Couple injured in two-story fall

Jen Lawson

Tuesday, Oct. 26, 2004 | 11:07 a.m.

Two 83-year-old tourists from Connecticut suffered critical and serious injuries respectively Monday morning after their car drove through a concrete barrier on the second floor of the Golden Nugget's parking garage and plummeted into the alley below.

A similar crash occurred in January, when an 83-year-old man drove his car off the fourth floor of the parking garage of that hotel. He and his 79-year-old wife were killed.

"Their saving grace (in Monday's incident) was that they only fell from the second floor," Metro Police Detective Bill Redfairn said.

The driver, Edward Marcinkowski, was listed in critical condition this morning at University Medical Center. His passenger, Violet Krywinski, was upgraded to fair condition this morning.

Drivers who were in front of and behind Marcinkowski's white four-door Chevrolet Impala and a hotel worker cleaning the garage told police they saw the car come around the corner slowly, then they heard it accelerate and saw it lunge forward, Redfairn said.

The car knocked the concrete barrier off the building and did a nose dive, crashing to the ground and landing on its roof about 11:10 a.m. in an alley off of Carson Avenue between First and Main streets. Witnesses said Marcinkowski did not brake.

Detectives are looking at three possible scenarios: Either the driver suffered a medical condition, the accelerator became stuck or the driver mistook the accelerator for the brake pedal.

Alcohol or foul play are not believed to be involved.

Redfairn said it appeared Marcinkowski and Krywinski are friends. Both are from Middletown, Conn. Their car had Nevada plates and was a rental from Alamo, police said.

No pedestrians in the alley or the adjacent parking lot were injured.

Although police were still investigating, Redfairn said he would not blame the Golden Nugget.

"These are freak accidents. To have two at one hotel is a fluke," he said. "It's not the hotel's fault."

Sylke Finnegan, spokeswoman for the Golden Nugget, said the garage passed routine inspection by the Las Vegas Building Department and no violations were found.

"We just want to ensure that a recent inspection of the structure satisfied code requirements, and we do routine and proper maintenance," she said.

Although the two incidents seem similar, there is one important difference: The car in January did not have an event data recorder, or "black box," and the car in Monday's incident does have one.

Metro detectives are analyzing data downloaded from the device, which show the car's speed, engine RPM, position of the gas pedal and whether seat belts were being used, among other data, in the five seconds before the crash, or from the moment the car sends a signal that activates the airbag.

Most newer cars have the devices, but not every car manufacturer allows their boxes to be read by third parties, such as police and insurance companies.

In January's incident police suspected that George Yago of Las Vegas stepped on his 2002 Toyota Camry's gas pedal instead of the brake pedal. They could only speculate as to what happened, although field work indicated their suspicions were accurate.

Several locals wandering around the wrecked car Monday muttered that they couldn't believe that this could happen a second time.

Tourists pulling suitcases on wheels down Carson Avenue stopped and looked across the street at the car, which was still at the scene several hours after the incident.

Walking right up to the yellow police tape, some videotaped police as they inspected the wreck.

Bruce Canarsky, 73, of Florida snapped photos from different angles and listened as Redfairn held a press conference.

"This is something," he said, adding that he walked down Carson past the alley just moments before the car fell. "You'd think they would have reinforced (the barriers) with cables."

Stacy Howard of Salt Lake City said she had parked her car on the second floor of the garage.

"That's why they wouldn't let us up there," she said. "How does that happen? They need to make (the barriers) stronger somehow."

Jonathan Hawkins, who was with Howard and several others, said the last time he was in Las Vegas, a few years ago, there was a shooting at the Stardust. The same night there was another shooting outside his hotel, he said. Now, on this visit, a wreck happened at the Golden Nugget.

"That's what brings us back," he said with a smile.