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.<\/p>\n
“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.”<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Right around sunrise, Keating walked out of his home on Arlington Avenue in the Riverdale section of the Bronx.<\/p>\n
What he didn’t know was that a thin coat of black ice had caked up on his very steep driveway.<\/p>\n
“Unequivocally, I could not see any ice at all, at all, like it was a clear sheet,” he said.<\/p>\n
One minute Keating was standing upright, the next minute he was hitting the ground extremely hard that it even knocked off his shoe.<\/p>\n
Thank goodness his sons were home.<\/p>\n
“Logan heard me scream. I was yelling his name and my other son Michael. They came down,” Keating said.<\/p>\n
He went to the doctor where an x-ray showed he fractured three ribs.<\/p>\n
Keating was thankful he didn’t hit his head.<\/p>\n
“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.<\/p>\n
For now, Keating is taking it easy.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
“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.<\/p>\n
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