I was recently discussing this question with my dad. I thought it could be interesting to test the PTT community and see if anyone knows anything about this subject or has had any relevant experience (or knows anyone who has had a relevant experience). If you reply, please make sure it doesn't start with "Well, I guess I would think that" or the like... I'm looking for serious, confident answers and contributions from people. No "I dunno's" either. Well, here we go:

This means simply falling. Not jumping. Not being thrown out. Not getting run over. Just a fall. Falling out. Onto dry asphalt. Probably first hitting the ground with foot, leg, side, or rear. Wearing normal clothing. In perfect health. Nothing special, just falling out of a moving vehicle.

If you really know a lot, related answers are great too. Like what would happen at 15 mph, 45 mph, if the ground was wet, etc...

Remember, I'm looking for experience (not necessarily you (lol), but at least someone you know) or links to reputable, relevant websites which clearly answer the question (preferably not news websites). Think of this as a scientific query.

C'mon.. 1 paramedic out of a group of 587 isn't too much to ask.

Thank you in advance for you guys' helpful posts.

Asterisk the Inquisitive :o

Last edited: Sunday, June 13, 2004 at 1:24:15 AM

It all relates to how you fall out. If you just fall out, and don't do anything special, you may--at the most--get a break or fracture. If you roll yourslef, you can get away with a bruise. However, if you move just right, you can get a concusion. As I said, it depends on the way out.

No offense, fil, but how much actual experience do you have about this? If you're just guessing, it doesn't help me. And I think that it's being optimistic to say that the most you'd get would be a break unless you tried to land head first. And I highly doubt that it's possible to get away with a bruise no matter how you roll if you fall onto asphalt moving at 44 feet a second (that's 30 miles per hour). Maybe Jackie Chan or Indiana Jones, but in real life?

Asterisk

Well, I've fallen out of a vechicle going 10 mph, and it HURT. Nothing broken, but it hurt. Badly.

I am speeking from personal research...not experience. I think you'll have trouble getting that (-:

Sup Asterisk,

I've been doing some research for you, and while I can't find much on the damage ascertained as a result of falling from a moving car, I have found some research done on pedestrian injury at various speeds. Hopes this gives you the foundation you're looking for:-

TRAVELLING SPEED & PEDESTRIAN PROTECTION

Speeding - Research

hydrä¹

Last edited: Sunday, June 13, 2004 at 3:13:20 AM

I recommend bracing for impact by bringing my ankle to my ass and leading with my knee. Instead of damaging my body all over, I will only need a wooden leg. In my second installment to this thread, we'll talk about the advantages of a wooden leg and the many clever ways of making it work for you.

Indeed, I once accidentally fell off a slow moving (10-15mph) bus/tram type thing onto dry asphalt, and yes, it hurts more than you'ld expect. Skin abrasions etc. (even through light clothing) Mostly due to the slight momentum you still have when you hit the ground and slide over it. Thats pretty much the same speed as a leisurely riding a bicycle. Imagine turning a corner and it slipping away to one side. Also, you will always have small pieces of grit on such a surface which adds to the discomfort.

At 30mph you have a lot more momentum and will slide more across the asphalt and you will end up with more grazes - possibly enough to actually tear the skin and clothing. Falling onto grass or such would be far more preferable as you woudnt encounter the same kind of friction burn and wouldnt have the hard surface grating across your skin.

If you fell awkwardly, like onto your shoulder etc, you could end up with broken bones or a fracture. Again, from experience, I was cycling at probably 25-30mph and the front wheel inexplicably stopped/jammed. I went straight over the handle bars and must have landed on my shoulder or thereabouts. I was knocked out cold and was eventually picked up off the road by a passer by. Damage: Broken clavicle (collar bone) and dislocated shoulder. Unconcious for a few minutes.

-Z-

A car pulled out in front of me and I hit it side on at about 70mph on my sports bike. I remember thinking, "Oh well, I guess that's my lot", but I was lucky enough to fly right over the car (minus the bike) and slid for about 100 ft along smooth tarmac. I was wearing a leather jacket which probably saved me from a fair bit of road-rash, and I got away with just bruises, yet had I landed differently I'm certain I wouldn't be typing to you all now. I suppose (oh, I shouldn't have said "I suppose" because now it sounds like I'm guessing) that injuries from any type of accident are all subject to the chaos theory, and therefore completely unpredictable. I think I was more worried about the bike at the time. I'd only had it 14 months from new and it was totally wrecked.

