Man in hospital after 11-story fall

SAN FRANCISCO — A worker who fell 11 stories from a San Francisco building onto a moving car — crushing its roof and sending shattered glass flying into the street — survived but was in critical condition.

The man fell screaming from the roof of a downtown building Friday but was conscious when paramedics reached the area, police said.

He remained in critical condition at a San Francisco Hospital on Friday night, officials 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.

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,” said Bahman, 31, a premedical student at San Francisco State University who was on her way to the gym.

The man, identified by police only as a 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.

The man worked for Concord, Calif.-based Century Window Cleaning, said Peter Melton, a spokesman for the California state division of occupational safety and health.