Man in Hanging Car Charged With DUI

A 36-year-old man saved during a daring rescue from a car that was hanging from wires between the sixth and seventh floors of a parking garage in Buckhead Wednesday night has been charged with DUI and damage to property, Atlanta Police said.

The car driven by Richard Kevin Sisson, who had been renting at condo at the Realm Condominiums where the accident happened, went through 11 5/8th-inch galvanized steel cables rated to withstand 60 mph, a board member said. Sisson's Ford Taurus did not leave a skid mark, residents told 11Alive News.

Sisson hit his head on the windshield and was going in and out of consciousness during the rescue, which took place 60 feet above the ground (Related: Photo Gallery).

Residents of the condominiums, across from the Grand Hyatt Hotel in the 3300 block of Peachtree Road, said they felt the building shake about 10:30 p.m. -- about the time the car darted off the side of the seventh floor of the parking deck.

Atlanta fire department crews had to work to secure the dangling car before reaching Sisson inside it.

"It was pretty precarious because we had the cables holding the car and we were hesitant about the cables, were the cables gonna hold the car? If we put a rescuer in the car and the car flipped, the rescuers gonna go and the ropes are gonna break at that time," said Capt. Greg Shinkle of the Atlanta Fire Department.

Firefighter Rodney Deese of the Georgia Search and Rescue Team rappelled down to Sisson from above, while fellow Search and Rescue Team members Chris Block and Rae Papendick were on ladders beneath the precariously dangling car. All three firefighters are from Squad 4, Engine 14, GSAR 6.

"We see all kinds of nutty things here but this is by far the oddest that we've come across," said condo resident Dean Anderson.

In television images, Sisson's arm was visibly dangling outside of the driver's side window and the car was shown being held up only by retaining wires from the side of the parking deck.

Sisson was pulled from the vehicle and taken to Grady Memorial Hospital in Downtown Atlanta. By Thursday afternoon, he was released from Grady and booked into the Atlanta City Jail on a $2800 bond. Sisson's first court appearance is scheduled for Friday morning.