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That’s a helluva place to hang out!
A 16-ton salt spreader blasted through the fifth-floor wall of a Queens Sanitation Department garage yesterday and came within inches of plummeting 50 feet to the street.
The driver survived the spectacular 9:30 a.m. crash, which sent bricks and debris raining down on cars parked outside the Maspeth repair facility — but spent 15 terrified minutes dangling in the cab of the bright orange vehicle.
PHOTOS: TRUCK SMASHES THROUGH WALL
“I heard a loud bang and turned, and I saw this truck sticking out of the side of the building,” said Frank Almona, who owns a nearby repair shop.
“The driver was screaming like crazy. He was saying, ‘Help! help! help!’ He was hanging on. He looked like he was in shock.”
It’s unclear why driver Robert Legall — a 10-year Sanitation vet with a clean record — lost control of the big rig.
“There are signs up there warning drivers to slow down,” said Commissioner John Doherty. “He’s familiar with the rules. We think it was just an unfortunate accident.”
The spreader belongs to the Department of Correction and is used on roads at Rikers Island.
It was brought to the facility at 52-35 58th St. for winterization. Legall is a mechanic who was apparently moving the vehicle into a repair bay.
The vehicle wound up hanging about three-quarters of the way out of the building at a 45-degree angle to the ground. It was kept from falling because the back of the truck got pinned against the garage ceiling.
Legall was eventually pulled to safety though the truck window by firefighters in a cherry picker from the FDNY’s Ladder Co. 163.
He was taken to Elmhurst Hospital in stable condition.
The 10-year-old truck, which cost about $230,000 new, was declared a total wreck and pulled back into the building with the help of tow trucks and a crane at about 3:30 p.m.
Additional reporting by C.J. Sullivan