Car left dangling off Auckland parking building

A Mercedes car hangs precariously over the railing of a carpark building in Shortland Street in central Auckland. Picture / Fotopress

A late model Mercedes-Benz was left dangling off the edge of a multi-storey carpark in central Auckland today after the driver overshot her park.

Senior station officer Jim MacLean from the Auckland Central Fire Station said the car was prevented from falling five storeys onto the roof of a neighbouring building by a wire hurricane mesh fence.

The front of the car and fence were extensively damaged in the incident at the Shortland St carpark, but the driver escaped injury.

He said: "She was looking quite concerned... I suspect that she may have hit the accelerator instead of the brake and that's how she came to run over the wooden barrier and into the fence."

The fire service pulled the car back from the edge before 11am.

Mr MacLean said it was a very powerful car and he could not say how close the fence came to giving way.

"However, if you are going to drive off the top of a building, a late model Mercedes-Benz would be the best one to do it in.

"I think a fall from that height would be about the equivalent of a crash at 200km/h on the German Autobahn."

- NZPA