Hospital emergency rooms treated at least 40 thousand people with injuries sustained in a fall due to icy sidewalks and roads or while ice skating over the past period, according to a survey by the Dutch association of trauma surgery NVT in 20 hospitals. Broken wrists, hips and shoulders were the most common injuries, AD reports.

Most fractures could be treated with a plaster cast, but at least 1 thousand people had to undergo surgery. On Saturday and Sunday, the surveyed hospitals reported performing 5 to 10 times more trauma surgeries than on an average weekend.