Car falls off NYC parking garage lift, 1 dead

NEW YORK One person is dead after a car fell off a lift at a parking garage in Lower Manhattan, according to police.

CBS Station WCBS reports the accident occurred at an Icon parking garage on Barclay Street just after 8 a.m. Monday.

Emergency workers said a parking attendant was killed when an SUV rolled off the lift and crashed six feet to the ground, crushing the worker as he was standing underneath.

Shaken family members arrived at the scene escorted by police officers, as co-workers and customers stood in disbelief.

Customers told WCBS that the victim was a warm and friendly presence at the garage.

Gerard Marini, who said he has parked at the garage every day for five years, was stunned to learn the attendant - who had become a personal friend - had been killed in a tragic accident.

"It's crazy. When I couldn't get down the block this morning to park the car, I do have his cell number on me and I was going to call him to see if there was any way he could get me into the garage later or something," Marini told WCBS correspondent Kathryn Brown.

Police have not yet released the victim's name, but many said he was a hard worker with a big heart who loved baseball.

"It's hard to believe and I thought, 'Not him,'" Omar Marinavic told WCBS correspondent Paul Murnane. "I feel for him and his family."

Investigators said it's too early to know exactly what caused the car to crash off the lift.

[Aorengo11]

My god, I know his son.

[ttipbc]

Wonder if he used the parking brake? Most everyone I know doesn't use them, & when they ride with me & see me set it (even on a level spot), almost all of them ridicule me - including one friend who, years ago, parked at the top of his apartment's steep drive, only to go out to leave a short bit later & his car was gone. He went back in to call the police to report it stolen, & that's when the man who lived across the road came walking up the drive to tell him that the car was in a ravine behind his (the neighbor's) house. The car had gone backwards down the fairly steep 200' driveway, across a 4-lane highway without hitting any cars, through the neighbor's yard without hitting the house, through a fence at the end of the neighbor's drive, & where the back yard ended abruptly at a drop-off, the car had launched itself about 30' out (horizontally) - the neighbor was in the family room that had a picture window to the back yard, & when he heard the noise of the fence being obliterated, he said he jumped up to run to the side door of the house, & that's when he watched through the window as the car flew over the edge of the back yard & into the deep ravine. The car was totaled. A state trooper responded; the friend received a citation relating to not securing the vehicle, plus his insurance had to replace the neighbor's fence & repair his yard. The friend's excuse for not setting the parking brake? He said "well, the driveway is level at the top, & that's what PARK is for on the gear selector". To this day, the idiot still doesn't use a parking brake.
It's unfortunate someone died, but again, it makes me wonder if something as simple as applying the parking brake could have prevented this.