*, what are you planning? From the sounds of it, it'll be one of those stories that starts with "it seemed like a good idea at the time..." ;)

Yo 56K Lag Man,

Wrong Answer. The right answer is Insurance Fraud. Lol.

Good money I hear.

hydrä¹

Ask baba

B

I fell out of a truck that was moving 70 miles per hour, It was GodSwill that I did not even get a scratch...

Wait....

No I didn't...

Sorry, I never fell out of a moving vehicle before...

I must have been thinking about something else....

OOOHHHhh,, that's it! I rode a roller coaster once that was really fast.... That sure was fun.

Does ANY of this help?

Katherine the time waster.

I'll get a bit more technical on my fall out of a truck. This was actually on a dirt road, so I just kinda bounced and landed in some grass, the thing that hurt the most was the twigs I landed on.

A few scratches, needed stitches in my arm, but that was it.

But no, don't try this. You COULD kill yourself, even at a slow speed of 10 - 15 mp/h. The tire could hit you, ect.

Similar to -z-'s experience, I once fell off my bike, well, really did a somersault OVER my bike while braking hard. Forward momentum carried me straight over. I'd have to guess I was going close to about 20 MPH when it happened, and it hurt in a big way. I tore up skin on my right hand and up my arm, which hit the ground first, and tore up skin on my knee too. And the impact on the asphalt jarred my back so badly, I had pains for a few weeks afterward.

In some ways it was probably worse than falling out of car going the same speed, because I flipped completely over, and only by quick reaction managed to NOT land on my head. And the bike flipped totally over and landed on top of me. Ouch!

The bike came away with injuries too. Back wheel was bent out of shape, and I had to ride it back home like that before I got it to a bike shop for repairs. It was not pleasant I can assure you. So I imagine doing the same from a moving car would result in serious injuries or even death in some cases.

"Don't try this at home"

Jeez! Chill! I'm not going to be jumping out of moving cars anytime soon. It's all hypothetical, don't worry.

We were driving on the freeway and passed a jeep which had no doors. The driver was wearing a seatbelt, but other than that there was nothing to keep him from falling straight out onto asphalt moving at 88 ft/s. That's what led me to wonder about this.

Thanks for all your helpful (and not so helpful) replies, it seems like you'd get pretty darn hurt in the situation I'm talking about, but if you got lucky not fatally hurt. As to Nathan, -z-, and PEST, thanks especially. From what it sounds, you guys got off fairly luckily. The bike incidents especially- if either of you had landed head first.. Well.. Your head probably wouldn't be in great shape.

I'm not sure injuries from accidents are completely unpredictable. For instance, I would think an accident on a bike going at 3 mph would be considerably gentler than one on a bike going 30 mph.

Again, thanks!

Asterisk

EDIT: Sorry OM! You posted after I started to write mine. Thanks for your information too.. Sounds excruciatingly painful, but at least no permanent injuries, right? And only 20 mph.. Makes PEST seem even luckier.

Last edited: Sunday, June 13, 2004 at 8:13:48 PM

Serious answer:

It depends.

Could be scratches and bruises only. Could be fatal.

Weird question.

Its all how u land, what u land on, and how well your body is put together...

Old people fall outta bed and die

Force recon's do drills where they jump from 40 feet and get right up and walk away...

1 guy jumped out of a plane at 10,000 feet with no parachute, no padding etc and didnt even break a bone. That is mind boggling.

B

I fell off a skateboard going around 10-25 mph, and now I'm scraped almost all over, so I think falling outta that car would HURT!

An Example

OK, so maybe he isn't falling from the vehicle, but I think it's strangely appropriate for this thread.

When I was younger I fell out of the back of a pick-up truck moving approximately 15 mph. We were going slow so I decided to sit at the edge of the lowered tailgate. We hit a couple bumps and my foot grazed the road yanking me right out of the truck onto the the GRAVEL road. I had a couple rocks slightly imbedded into my skin, but mostly just suffered a bruised bum. :)

Monkee

This freaks me out.

I was on my driveway once on my scooter, going about 5 mph (lol) and the bottom of the scooter suddenly slid out from under me and I did one of those things where you're running but about to lose your balance then fell onto the road, which had just recently (like 10 minutes ago) had been covered with asphault.

