Photo credit: Ninja M. on Flickr

One witness described it as “epic.”

Last weekend I slipped down six carpeted stairs in my house. I was hurrying, wearing slippery nylons on stone tiles on the landing, carrying a wide plastic shoe mat. I slipped and my feet flew out from under me. I yelled “Ahhhh!” really loudly on the way down and got a huge adrenalin rush.

Somehow, like a miracle, I “surfed” down all of them on my feet, still holding the shoe mat with shoes on it. I landed on my feet and started laughing, trying to gloss over the mild embarrassment factor. Two of my friends were standing at the bottom of the stairs (about to move my couch upstairs) and I had been hurrying to clear the way for them.

Preventable.ca’s post on falling

The weird thing is that I just recently read about falling in a blog from Preventable.ca – the Community Against Preventable Injuries. In his post Give Me Your Worst, blogger Robert Willis tells us about a fall he witnessed and challenges us to tell our worst falling story, so I posted the tale of a wipe-out on a patch of ice caused mainly by inappropriate footwear.

What will I do differently now?

To avoid this happening again, I will avoid walking on slippery surfaces (like tile and laminate flooring) while wearing nylons. No more rushing down the stairs. I found some tips in Preventing Falls on Stairs by the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation. It describes common causes of falls on stairs and, from now on, I will heed its wisdom. I hope you will think about it too – especially during the holiday season when things get hectic.

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