A recent report from the Toronto Public Health Department stressed the need for the city administrators to do more to protect people, especially seniors, from falling on the ice in the winter. The report suggested the city should lower the threshold for sidewalk snow clearing from eight centimetres to two.
During the last ten winters, almost 30,000 people went to emergency rooms and 2800 were admitted, because they fell on the ice – 225 had life-threatening injuries. The average age of the injured was 51, prompting Antony Quinn, a director of CARP to say, ''It can make them afraid to venture outside. Fear of falling causes them to be less active which increases their chances of falling again.'' The report emphasized this costs the City of Toronto $6.7 million annually in claims.
In other words, it would be cheaper to do a better job - another lovely aspect of capitalism - to put a price on people's well-being.
John Ayers.
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