City should stop falling down when it comes to clearing snow

Slipping on ice especially perilous to elderly and avoidable drain to health-care system

This is what happens when you fall on an icy sidewalk.

First, you feel embarrassed for falling, and you look around quickly to see if anyone has seen you at this undignified moment. You hope not.

Then, the shock of the fall sets in and you experience a number of things all at once — the cold and brutal hardness of the sidewalk you’re lying on, and an equally overwhelming desire to be up and away from there as fast as possible.

So you slowly get to your feet as best you can, trying to rein in your nausea, and that’s when the pain from whatever bone you’ve fractured seizes you. The best you can do is hobble along at an exasperatingly slow pace with the cold wind, or maybe the pain, stinging your eyes to tears.

Yep, been there, done that — got a broken ankle, and I never want to do it again. So I’m glad to hear that Calgary city council plans this fall to talk about better snow clearing on public walkways.

What took them so long ? As Coun. Druh Farrell said last week, “It makes me angry and it makes me frustrated that we are still debating this, because it’s basic.”

The city gives itself one week after a storm to clear the approximately 320 kilometres of sidewalks that are its responsibility. Then why, months after a storm, are those sidewalks often still treacherous with packed down snow made icy smooth by the passage of hundreds of boots over it, deceptive areas of black ice or rutted and glassy bumps of dirty ice?

Four years ago, the Public Health Agency of Canada issued Seniors’ Falls in Canada, a report that classifies slips as “the leading cause of injury-related hospitalizations among Canadian seniors.”

The report says: “Research suggests that falls are the direct cause of 95 per cent of all hip fractures, leading to death in 20 per cent of cases.”

Falling also appears “to be a catalyst for the transition to long-term care.”

Icy surfaces contribute to 16 per cent of falls among Canadian seniors, but that’s not just people walking along under their own steam. The report points out that “canes and walkers (are) more likely to slip, and tires on wheelchairs and scooters can lose traction or become obstructed.”

Falls are not just one-off incidents for seniors. Their repercussions echo down through the years.

“Falls can also lead to negative mental health outcomes, such as fear of falling, loss of autonomy and greater isolation, confusion, immobilization and depression,” the report says.

All of this translates to less exercise, a reduction in fitness and a continued decrease in muscle mass in elderly people.

City council needs to consider more than just the public sidewalks around parks. The pathways in the parks should be cleared.

The paved paths in Nose Hill Park, for example, are dangerous and almost impassable throughout the winter.

What’s the point of having parks if Calgarians can’t walk in them for a good part of the year? The sections of sidewalk that cross the exits from back lanes should be cleared, along with the public paths that wind between houses and through green spaces in residential areas.

Next, council should increase the fines for homeowners who can’t be bothered to shovel the sidewalks abutting their property. Often, the sidewalks in front of these houses are an ice-scabbed mess with a particularly nasty stretch created by a car regularly backing out of the driveway.

According to 2014-15 data from Alberta Health’s analytics and reporting performance branch, falls of all kinds cost the provincial health-care system

$288 million annually.

Estimates are that better city snow clearing could cost up to $40 million annually, but if it makes a dent in that health-care bill by literally saving people’s lives and improving their health and well-being, it will be money well spent.