I tried searching for an answer on Google, but the results were full of advertisements for injury lawyers.
I guess I don’t quite comprehend how it can be so dangerous. I know lots of people end up having to go to the hospital after slipping and falling on ice, and some even die. But like—how much force can there be if you were just walking?
I’ve fallen while riding a bike / rollerblading, going much faster than walking speed. I got some scrapes and bruises but didn’t need medical help. Why is ice so dangerous?
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Slipping on ice is just as dangerous as falling on a dry surface. When slipping on ice, you tend to lose your center of gravity and are more likely to fall into an awkward position. Sometimes resulting in a head injury. It doesn’t take much force to induce a major head injury which is why you see some people pass away from slipping on ice.
You’ve genuinely never slipped on ice before, your whole life? You’ll be on your butt faster than your brain can figure out what happened. Get unlucky and you’ll just crack your head on the pavement as you fall.
At the risk of sounding r/iamverybadass, I can take a hit. I’ve been in more than my share of fights (lost my share too), and I had a physically abusive father who was fighting me like an adult when I was ten years old. I’m not indestructible but as they say in boxing, I’ve got some chin. I’ve been knocked out exactly once, and that was slipping on ice in a parking lot. All I remember is feeling like my heels weren’t planted and the next thing I knew I was on the ground trying to figure out what happened. When your feet shoot out from under you that fast, there is rotational velocity in your body that you just don’t get from a simple fall. That’s what’s dangerous.
It is how fast you fall and that you usually fall backwards so it is hard to catch yourself. Further most people wear protection when doing sports but not walking. Further old people tend not to do sports where falling is a concern. An old person with poor balance can easily fall back on ice and crack their skull.
When falling on pavement, the pavement’s natural traction gives you a much higher chance of correcting your fall, or at least falling in a way that you don’t crack your walnut.
Ice doesn’t have this traction, so it’s much harder to stop falling if you slip, or adjust your fall. Also, if you’re moving at speed when falling you might slide into more danger.
Even if you don’t crack your skull open you can still easily break a bone if you fall wrong!
The first thing to consider is that not all falls will be dangerous, but every one has the potential to be very bad. Trip up and fall over or fall off a bike and the majority of the time it is only your pride that will be injured – your instincts will typically take over and protect you by doing things like putting out your arms to catch yourself and absorb the impact safely, twisting to land in a safer way, and protecting the more delicate elements like stiffening up so that your head doesn’t hit the ground.
But as evidence by emergency departments the world over, these instincts don’t always work perfectly – fall over and the weight of a falling person at the wrong angle can easily be enough to break a bone, twist an ankle, damage a muscle or crack your head off something.
Ice makes this more dangerous in two main ways. The first is that because ice is slippery, more people fall over. More people falling over means there is going to be a greater amount of injuries – even if the percentage of falls that result in injury remain the same.
Secondly though, ice does also make it more likely that you will hurt yourself. The fact that you are on a slippery surface means those instincts to protect yourself won’t always work so well – stick out your arms to catch yourself for example, and you now have to contend with the fact that your hands may also slip. On dry ground you would have caught yourself safely, however on ice where your hands slip you may still end up faceplanting and hurting yourself just the same.
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