DAYTON, Ohio -- Much of the weekend’s ice turned to slush and melted Monday but more cold and snow will move into the Miami Valley this week, which means, people will once again need to use caution on icy pavement.

Every time the pavement turns slick Brian Zimmerman M.D., director of the Select Care Unit at Miami Valley Hospital, treats patients who fall on the ice.

“It’s almost like clockwork,” said Zimmerman. “The day after a major snowstorm, we’ll see a huge percentage of our patients in here from falls and fractures and back injuries and things like that.”

Saturday and Sunday were no exception.

“The ice was just terrible and I could barely walk at all,” said Velma Hines of Huber Heights.

Salting certainly helps melt the ice and provides traction, but now all sidewalks are salted. On those icy sidewalks, falls can happen quickly.

“You know when you fall down on ice it’s very hard to catch yourself and you end up going down, putting full force on an extremity, or a shoulder, and it causes a lot of damage,” said Zimmerman.

The older people get, the more dangerous falls become, and sometimes they can even be deadly.

That’s why it’s important to check on elderly neighbors during winter weather.

“We all have to pull together when the weather’s bad,” said Leslie Nagel of Oakwood. “I think sometimes bad weather brings out the neighborliness in all of us.”

When the weather is bad enough, the doctor stresses, stay home.

“When the weather’s really cold and you can’t get the ice and snow melted you really shouldn’t be going out,” said Zimmerman.