A minor miracle

The Herald reports:

A teenager miraculously survived with minor injuries after falling 16 storeys from his family’s Manukau City apartment through a carpark roof on to a concrete floor.

The 15-year-old was in a stable condition in Middlemore Hospital last night, three days after the 40m- to 50m-plunge from the top floor of the Proximity Apartments in Amersham Way, near the Westfield Manukau mall.

He is believed to have suffered only a broken wrist, a broken rib, a gouged leg and internal injuries. Medical experts are amazed he was not killed.

I’ve just tried to work out what speed you are probably at, after 40 metres – but my physics is too rusty so I have failed.

Suffice to say fast enough, to be very lucky to be alive.