Anyone who set foot outside in the past week in Charlottesville and its surrounding area has had to deal with icy roads and sidewalks.
Melissa Lockwood, 38, became one of many who fell victim to the recent winter weather when she slipped and fell twice last week in Fifeville.
“It was late at night. No one saw, I think?” she said about the first fall. She was walking her dogs, then, all of a sudden, she was flat on her back, feet in the air. The second fall was on a different day while she was on her phone.
“I came out pretty unscathed but rattled,” she told Charlottesville Tomorrow.
Many residents weren’t as lucky as Lockwood. Emergency department visits swelled during last week’s winter weather with fall-related injuries. While the upcoming few days have a lower risk of icy roads, more winter weather than normal is expected in central Virginia this season. With that in mind, local doctors hope folks take some common sense steps to prepare.
According to Andrew Muck, chair of UVA Medical Center’s Department of Emergency Medicine, their emergency department saw a surge of visits following the recent winter weather. Usually, they see about 205 people a day. Recently, it’s been 250 — approximately a 22% increase.
Snow and ice aren’t the only culprits. There is typically an increase in visits post-holidays, as some people with health concerns choose to delay their doctor visits due to winter celebrations. When they finally make their way to the hospital, it is often to the emergency department, Muck said.
The other group includes people coming in with ice-related injuries, said Muck.
“What we’re really seeing is an increase in orthopedic injuries. We see a lot of what’s called ‘fall and outstretched hand,’ or ‘ground-level fall’ — people are just slipping and falling. We’re seeing broken wrists, some broken extremities, some sprains, some dislocations of joints [and] some head injuries.”
Muck said they also saw sledding injuries. The snow got icy on top, and when people went sledding, they didn’t realize how much faster the sled was going to go.
“Believe it or not, it’s more the adults who are trying to be the kids,” he said. “We’ve seen some pretty dramatic sledding injuries.”
Sentara’s Emergency Department Medical Director Katherine Kimbrell said in a written statement that they also saw more injuries.
“When conditions are icy, we see an increase in injuries from slips and falls, and this winter weather has been no exception. We encourage everyone to take extra care when walking on slippery surfaces. You can decrease your risk of falling by wearing footwear with good traction, using handrails, and treating slippery surfaces,” she wrote.
That’s advice doctors like Kimbrell might be giving repeatedly this winter. While much of the ice from the early January storm had melted by Friday afternoon, Travis Koshko, chief meteorologist at CBS19 News in Charlottesville, said that central Virginia might have more ice this winter season.
“We do live in an area that lends itself to ice potential whenever we have any kind of storm. Case in point a couple of weekends ago,” Koshko said.
This winter is shaping up to be the coldest one in years, he said, and this pattern of cold days and snow interchanging with warmer temperatures during the day might linger around until February and possibly turn around in March.
It’s unlikely that ice will be a concern in Central Virginia the weekend of Jan. 18 and 19, said Koshko. But it’s still a possibility.
The good news is that the snow is melting in the short term due to the higher temperatures during the few upcoming days. That said, the melted snow could become ice at night. If it were to happen, Koshko said, the ice would probably be concentrated in smaller areas.
“I don’t think it’ll be as widespread. It’s gonna be more like shady spots on back roads,” he said.
Koshko himself fell on an icy sidewalk last week, he shared with Charlottesville Tomorrow. His knee is still sore, but it was mostly his ego that was injured, he said with a laugh.
As more icy days could be coming to Central Virginia, UVA’s Muck offered several simple recommendations on how to minimize the possibility of injury and help others when temperatures drop and roads become slippery:
- Plan ahead and be mindful: If you know it will be cold and icy, don’t drink and go out. “Always be careful with the amount of alcohol you’re drinking if you’re going to be going outside in the cold because you’re at higher risk for injury, as well as hypothermia,” Muck said.
- Elderly people are at higher risk of injury: “If you’re elderly, take extra caution, and don’t be afraid to ask for help.”
- Ask for help or offer help: If you know that it is going to be cold, snowy and icy, don’t be shy about asking people for help. “Call your neighbors, particularly your elderly neighbors, and just say, ‘Hey, if there’s any way I can help you — take your garbage out, come over and give you any assistance [or] clean the driveway — let us help you.’ It’s a time to just show some support to your neighbors.”
- Skiing and sledding require extra caution: Muck said that sledding is more dangerous during icy conditions. “Wear your helmet if you’re going to go skiing,” he added.
