Caution: Indemnities Ahead

By Matt Wood in News on Dec 7, 2006 1:38PM

A reader asked the Tribune yesterday whether those "Caution: Falling Ice" signs around big buildings in the Loop do any good. Do they mean you're supposed to stay as far away from the building as possible, or hug the side? The answer was no, that those signs by themselves don't do much good because people either don't see them, or just hold their breath and hurry past the danger zone. While ice tends to fall straight down, it can also be blown by the wind or clip a ledge on the way down and kick out over the sidewalk, so the best strategy to avoid being hit by falling ice is to cross the street and find another route. And judging by most Chicagoans' attitudes while scurrying around downtown, that won't happen until Hell itself freezes over.

Of course, like any exotic way to die du jour that we're supposed to fear, the chances of getting clobbered by a falling iceberg are far less than getting hit by a bus when we detour across the street. While we're sure there is a great deal of altruism behind those caution signs, as we've said before they're mostly a CYA measure for the owners of the buildings in case someone actually does get hurt, like the Milwaukee man who died 12 years ago after being hit by ice falling from the Neiman Marcus building on Michigan Avenue. Nothing spreads holiday cheer like a corporate lawyer saying, "See, we told you so," when you're recovering from a skull fracture.

Check out Rachelle's collection of falling ice sign pictures.