Hospital, city offer ice-melting salt to help prevent injuries

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — A local hospital is trying to help people prevent falls this winter by handing out free bags of salt.

St. Vincent Indianapolis uses the Be an Ice-breaker project to prevent ice-related injuries. On Saturday morning, volunteers bagged about 7,000 bags of ice-melting road salt donated by the city. Organizers say over the years they have seen a huge need for a project like this.

Dr. Marcus Henry, an emergency medicine physician with Ascension St. Vincent, said, “We see a lot of this every year. People having really bad injuries from falling on ice. It’s not just bruises and sprains although there is a lot but there a lot of serious fractions and head injuries from this and we had to do something about it.”

The free bags were left outside of the emergency department for people to pick up at the 86th Street location.