A lucky man

We won't be buying a Lotto ticket this weekend; we reckon that the first prize has already been allocated - the Dom-Post reports:

Landing on a parked car probably saved the life of an abseiler who fell five storeys while cleaning a high-rise building, says a paramedic who treated him at the scene.

The Labour Department is investigating what caused the window cleaner to plummet from the eighth storey of the Corrections Department's 14-storey Mayfair House off Aurora Tce into a third-floor car park below.

He was taken to Wellington Hospital with suspected back, leg and pelvis injuries, but was later found to have escaped with simply a dislocated toe.

This bloke had someone watching over him. He was fortunate to have an encounter with a car, although the car's owner might not be feeling so lucky. The outcome could have been far worse - read on:

Wellington Free Ambulance team manager Kate Worthington was one of the first to arrive yesterday after the man fell from his rope into car park No93 soon after midday at the site near The Terrace.

She said she had seen people die in falls from shorter distances. "It's really been quite a fortunate day for him.

"He's free-fallen ... and the way the building's positioned there's a row of car parks at the bottom, and he's struck one of the parked cars with his leg, which was enough to slow him down.

"He's certainly been injured, but nowhere near as badly as he could have been."

Paramedics cut the man free from his abseiling harness, fitted a neck brace and stabilised him on a rigid stretcher to minimise potential spinal injuries.

Mrs Worthington said the man was lucid and able to talk to paramedics after his fall.

"He was being quite brave. I would have been performing far more than that in his situation.

He is a lucky man indeed. We'll have to wait until next week for our Lotto boat to come in!