He had been walking along Copper Street, just west of Kent Street, in southern Ottawa around 5:15 p.m. eastern time when the huge slab of ice fell from the roof of a building along the road.
The temperature had risen to around 8C in Ottawa during the day, making it the warmest this year and leading to some of the ice beginning to melt. This left it free to slide off the roofs of buildings in huge chunks.
Witness Richard Latour said that another “massive” slab smashed into a parked car outside a house on the street just moments after the man was hit. He warned others “Probably wise to tell people to watch for falling ice because it has been wild today [Tuesday], at least on Cooper.”
Others in the area say that people are hit by ice thawing every year. Paramedics admitted that “multiple calls” are received each spring as the temperatures rise, typically numbering around four or five incidents a week at this time of year.
Latour described the injured person as “looking rattled” when the ambulance arrived. Paramedic spokesman J.P. Trottier told CBC News: “It was a huge chunk of ice. It did hit him head-first and in the shoulder.”
The man suffered a heavy concussion, a fractured collar bone and a deep cut to the back of the head. He is now said to be in stable but serious condition in hospital.
The winter has been particularly severe in the area in this year but the temperatures are beginning to rise now. The Rideau Canal skateway also closed on Tuesday after 59 consecutive days of use — the longest in its history — as officials determined the ice quality now too weak to use.
