Man Survives 16-Story Fall With Broken Leg

Police say a Wisconsin man is lucky to only have a broken leg after falling nearly 16 stories from a Minneapolis hotel.

Police say 29-year-old Joshua Hanson crashed through a window at the Hyatt Regency and landed on a roof overhang near the hotel's main entrance.

Minneapolis police Lt. Dale Barsness said that Hanson must have "an angel on his shoulder or something. ... He's a lucky guy," reports the Minneapolis-St. Paul Star-Tribune.

A resident of Blair, Wis., Hanson had come to Minneapolis with several friends to take part in a dart tournament at the hotel this weekend, reports the Star-Tribune.

Police say he and two friends were drinking before they returned to the hotel — and they might have been horsing around as an elevator took them to the 17th floor.

For some reason, Hanson ran toward a floor-to-ceiling window. Police say he apparently lost his balance and crashed through.

It appeared Hanson fell forward from the side of the building a few feet and then landed through the awning of the overhang, which is a floor up from the street. Shards of broken glass were littered around the collapsed area where he fell, reports the Star-Tribune.

When rescue crews arrived, firefighters had to first extricate him from the awning and metal grating while paramedics worked to stabilize him, said Assistant Fire Chief Ulie Seal. He was strapped into a backboard and brought down to the street in a fire truck basket, he said. Hanson was conscious and communicating as he was taken off the overhang, according to the police report, reports the Star-Tribune.

"This has never happened before," Tom Mason, general manager of the Hyatt, told the Star-Tribune. The window was double-paned, and there was a safety bar in front of the glass, he said. Hotel officials will be investigating the windows there and "will take whatever steps we have to do to ensure safety," he said.