Seattle said he was standing outside the Greyhound bus station on Main Street when a car horn caught his attention.

"That's when I saw this white car come over the top," he said. "It was like a movie. Like a stunt."

He watched the car fall past a web of powerlines before landing on its roof in an alley.

"It was slow motion. The car did a nose dive," witness Wayne Kruppner said.

Dozens of people rushed to the car to help. They tried to flip the car over, but all it did was slide. They pulled at the doors, but they were jammed shut.

Marty Jennings, 18, said someone asked if the man inside was all right.

"He said no. He couldn't move. He couldn't breathe," he said.

Soon the would-be rescuers heard nothing.

When Las Vegas firefighters arrived, they cut open a door but found no signs of life, Nutton said.

As a small crowd gathered in an adjoining parking lot to get a closer look, police covered the flattened car under white sheets, and Golden Nugget security guards cleared onlookers from the parking garage.

Jennings returned to the bus station to wait for his ride back to Kansas City, Mo., and talked about his part in the failed rescue.

"I feel kind of bad, kind of helpless," Jennings said. "I was there trying to save that guy's life, and I couldn't do anything."