Berlin Hospitals Struggle to Treat Hundreds of Falls During Winter Freeze Because Environmental Laws Forbid Use of Salt on Sidewalks
1st February 2026
Repeated snowfall and freezing rain have coated the open-air insane asylum known as Berlin in a thin sheet of slippery ice since the beginning of January. To spare plants, city environmental laws have long forbidden using salt on pedestrian paths and stairways, and so residents have been falling and injuring themselves at such high rates that emergency rooms have had trouble keeping up:
Feel free to laugh at these fools. I did.