Student hit by falling ice while walking to class

BOSTON -- With the recent warm-up, pedestrians are being urged to look up and be aware of melting ice dangling from rooftops.

A college student was hit by ice that fell four stories while she was walking to class at Suffolk University just before 1 p.m. Friday.

Kristen Parris, 22, was taken to Mass General Hospital where she received 40 stitches in her head.

"It's a pretty disfiguring injury. It's the scalp plus halfway down the forehead," said Donn Parris, Kristen's father.

Many pedestrians said they are not surprised someone was injured.

"It's scary. All of these buildings around her really don't clean off the ice," a student said.

Kristen's father wants businesses to take responsibility for the ice on their establishments.

"I see people all the time scraping snow and ice off their roofs and their homes and businesses should do the same thing," Parris said.

Suffolk University released a statement:

"The safety of students and others in and around Suffolk University buildings is of the utmost importance. Suffolk tries to take every measure possible to prevent accidents like this from happening. Our thoughts tonight are with the injured student."

The college said they have asked their mechanics to take a look at all their buildings for dangerous amounts of snow and ice.

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