Truck dangles from edge of building after driver loses control and crashes through wall

A Sanitation Department mechanic dangled between the third floor and eternity Wednesday after crashing a 16-ton salt spreader through the wall of a New York garage.



The driver, Robert Legall, mistakenly stepped on the accelerator instead of the brake pedal and lost control of the rig inside the sprawling Woodside repair facility shortly after 9 a.m., sending it through the wall and showering bricks and debris below. With three-quarters of the bright orange spreader hanging downward at a 45-degree angle, Legall was rescued by firefighters using a tower ladder.

"I looked up and I saw a truck coming out of the window," said John Satar, a food vendor. "[The driver] was sitting in his seat. The other workers were saying, 'Hang in there. Help is on the way.'" Legall, 56, has 10 years on the job and a clean record. He was treated at Elmhurst Hospital Center for neck and back pain.


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Sanitation Department spokesman Matthew Lippani said Legall was later given a "performance evaluation," including a Breathalyzer and urine test. The results all came back clean. "He cried all the way home," said Legall's cousin Derick Williams, 46.