RIVERDALE, The Bronx (WABC) — A resident in the Bronx experienced the dangers of black ice first hand during the recent freeze and thaw cycle after slipping and taking a nasty fall outside his home.
“I was crawling back to the door. I was really afraid I couldn’t get up,” said Bronx resident Robert Keating. “I may have fractured my leg. I didn’t know what happened.”
The married father of three was a victim of the fluctuating temperatures we’re now seeing across the Tri-State: freezing one day, melting the next. The five boroughs are, for now, officially in defrost mode.
Right around sunrise, Keating walked out of his home on Arlington Avenue in the Riverdale section of the Bronx.
What he didn’t know was that a thin coat of black ice had caked up on his very steep driveway.
“Unequivocally, I could not see any ice at all, at all, like it was a clear sheet,” he said.
One minute Keating was standing upright, the next minute he was hitting the ground extremely hard that it even knocked off his shoe.
Thank goodness his sons were home.
“Logan heard me scream. I was yelling his name and my other son Michael. They came down,” Keating said.
He went to the doctor where an x-ray showed he fractured three ribs.
Keating was thankful he didn’t hit his head.
“Thank God. A couple of years ago I had a major concussion, so I know what that’s about, as bad as it was, I could right now be in the ER right now with a coma,” he said.
For now, Keating is taking it easy.
The retired New York City firefighter, who also worked for the NYPD and Corrections told Eyewitness News he was so worried he was going to miss a huge upcoming family celebration… his son’s college graduation from Northeastern University.
“I’m so proud he graduated after four years, he worked really hard, Bobby Jr. and the first thing I thought was I wouldn’t make his graduation but the doctor said if I chill out, which is hard to do because I’m a very active person, that I should be OK,” Keating said.
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