Woman Falls 23 Stories And Lives
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — Witnesses say they saw a woman throw herself from the 23rd story of a Buenos Aires hotel Monday and survive.
The woman landed in a sitting position on the roof of a taxi whose driver got out just before the impact deeply dented his roof and shattered the windshield.
The woman, a 30-year-old Argentine, was rushed to the nearby Hospital Argerich, where she was being operated on for injuries including internal bleeding and broken hips and ribs, Alberto Crescenti, director of Argentina's Emergency Medical System, told the government news agency Telam. He estimated that she fell nearly 100 meters (330 feet).
The taxi driver, Miguel Cajal, told the C5N television station that he jumped out of the car because he saw a policeman stopping traffic and looking up. Moments later, the driver's side of the car was smashed by the woman's body.
Another taxi driver, Juan Carlos Candame, told Associated Press Television News that he saw the woman climb over a railing at the edge of the building and appear to exchange a few words with someone before jumping into the void.
"I looked up and I saw a girl that was going over the railing while another person was talking to her," Candame said. "Then she walked to the edge, went back to talk to the other person, then she turned around and she jumped."
The woman plunged from the top of the Hotel Crown Plaza Panamericano, where a restaurant overlooks the landmark Obelisk in downtown Buenos Aires.
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01/24/11 04:02 PM ET Associated Press