MONTREAL -- Montreal’s ambulance service is suggesting pedestrians perfect their penguin-walk, as they navigate slippery sidewalks this weekend.
The forecast is calling for this year’s first classic freeze-thaw-freeze-cycle of winter weather (you get the drift).
‘True or false? When sidewalks are icy, you should walk like a penguin,’ Urgences-Sante asked on Twitter.
It turns out it’s true. Tuxedo, optional.
The advice is delivered in an amusing manner, but is no joke.
In 2019 the ambulance service responded to hundreds of calls about Montrealers who had slipped on the city’s icy sidewalks and roads.
Between Jan. 1 – Feb. 23, 2019, Urgences-Sante had already received 260 more calls for falls compared to the same period, the year before.
The Societe de l’assurance automobile du Quebec (SAAQ), responded to the ambulance agency’s tweet with some information of its own about how to avoid icy sidewalks while also adhering to Quebec’s road-safety regulations.
‘The highway- safety code allows pedestrians to walk along the edge of the road if it’s impossible to use the sidewalk, as long as they can do it safely,’ reads the SAAQ tweet.
Other fall-prevention tips (that penguins also sometimes employ):
- look where you’re placing your feet
- take small steps, as if you’re dragging your feet
- keep your hands free
- lean forward
