Beware Of Ice And Snow Falling From Rooftops
I was walking in the city on a pavement (unneccessarily as the section street was for pedestrians only) this morning when a chunk of ice weighing perhaps about 0.5 kg hit the pavement in front of me at a place where I would've been in about two seconds. Gable roofs or any type of roofs with snow overhanging the eaves are particularly hazardous. A gable roof with sheet-iron roofing is the worst possible case and the building I was walking next to had precisely that type of roof. The temperature is +1 C now. When the snow melts, roof surfaces become slippery. Beware.
This is where the near accident took place.
The chunk of ice fell from a height of about 12 m. My head was at a height of approximately 2 m (there is some uncertainty as to the height it fell from). According to a free fall calculator I found online, the velocity of the chunk at the time it would've hit my head was 14 m/s or about 50 km/h. It certainly would've hurt like hell. It may have knocked me out. The precise shape of the piece of ice and the sharpness of the part hitting my head first would probably have made a lot of difference in terms of injuries suffered.
Those of you live in cold temperate climates in the northern hemisphere be careful out there. Watch where you walk and also keep an eye on what's above you. If there's a lot of snow in your neck of the woods it may not be a good time to go to a forest or a graveyard or any place where there are large trees with a lot of snow on the branches. A warning was issued in some parts of Finland against doing that because a large branch may snap and silently fall with hundreds of kilograms of snow on it.
Damn, reminds me of a close call many years ago walking in the city. All of a sudden I just see and hear a chunk of ice exploding in front of me. Was one of the few times I was glad I smoked cause only a minute or so before that I slowed down for a second to light up a cigarette, if I hadn't I probably would have been in its crosshair.
Explode is precisely the word. It was as if someone had thrown a vase out of a window in anger. The blue van was there because someone was moving out of the building. One of the guys carrying furniture told me he had wondered if I had been hit by that piece of ice because he had seen me disappear behind the van just seconds earlier. I wish I could say that I was distracted by the van or something else but the truth is I hadn't even thought about anything like this possibly occurring.
Wow friend I will quote a saying in Venezuela.
My pana, that blow, was not for you.
because the explanation you give of the height y and the approximate weight. no doubt the blow to the head would have been very strong. Just thinking about it hurts me.
Then you have to be very aware of the ceilings ..
I was walking back from the library yesterday and I was too reminded by this random possibly deadly event that happens every spring as a little chuck of snow fell in front of me. It wouldn't have hurt me but reminded me to be careful.
It's a good thing our cat recently lost interest in going out probably because of the depth of the snow. Today, 3/4 of all snow on the roof came down in one giant rumble. Nothing was significantly damaged. But what I will be doing this weekend is now settled: removing snow from the walkways and the driveway.
$rewarding 25% 15 min
The reward of this comment goes 100 % to the author eveuncovered. This is done by setting the beneficiaries of this comment to 100 %.
You were very fortunate and dodged a bullet. So many things in life is all about timing and decisions we make. How many things do we miss because of something else that we aren't even aware of. A few years ago I pulled over in the car to answer my phone and luckily I did as a car ran the red light and crashed into the car that had taken my place. Fate or luck whatever you want to call it.
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