San Francisco window washer falls onto moving car

AP Photo/Sudhin Thanawala Police and citizens look over a car that has a caved in roof after a window washer fell at least 11 stories onto a moving vehicle in San Francisco, Friday, Nov. 21, 2014. Police say a San Francisco window washer has survived the fall.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) A worker fell screaming 11 stories from the roof of a bank building Friday morning onto a moving car, crushing its roof and sending shattered glass flying into the street, police and witnesses said.

The man suffered critical injuries, but he was conscious, police said.

The car's driver, Mohammad Alcozai, was not injured. He told KGO-TV that he's happy to be alive especially after his car's roof almost completely collapsed in the accident. He said he is praying that the worker survives.

"I'm very happy that I wasn't hurt," Alcozai told the news channel shortly after the accident. "Hopefully he can make it. I pray for him that he can make it."

Alcozai said he saw something hit his car shortly after making a left turn.

Witnesses described seeing a blue streak and the man's shadow as he fell and then hearing shattering glass as he hit the car and then rolled onto the ground. The roof of the car, a green Toyota Camry, was smashed in, and the rear windshield shattered.

Bianca Bahman, who was on the corner where the man fell, said she looked up to see his shadow and ran for cover.

"As he was coming down, he was definitely screaming," Bahman, 31, a pre-medical student at San Francisco State University who was on her way to the gym, said. "It all happened so quickly. It was so instantaneous."

The man, identified by police only as window washer, was moving equipment on the roof of a bank building in the heart of San Francisco's financial district and not on a window-washing platform when he fell, San Francisco police Sgt. Danielle Newman said. The platform was on the ground at the side of the building, and cables were hanging from its sides. It was not clear whether the man was setting the platform up, but he was working with a partner, police said.

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San Francisco window washer falls onto moving car