Woman was drunk and high when she fell 10 stories down trash chute in Hackensack, police say

HACKENSACK, N.J. (WPVI) -- Police say drugs and alcohol played a factor after a woman fell 10 stories down a trash chute Sunday in New Jersey.

The victim remains in the hospital on Monday with significant injuries.

Hackensack police say the 25-year-old woman was high on drugs and alcohol when she climbed into the 14th floor garbage chute at a building on Main Street around 1 p.m.

Witnesses say they heard a woman screaming as she went tumbling down several stories. She landed near the third and fourth floors after trash inside the chute slowed and cushioned her fall.

But the garbage made it tough to find and rescue her, so firefighters decided the best way to reach her was to break through walls and cut into the metal chute.

Crews had to pull mounds of garbage backs out to finally pull the woman out, feet first, and one firefighter suffered cuts from the jagged metal left from cutting into the chute.

She had been visiting someone in the building and it was apparently obvious she was under the influence, witnesses say.

But all the garbage bags appeared to help break her fall and officials say she was lucky they were there.

Police say the woman is in the hospital and she suffered significant injuries to her lower body.