Be Cautious:Slide Is Very Dangerous

Feb. 27,2010
Be Cautious: Slide Is Very Dangerous
By Quirico M. Gorpido, Jr.
Feature story
Maasin City, Southern Leyte-A slide is something associated with accident and every person is a potential victim of slide. If a person is careful in his steps in shiny or polished tiles inside a building or a restaurant, chances are he/she is away from accidental slides. However, this is not always the case. In most instances, particularly during a heavy rain, most decorative, smooth and glossy tiles that are part of an edifice’s floorings would become slippery from wet shoes and wet raincoats.
If you are wearing a rubber or plastic sandal that’s also wet, it is likely that you are subject to a slippage
if you walk hurriedly as if you’re pacing on a rough edge floor. In some occasions also, even if you’re cautious
with your steps on slippery tiles, there’s a possibility that you’ll slide, outbalancing yourself hitting the tiles flooring. Lucky enough if you don’t injure your body seriously.
In good weather condition I have been observing as anybody do, that shiny or glossy tiles are good as decorative floorings in many residential, commercial and business establishments. But if the weather is bad and these tiles are getting wet, it becomes a very dangerous thing to walk or step onto.
I myself is not a stranger to an accidental slides. I was a victim to this wild lurk. Last year I have an involuntary slide at the public market and near an artesian well in my place. The first I was walking under
rains wearing a used rubber sandal. As I walked forward my left foot happened to take step of a slippery concrete edge. Right there outbalancing myself and my buttock hit on the concrete flooring. It was so painful!. But I took control of it. Instead of screaming out, I grinded my teeth, and at the same time I massaged my painful hip. Every evening I massaged it with oil. I did it regularly for several nights and the pain had gradually disappeared.
The second was I went to brgy. Tagnipa where I fetched water for drinking, bringing with me 2 empty wine bottles now turn into as water depository. This potable artesian well is far from my place, but I prefer it for my drinking because of its clearness in quality and appearance. The artesian well near the place where I’ve lived remain unrepaired after it got damaged from constant use.
How did I meet that accidental slide? After a middle aged woman had pumped the well for washing clothes, I paced forward along the concrete pavement unmindful of the presence of sparse green algae sticking to it.
And all of the sudden I skidded! My head almost hit the concrete floor were it not for my elbow that I instinctively braced to protect it. It pained and swell into redness!. My hip was also painful and I sustained some bruises on my arms and legs. But at least I have done something to save myself from serious injuries. To prevent further swelling of my painful elbow, I massaged it for several days with“miraculous oil” I bought at the public market. By regular massaging, the painful swell gradually subsided. The painful sensation I have felt every time I touched my elbow had disappeared.

Other Victims
A former 20-year Governor of Southern Leyte,the late Salvacion Oppus Yñiguez, a soprano singer
In her younger years and a UST music teacher, was also a victim of accidental slide while she was inside their bathroom. I’ve learned this upon my inquiry why she was always on a wheelchair during the duration of her twilight years. Like most well-known personalities however, she doesn’t emotionally show her frustration or depression on what had happened to her to the people whom she met and talked to. She was the beloved mother of Southern Leyte province’s former third termer Governor Rosette Yñiguez-Lerias.
The wife of my mother’s first cousin in her 70s had also become a victim of accidental slide inside her residence. Her leftside balljoint was seen in x-ray results to have fractured which necessitate for a stainless replacement. How did she slide? She said she was just walking in sandal and suddenly slid and forcing herself to abruptly sat on the floor. It was so painful, she said, that she could no longer walk normally. Luckily her daughter in Cebu had a good job. She was brought there where she undergone an operation that took hours to finish..
Although she could walk now, her inborn normalcy to walk without a support is no longer possible. She said she always fails the pain of the surgery particularly during cold weather. Of course she is taking vitamins and nonfat milk to strengthen her bones courtesy of her kind and thoughtful daughter. Nevertheless, if the recurring pain would be tolerable for her to bear, she stops taking any pain reliever. Every time she wanted to visit her son or a relative in the vicinity and even inside the house, she walked with a stainless walker.
Just recently a foreigner who got drunk from a drinking binge with a Filipino friend in a restaurant had accidentally skidded on a slippery tiles while he went to the nearby CR.Akin to my sliding experiences, he outbalanced himself and hit his head on the tiles now turned slippery after a heavy rain. Blood oozed out from his head as he remained laying. His drinking buddy who was informed of his friend’s accidental slide was shock and had a mixed feeling.



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He w as angry and at the same time felt sad about such an unexpected incident. He stooped down, embraced him and calling his name, but no response! His angry surmounted and cried loudly, somewhat blaming himself for what had happened.
Nonetheless, no person around is to be blamed. It’s his own act of the risk. His drunkenness had triggered something worst to the condition of the slippery tiles. If a non-intoxicating person can be a potential victim of accidental slides, how much more for a drunken man!.
That sliding victim foreigner was whisked off by some of the restaurant’s employees to the provincial hospital on board a pick-up truck. His Filipino friend followed suit. A nurse on-duty at the emergency room told the following day that the slide victim was discharged after his head wound was treated.

The gaping wound she said was closed by several stitches. And that he was conscious inside the emergency room during the treatment.

Colorful Tiles
Employees of government and private offices whose floorings are attractive because of shiny, glossy and colorful decorative tiles should be careful on their steps in going in and coming out of their respective offices.
This is particularly in a situation during rainy days when shoes and sandals are always drenched with rainwater.
The management of a well-known fastfood establishment here had also realized the potential danger lurking on its decorative black-colored tiles at the entrance gate. Two female customers had skidded in two separate occasions during rainy days. The first one who was about to enter the main door, while the second
after taking her meal and had went out. But none of the two victims had suffered serious injuries. Only bearable pain. That accident has served as a warning to the owner. The front tiles flooring was dug out and replaced it with a concrete rough flooring devoid of slippery even on rainy days. How many victims are there already with this kind of accidental, but very dangerous slides?
With this kind of dreadfully unexpected incidents happening to some people including me, it would be wise to suggest for the safety of commuters and customers that food establishments,stores,commercial buildings
and all offices nationwide should have its floorings at the main entrance made of rough concrete pavements.
Even how worst is the weather maybe, concrete rough floorings will retain its roughness despite heavy rains. Thus protecting and preventing the patrons/customers/clients from accidental slides that may cause fatality or untimely death to someone. It would be good also to place skid-proof mats to all CRs in all kinds of buildings, including residentials.Remember, prevention is better than cure.
The roughness of appearance of the front ground flooring of any building or its main entrance should not bother its owner because it is negligibly insignificant compared to the overwhelming attraction of beauty achieve by the decorative multicolor paints of the whole edifice both inside and outside.
And the main reason why customers are attracted to patronize a restaurant, bakery or store and have the enthusiasm to go there uninvited is because of the kind of accommodating services they’ve received, good food being served, inside cleanliness and generous treatment from waiters/waitresses, salesgirls and salesclerks.(Quirico M. Gorpido, Jr.)