To cut to the chase, I got burnt really badly and had to go to the hospital for 2nd degree burns.

This is sort of about falling down I guess...

Last edited: Monday, June 14, 2004 at 7:08:23 PM

I grind my teeth once a week by hanging myself from the back of a truck and having my teeth scrubbing the road.

Usually I do it on wednesday, juts before PSL.

Works fine.

Tally: tell me about your personal wooden leg experience. It's liberating to talk about that.

Well, I've got an old battle tale.

A friend and I had rigged up a skateboard behind a bike to the biker could put the skater. Since I was a little younger than my friend, I decided I'd sit on the board for starters and take it easy. We started down the hill, him pumping like crazy, and we're starting to make some speed. Then...

<cue slow motion effect>

I tipped.

Since the board was tied to the bike, I went for a little drag on my knee. It must've taken 5ft to stop, but that was enough. I pretty much ground a few layers of epidermis off my joint and ended with a bloody mess. Of course, my friend goes into the "get back on the horse" speech, but I'm hurting and crying. I hobble on back to grandma's house at the bottom of the hill.

And in the 70's when that sort of thing happened, you gutted it out. My mom decided to put a napkin to cover it (over my protests) while I relaxed. I guess it sounded like a good idea (to keep the flies off I suppose) but then mom wanted to check it. Just check it. Well, she had to peel the napkin away, but since it had grafted itself to me she managed to reopen the wound and produce more crying and whining. So, she let it alone...for awhile.

Eventually she had to convince me that she had to remove it since it was to well attached. I protested, but eventually she had her way accompanied by more crying and whining.

So I don't know which was worse. The initial wound or the reopening or the re-reopening.

At least I don't have a napkin fused to my knee now. ;)

A lot of variability here.

At 30mph you have the chance of sustaining significant damage.

Landing on (dry or wet) asphalt only makes it worse.

Lots of deep abrasions (road rash).

Probably fractures.

The most significant damage would be to head trauma.

Sort of depends how you land.

At that speed you have enough momentum from the moving vehicle that you will slide, but more likely tumble or roll. The head striking a hard immovable object (road) is not a good thing.

Skull fracture at point of maximum impact but also coup - contre coup injuries are a very real possibilty.

[coup injury refers to brain injury at site of impact, contre coup refers to opposite side of impact. The brain is soft, jelly-like rattles within a hard shell ( cranium ) so damage to brain is done at site of impact but also opposite side where it recoils and strike the hard inner lining of the skull.]

So alot of damage is possible, but the variabilty of how they land and the state of health of their body (age, weight, strength of bones etc) makes it impossible to predict.

One can die from a free fall from a standing position if the head strikes a hard object, yet others survive falls from many stories, gunshots to the head, heads impaled by golf clubs....(yes we see it all in the ER).

Bottom line the human body is both frail but also incredibly resilient.

About that wooden leg Tally?

No experience, but I can tell u this much, on our way to guadalahara, the cars trnasmission broke and we were only able to travel at the speed of like 30-40 MPH, and believe me it was slow as heck, if u were to fall out of a car moving that slow, the most u would get is from none, to 1-2 little scars, nothing more ;)

Cadc (SA) (Leader)

Ha, yeah right cadc, 30 mph? I'd say around 10 scars, one of em' preeeety big, and probably a broken anything!

When I was in high school I raced mountain bikes, and was at a competition one time. This was when the Panaracer Smoke was the hot tire (the year before the Panaracer Dart front tire came out) and if anyone has ever ridden the Smoke up front, you will know that it is a terrible front tire, prone to washouts a la carte. Well, I was madly chasing the leader (as one is prone to do, in a race) and at about 60kph (40mph) on a long sweeping turn on hardpack with ample gravel, I lost the important lateral friction with my front wheel.

The first point of contact was my left butt cheek. I proceeded to tear a gaping hole in my shorts, take a good 5x5 inch patch of skin off said butt cheek, spin around tear open my shoulder, and stop somewhere about 25 feet down the trail in the bushes. It was an interesting experience haviing my mom pick gravel out of my bleeding posterior, sleep naked on my stomach for three weeks, and sit halfway off my desk at school. You would not believe how many times I had to answer the question: Why are you sitting like that?

I should sue Panarace for pschological damages.

Does that help? I was wearing a helmet, but without you can do permanent damage to your head by falling off your bike at a standstill.

-dd