Sorry if this is the wrong group, it’s the best I could find in our hierarchy.
What is the best way to survive falls from a great height? Some things I’ve
heard are: 1) Parachutists are told to try to land flat on their backs if
their chutes fail. 2) When falling from moderate height rolling helps. 3)
Being limp or unconscious helps. (A distant relative survived a fall of
about 10 stories because several stories down he hit something that knocked
him out.)
So: What is the best way to survive a fall? Does the strategy change for
different heights of falls?
I suspect this will generate at least some speculation. If your posting
starts with "I think that…" please consider mailing it to me instead of
posting it.
In <18…@csli.Stanford.EDU> cphoe…@csli.Stanford.EDU (Chris Phoenix) writes:
>So: What is the best way to survive a fall? Does the strategy change for
>different heights of falls?
When I was 12 I fell 20 feet from a tree onto hard packed dirt (California
desert alluvium) with no injury. I fell relaxed because I was too surprised
at losing my grip to react to falling.
At age 18 I fell 60 feet from a lighting grid to a hardwood theatre stage.
I had time to react and deliberately tried to relax. I was not knocked out,
but was dazed for about 5-10 minutes. No injuries. I landed essentially
on my back (perhaps rolled slightly to the right), at least, at the end of
the impact I was lying flat in a spread-eagled position.
I may have gotten into a slightly tucked or ‘zero-g’ position during both
falls. I know that in both cases I did not feel a hard blow to my head but
felt the impact most strongly in my buttocks, shoulders, hands and feet
(both whipped down hard). Knuckles slightly skinned in the latter fall,
bruises on butt and calves.
Kids, don’t try this at home.
–
====================================================================
Adams Douglas Groucho: "Did you know there’s a million
3206 Raintree Circle bucks hidden in the house next door?"
Culver City, CA 90230 Chico: "But there is no house next door."
crash!adamsd Groucho: "No? Then LET’S GO BUILD ONE!"
In article <18…@csli.Stanford.EDU> cphoe…@csli.Stanford.EDU (Chris Phoenix) writes:
>What is the best way to survive falls from a great height?
In a recent National Geographic TV special on cats there was discussion
.
of what verternarians call "high rise syndrome" – cats falling out
of apartment house windows. Surprisingly, cats falling from greater
heights are usually less-seriously injured (up to some limit, presumably
They attributed this to the fact that the cat had more time to relax
during the long fall.
|||| Boyd Ostroff / Tech Director / SUNY Oswego Dept of Theatre / 315-341-2987
|||| Sys Admin / cboard.UUCP / Serving the Performing Arts / 315-947-6414/8N1
|||| ostr…@oswego.oswego.edu / cboard!ostr…@natasha.oswego.edu
In a message to All <12 Apr 91 07:12> Adams Douglas wrote:
AD> From: ada…@crash.cts.com (Adams Douglas)
AD> In <18…@csli.Stanford.EDU>
AD> cphoe…@csli.Stanford.EDU (Chris Phoenix) writes:
>>So: What is the best way to survive a fall? Does the strategy change for
>>different heights of falls?
AD> When I was 12 I fell 20 feet from a tree onto hard packed dirt
(California
AD> desert alluvium) with no injury. I fell
AD> relaxed because I was too surprised
AD> at losing my grip to react to falling.
…etc.
Since there is no way to predict a fall, you would have to react very quickly,
particularly if the height is 20 feet of less. As you say, the best way is to
stay loose and hope you land prone. The natural reaction is to point your arms
and legs toward the ground to try to break your fall, which only results in
broken arms and legs.
If the fall is over 60 feet, and some people have survived from falls over 100
onto cement, then try to assume the spead eagle, or ‘sky fall’ that skydivers
use to maximize air friction and slow your decent. This will also level your
body to allow for maximum impact absorbsion upon landing, prevent you from
landing head first, and may knock the wind out of you but keep you alive.
Hurtin’ but alive.
DAS
AD> —
AD> ====================================================================
AD> Adams Douglas Groucho: "Did you know there’s a million
AD> 3206 Raintree Circle bucks hidden in the house next door?"
AD> Culver City, CA 90230 Chico: "But there is no house next door."
AD> crash!adamsd Groucho: "No? Then LET’S GO BUILD ONE!"
P.S. You’re under arrest for macro abuse! 8-)]
–
Uucp: …{gatech,ames,rutgers}!ncar!asuvax!stjhmc!273!909.2!David.Seiver
Internet: David.Sei…@p2.f909.n273.z1.fidonet.org
In article <7839.280F0…@stjhmc.fidonet.org>
David.Sei…@p2.f909.n273.z1.fidonet.org (David Seiver) writes:
> Since there is no way to predict a fall, you would have to react very
quickly,
> particularly if the height is 20 feet of less. As you say, the best way
is to
> stay loose and hope you land prone.
Are you certain? All of the anecdotes mentioned here involved landing
supine, and ever time I have seen a stunt person or a circus person do a
fall, it has always been supine or a roll to a supine position.
Eric Pepke INTERNET: pe…@gw.scri.fsu.edu
Supercomputer Computations Research Institute MFENET: pepke@fsu
Florida State University SPAN: scri::pepke
Tallahassee, FL 32306-4052 BITNET: pepke@fsu
Disclaimer: My employers seldom even LISTEN to my opinions.
Meta-disclaimer: Any society that needs disclaimers has too many lawyers.
Well, when you fall, the force of impact depends on the rate of
deceleration. If you roll out of a fall, you will be decelerating through a
greater distance than just landing on your feet. Landing prone probably
helps distribute the force throughout your body, rather than concentrating
the shock.
—
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>Well, when you fall, the force of impact depends on the rate of
>deceleration. If you roll out of a fall, you will be decelerating through a
>greater distance than just landing on your feet. Landing prone probably
>helps distribute the force throughout your body, rather than concentrating
>the shock.
Yeah, but wouldn’t that hurt your face?
I’d rather land supine.
Bruce
le…@sp1.csrd.uiuc.edu (Bruce Leung) writes:
I’d rather land supine.
>>Well, when you fall, the force of impact depends on the rate of
>>deceleration. If you roll out of a fall, you will be decelerating through a
>>greater distance than just landing on your feet. Landing prone probably
>>helps distribute the force throughout your body, rather than concentrating
>>the shock.
>Yeah, but wouldn’t that hurt your face?
> Bruce
I have heard of parachuters who have had chutes fail to open. They
land prone (on their face). Besides a flattened nose, teeth knocked
out, and maybe some other facial fractures, they have survived. If
you landed on your back, you would probably shatter the back of
your skull, where your brain stem is and so forth. That will kill you.
If your parachute does open, if you land with your knees locked, you will
break your legs, or your pelvis.
If you want to learn how to fall, take a martial arts class, that concentrates
on lots of falls and takedowns– aikido, judo, so forth…
—
John Carey
University of Illinois
Dept. of Computer Science
ca…@a.cs.uiuc.edu {uu-net,pur-ee,convex,…}!uiucdcs!carey