Woman Whose Car Broke 400-Foot Fall Backpedals

Friday, 03 September 2010 | by Pat's Picks

Talk about backpedaling. The woman whose Dodge Charger broke the fall of a man trying to commit suicide by jumping from a 40-story building in Manhattan earlier this week says her comments about the tragic accident were distorted. Yesterday, Maria McCormack complained to the New York Post that she’d had an oil change and filled the car—her “baby”—with gas the day it was totaled. Today, she put the brakes on her pity party writing on the paper’s website,“I have not slept since this has happened. My heart and prayers go out to the family.” The Post denies that it misrepresented the woman’s words saying she “dron[ed] on about her car to a reporter in three conversations.”

Friends of the 22-year-old man whose 400-foot fall totaled McCormack’s car were “furious” over her seemingly flippant attitude.  One comment in particular seemed to sum up the collective animosity: “I truly hope she steps back and realizes how foolish it is to prize a vehicle over a human life.”

Read McCormack’s original interview with the Post and her initial reaction from Thursday’s edition.