Mum warns of hidden ice danger after 5-year-old daughter injured while sledging

A mum-of-three has warned families to look out for hidden ice ramps in snow, after her 5-year-old daughter suffered a facial injury while they were out sledging.

Chloe Davie, 5, suffered injuries while sledging

Kirsten Davie was sledging with daughter Chloe near the Swanston golf course in Fairmilehead on Friday when the they crashed into a ramp hidden under snow.

The pair were thrown into the air before Chloe landed and smashed her face along the sharp edge of the ramp, which had covered over with fresh snow and turned to ice.

Mrs Davie, a business analyst, has issued a plea to families to take extra precautions while out sledging, as the city’s big freeze continued this weekend with temperatures plummeting to around -6 on Saturday.

Chloe Davie out sledging

Mrs Davie said: "We have been out sledging a lot in the last few weeks, with the lockdown you are limited in what to do with kids.

“We got such a fright when we hit this ramp, it was like a big rock. I think older kids have been building ramps that have been covered over with more snow and frozen underneath so they are like mini icebergs. Chloe came down and smacker her face on it. She was screaming. It is so lucky that she hit it the way she did. The ice was so sharp it could have ripped her face open.

"She was very shaken up. Her face is red raw and all scratched. The next day her eye had swollen up and was closed over. It has calmed down now. We took her to chemist to get checked over. I was reluctant to go to hospital, we don’t want to go in and take up spaces while they are needed and staff are under pressure with covid-19. Unless it gets worse we will keep treating the injury at home with cold compress and anti inflammatory medicine.”

Chloe’s eldest brother Jack, 11, was also injured out sledging recently.

Jack, 11, Chloe, 5, and Ethan, 9 going sledging

Mrs Davie added: “Jack hurt his leg badly on a pole while he was sledging at Morthonhall golf course. Kids deserve to be out enjoying themselves. There’s not a lot that’s fun for them right now! But I hope that parents and kids keep extra lookout, hazards like these icy ramps are so dangerous but can easily be missed.”

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