Salem Mayor Chuck Bennett suffers head injury at ice rink at Riverfront Park

Salem Mayor Chuck Bennett suffered a head injury Thursday that resulted in a trip to the emergency room and three scalp staples.



It all started when Bennett was attending an event at the Salem On Ice skating rink at Riverfront Park.



The mayor and city council members had been instrumental in bringing the seasonal rink to life for residents, approving its construction at the city park earlier this year.



Bennett says he was on the ice for several minutes when “my feet just kind of slipped out from under me.”



He fell backwards onto his rear, and the back of his head. The back of his head started bleeding after the fall broke the skin of his scalp. But Bennett says it likely looked worse than it actually was.



People around him called emergency responders, who arrived and took him in a Salem Fire Department rig to Salem Hospital’s emergency department to close the wound.



He said, “I thought my wife was going to faint when they stapled this thing shut.”

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Bennett was grateful to emergency responders and hospital staff, thanking them in a Facebook post Friday.



He also had praise for the Salem On Ice rink, calling it a “fantastic facility.”



Bennett used to skate more when he was younger.



He says that once, when he was skating on a lake in Washington state, he went through the ice. The ice was so thick cars had been driving on it, according to Bennett. But when he and a friend skated over to a pier-like area, “we found the thin-ice spot.”



He said freezing water feels as if it’s burning your skin.



Still, the misadventures aren’t likely to keep him off the ice. “I might wear a bike helmet next time,” he said jokingly.