Driver hurt after car plummets from edge of mall parking lot to the street below

A driver has been hospitalized after driving straight through the guardrail of a parking garage and landing their car upside down on the street below, police said.

The incident happened on Monday at the Harlem Irving Plaza Mall in Norridge, Illinois -- some 15 miles northwest of downtown Chicago -- when officers from the Norridge Police Department as well as the Norwood Park Fire Protection District were dispatched to the 4000 block of Octavia to reports of an overturned vehicle with the driver trapped inside, according to a statement from the Norridge Police Department.

In a photo shared by authorities on social media, emergency response vehicles can be seen surrounding the upside-down vehicle with several responders on their hands and knees near the driver’s side of the car as the parking garage’s guardrail can be seen torn from the side of the building, cascading down to the street below.

It is currently unclear what might have caused the incident, and the driver has not yet been identified by authorities.

“Norwood Park Fire extricated the driver and transported them to Lutheran General Hospital for non-life threatening injuries,” police said.

The driver is expected to survive and the investigation into the accident is currently ongoing.