A week into the semester, a UF graduate student and university employee has already hit the wall.
Mercedes Machado, a first-year mental health counseling graduate student, crashed her car through her neighbor’s south wall while parking the white Toyota 4Runner.
Gainesville Police left for Kensington South Condos, 3901 SW. 20th Ave., at 12:33 p.m. in response to the crash that left only the back half of Machado’s car sticking out of apartment No. 801.
Machado lives in apartment No. 802.
GPD spokeswoman Sgt. Tscharna Senn said Machado accidently stepped on the accelerator instead of the brake while she was parking.
Senn said the owners of the condo are renting out the rooms.
No one was in the apartment at the time of the accident, she said.
“Thankfully no one was injured,” Senn said.
Authorities waited to pull the car out of the apartment, because they didn’t know the damage to the structure of the building.
“She just drove into the building,” said Clint McDaniel, 28, resident of the condo complex.
He said Machado hopped the parking block and the curb before she crashed into the side of the condo.
“Her tires were screeching. I looked up, and she was in the building,” he said.
Contact Ben Brasch at bbrasch@alligator.org.
Mercedes Machado, a first-year mental health counseling graduate student, drove her car halfway into her neighbor’s condominium, Kensington South Condos apartment No. 801.
