NONTHABURI: An official of the Food and Drug Administration cheated death as her brand-new vehicle narrowly avoided plunging from the fourth floor of the FDA's parking building in Muang district on Thursday.
This was the second time a vehicle fell or almost fell from the building. Last year, a pickup truck plunged from its rooftop.
The woman, who drove the brand-new Toyota C-HR vehicle, said she arrived for work at about 8am. While she was reversing the vehicle into a parking slot, she heard a bang.
The noise and the impact shocked her and she swiftly stomped on the brake pedal but she said later she was not sure whether she had really applied it.
It turned out the rear wheels of the white Toyota ran over the wheel stopper. Its rear smashed into the wall of the 4A floor.
The broken section of the wall fell on to the ground. The front wheels of the vehicle were halted by the wheel stopper and the vehicle hung on the fourth floor with its rear protruding outside.
The vehicle owner, whose name was withheld, said that she could not open the driver's door because it was crushed by a pillar. Someone managed to open another door and pulled her out of the vehicle to safety.
She said she bought the vehicle a month ago but she had years of driving experience.
On Oct 10 last year, a pickup truck plunged from the sixth floor of the same parking building when the driver started the engine in reverse while he was standing outside the vehicle.
He managed to let go off the pickup truck before it pulled him to the ground.
The wheel stopper apparently saves the vehicle from plunging.