Driver shaken after unplanned exit from garage

Willowbank Fire Station senior firefighter Mark McEntyre looks on. Photo / Gregor Richardson, ODT

Emergency services workers helped a man from his car as it hung precariously from the back of his hillside garage in Normanby, Dunedin, yesterday.

Only a front wheel lodged at the edge of the garage's foundations and a partially intact wall stopped the car from falling on to the steep section below.

The driver, who accidentally reversed through the rear wall, was unharmed.

A vehicle hangs precariously from a garage after crashing through its back wall in Normanby, Dunedin, yesterday. Photo / Gregor Richardson, ODT

He was helped by neighbours who rushed to the scene and called emergency services, who assisted him from the vehicle.

Willowbank Fire Station Senior Station Officer Craig Geddes said the driver was left shaken.

''We assessed whether he was injured and when we determined he wasn't, we put a ladder in position and assisted him to make his own way out of the vehicle.''

Normanby resident Sam Thompson, who lives two houses away from the driver's property, said he heard squealing following the incident.

''One of the other neighbours saw it and came and got us,'' Mr Thompson said.

''Then we started propping up the back wall to try and stop it from falling.''

The driver did not wish to talk to media after the incident.