Vehicle goes through wall of top level of parking garage

By Ian Gufstafson

A motorist had a lucky escape after hitting the surrounding wall around the top floor of a parking garage near the McIntosh Mall in Prince Albert on Thursday.

Large chunks of wall from the upper level fell three storeys to the ground below. The area has been cordoned off.

Kelley Moore, who oversees property management for all government-owned buildings in central and northern Saskatchewan, told paNOW the incident happened first thing Thursday morning.

Moore explained an employee of the McIntosh Mall drove to work and when they went to park, they accidentally accelerated instead of hitting their brake and made contact with the barrier. The front wheels of the vehicle went over the edge and the vehicle came to a stop.

She said no one was injured and police were then called in to secure the area. The vehicle was removed by a tow truck.

She said luckily the car didn’t go over the edge any farther than past the front wheels.

“We’re just very grateful it wasn’t more serious,” she said.

She said the parking garage is still safe to use and they’ve barricaded the area where the incident happened and where the wall fell on the ground.

“As people are leaving the building once all of the vehicles have been removed then the top floor will be blocked off and nobody will be able to go up to that area,” she said.

A temporary barrier is being constructed until they can permanently fix it and an engineer will be visiting the site Friday to look at it. They will not know the cost for repair until after the assessment.

“This building was built in the 1980s and what we will determine it is if any further work is required, not just to fix that area but overall, for the entire structure,” Moore explained.

Editors note: This story has been amended to include information provided by the Government of Saskatchewan.