How do I walk on the ice or snow safety?
With the changing of the seasons, the wintertime usually brings with it the arrival of snow and ice at some point (unless you live in the Sahara desert!). For a lot of people (especially younger children) snow or ice signifies playtime and fun, the sledge or toboggan will be pulled from the back of the garage, and they will be sledging down the nearest hill or steep incline as soon as possible, friendly snowball fights will start, snowmen will be built.
For the rest of us snow, then ice means something completely different, with the cold weather comes an increase in the risk of accidents, I have actually broken my arm by slipping on ice, it was very painful, whilst recovering I had a hair-brained idea that would involve inventing ant-slip footwear which would melt the ice as I walked on it, unfortunately this would need mini power stations in my shoes to create enough heat to melt the ice!.
For walking on just snow, you could just acquire a pair of snowshoes, these have been used by Eskimos and communities living in arctic areas for thousands of years. They basically look like tennis rackets that attach to your feet and allow you to distribute your weight over a bigger surface area, thus stopping you from sinking into the snow whilst walking. Unfortunately these don't really work for walking on ice.
There are a number of things you can do to reduce the risk of slipping on ice, or reduce the risk of injury if you do slip or skid.
The first thing you need to do is ask yourself the question "Do I really need to go out in this weather?", if you are lucky enough to be able to work from home when it has been snowing, then you should do. With the advent of the Internet there is now no need to make the slippery trek to the supermarket, all your food shopping can be done online and delivered to your front door, this is especially good for senior citizens and OAP's who are more susceptible to slipping on the ice and being injured.
If you, like me, have to rely on cars, buses, trains or another form of public transport to get into work, I would strongly advice you have a back-up transport plan incase of the bad weather causing delays and cancelations, the train service in the UK is especially hit when he have snow and Icey weather, imagine being stuck in London and all your trains home have been cancelled due to ice forming on the train tracks, are there buses you can use, can somebody in car car pick you up, have you got friends you can stay with in such an emergency?. BE PREPARED!!!
The footwear for walking on ice needs to be chosen carefully, you should avoid shoes with high heels or flat soles, the best sort of anti slip ice gripping shoes are the ones with grooved soles or a type of non-slip rubber.
Another thing you can do to reduce the risk of slipping on the ice is try some ice grips for shoes, these are basically anti-slipshoe attachments that grip to the soles of your shoes or boots, they have a number of spikes that grip the ice when you are walking and aid traction. When I use my own shoe ice grips I tend to have them attached to a secondary pair of shoes, this enables me to swop them when I am entering and leaving buildings, swopping the shoes is a lot easier than taking the ice gripping attachments on and off all the time.There are a number of different types of shoe ice grips available, three of the most popular are Yaktrax (commonly miss-spelt Yak tracks), Stabilicers and Kahtoola Microspikes. The ice grippers can be attached to most types of shoes including work boots,trainers and everyday shoes, there are even special anti slipshoe grips that fit high heels!.
You should make sure you are wearing thick clothing, this will help absorb the impact of the fall if you slip, a good heavy parka style coat or thick padded jacket is ideal as a top layer.
If you do decide to venture outside keep an eye on the ground for changes to the ice or snow patterns, assume that all dark and wet areas have ice patches and there may be a danger of slipping. Try to stick to areas and pavements that you are used to walking on, don't take shortcuts across areas you don't usually use and try to find grassy edges to walk on as much as possible.
When you are walking on ice, there are a number of balancing techniques you can use to minimise the risk of slipping and falling. Firstly, make sure you are walking as flat footed as possible and bend your body slightly, this will enable your centre of gravity to increase. Another good ice walking tip is to extend out your arms to your sides, this will help you maintain your balance, also you should slightly point your feet towards each other whilst walking, this may look a bit funny to anyone else, but will help improve your centre of gravity. Take small and as short steps as possible when walking on ice and snow, again this will aid stability, if you do unfortunately start to fall, try and fall and land on the fleshy side of your body, you must avoid falling on your spinal area, joints, wrists and knees (these are your weak spots), also try and relax all your muscles when you are falling.
Although ski poles are obviously used for skiing, they could offer a lot of support whilst walking through the snow, they allow you to lean and balance better.
A great number of ice slippage related accidents occur when people are getting in or out of their car, try to use the car frame and door to support yourself when entering and exiting the vehicle.
*Although anti slip shoes and ice gripping attachments are a useful aid whilst walking on ice or snow, there are no guarantees that these products or advice will prevent all accidents or slippages. Great care must be taken whilst being out in bad conditions at all times.