21-year-old man drives car off 7th floor of casino parking lot; cops call wreck a suicide
A 21-year-old Pennsylvania man committed suicide by driving his car off the top level of a parking garage at a casino, police said. The Lehigh County Coroner's Office said Robert Jamison, of Lower Macungie, died at a hospital hours after the crash, which occurred at around 9 a.m. on Tuesday at the Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem.
Witnesses said a dark green Ford Escort crashed through a barrier of steel bars and cables on the garage's seventh floor, soared for several seconds and then crashed nose-first onto the ground.
After the impact, the car tipped back onto its tires, witnesses said.
No one else was injured, although one witness told WFMZ television that Jamison's car slammed into the pavement just three car lengths away from another vehicle.
Firefighters pulled him out of the car and he was taken to St. Luke’s Hospital in Fountain Hill, where he died from massive blunt force injuries.
Cops believed Jamison killed himself because he had to have floored the gas pedal in order to break through the barriers.
"It's not likely that he rolled out of a spot," Bethlehem Police spokesman David Kravatz told The Express-Times newspaper.
Sands officials said that Jamison was a guest at the casino, but they didn't know whether he lost money or ran into any trouble.