question: How does falling from a high distance, feet first, kill?
comment: Basically imagine getting hit by a car's windshield that's going at 125mph (200km/h) and hits you feet first like that. Essentially that's what would happen if you jumped off anything high enough to hit terminal velocity, except worse. The cars windshield would actually collapse and reduce the G-Forces, the ground won't.
passages: "My own “felicitous fall” took place when I was working on a new gym for Portland State College (now University). I was three stories up, walking along scaffolding with a bucket of clip-ties in my arms when I happened to step on a plank that went only halfway between two platforms. I woke up a few moments later, sixty feet below, lying on the concrete floor. I had landed on the bucket, which cracked three ribs, but that and the hard hat I was wearing saved my life."
   They were the most common cause of injury seen in emergency departments in the United States. One study found that there were nearly 7.9 million emergency department visits involving falls, nearly 35.7% of all encounters.
  
  In 2000, in the USA 717 workers died of injuries caused by falls from ladders, scaffolds, buildings, or other elevations. More recent data in 2011, found that STFs contributed to 14% of all workplace fatalities in the United States that year.
  
  Section::::External links.
  
  BULLET::::- Falls Among Older Adults: Brochures and Posters (in English, Spanish, and Chinese) US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
   The severity of injury increases with the height of a free fall, but also depends on body and surface features and the manner that the body impacts on to the surface. The chance of surviving increases if landing on a soft surface, such as snow.
  
  Overall, the height at which 50% of children die from a fall is between four and five storey heights above the ground.
   Section::::Causes.:Other situations.
  
  Commotio cordis may also occur in other situations, such as in children who are punished with blows over the precordium, cases of torture, and frontal collisions of motor vehicles (the impact of the steering wheel against the thorax, although this has decreased substantially with the use of safety belts and air bags). In one fatality, the impact to the chest was the result of an exploding whipped cream canister.
   BULLET::::- On May 13, 1983, a 17-year-old boy from Delaware, Ohio was attending a graduation party with his classmates when he fell about to his death down the elevator shaft of the Eiffel Tower. He had climbed a large fence onto an emergency stairwell and then into the shaft for an unknown reason and was struck by the elevator's counterweight. He became tangled in the cables and fell when the elevator at the bottom started back up again.
  
  Section::::Kings Island.:Firehawk.
   It was reported that two of the victims of the Lockerbie bombing survived for a brief period after hitting the ground (with the forward nose section fuselage in freefall mode), but died from their injuries before help arrived.
   BULLET::::- On February 24, 2012, a 14-year-old girl died in an accident at Hopi Hari, Vinhedo, São Paulo State, Brazil. She fell from the La Tour Eiffel drop tower ride, suffered cranial trauma, and died on the way to hospital. Initial investigations suggested the possibility of mechanical failure in a restraint latch.
  
  BULLET::::- On July 24, 2012, the launch cable of the accelerator coaster Rita at Alton Towers, Staffordshire, UK, snapped during a morning test run. There were no passengers aboard at the time and no injuries occurred.
   Section::::Titles.:Related media.
   The severity of injury increases with the height of the fall but also depends on body and surface features and the manner of the body's impacts against the surface. The chance of surviving increases if landing on a highly deformable surface (a surface that is easily bent, compressed, or displaced) such as snow or water.
   In August 2011 a 12-year-old boy fell 30 feet from the ride (named Excaliber 2) at Camelot Theme Park in Lancashire, UK. He survived after hospital treatment. The park is now closed but the ride has been resurrected at Pleasureland Southport.
  
  Section::::Names.
   Section::::Travel effects.
   Falls from elevations were the fourth leading cause of workplace death from 1980 through 1994, with an average of 540 deaths per year accounting for 10% of all occupational fatalities. 42% of all construction workers' deaths occur from falling.
   BULLET::::- "Wetten, dass..?" (2010). In the December 4 episode of this German entertainment series, stuntman Samuel Koch attempted to powerbock over five moving cars in succession when his head hit the windshield of the fourth car (driven by his father), causing him to crash to the ground head-first, fracturing two vertebrae and rendering him quadriplegic.
  
  BULLET::::- "Campus PD" (2011). Cameraman Greg Jacobsen was killed in a helicopter crash while filming at the Indiana University of Pennsylvania.
   BULLET::::- Person "A" lays sticks and turf over a pit, with the intention of thereby causing death, or with the knowledge that death is likely to be thereby caused. Person "Z", believing the ground to be firm, treads on it, falls in and is killed. "A" has committed the offence of culpable homicide.
   One villager was as close as from the impact site. He fell from his bicycle but was not injured. A small building from the impact site did not suffer much either besides roof damage from flying debris.
   Injuries caused by falls from buildings vary depending on the building's height and the age of the person. Falls from a building's second floor/story (American English) or first floor/storey (British English and equivalent idioms in continental European languages) usually cause injuries but are not fatal. Overall, the height at which 50% of children die from a fall is between four and five storey heights (around ) above the ground.
  
  Section::::Prevention.
   BULLET::::- () Fall on and from scaffolding
  
  BULLET::::- () Fall from, out of or through building or structure
  
  BULLET::::- () Fall from tree
  
  BULLET::::- () Fall from cliff
  
  BULLET::::- () Diving or jumping into water causing injury other than drowning or submersion
  
  BULLET::::- () Other fall from one level to another
  
  BULLET::::- () Other fall on same level
  
  BULLET::::- () Unspecified fall
  
  Section::::V01–X59 – Accidents.:(W00-X59) Other external causes of accidental injury.:(W20-W49) Exposure to inanimate mechanical forces.
  
  BULLET::::- () Struck by thrown, projected or falling object
  
  BULLET::::- () Striking against or struck by sports equipment
   BULLET::::- Injuries to the legs: joint injury; ruptured tendons; ligament injury; broken legs.
  
  BULLET::::- Internal injuries, especially to the lungs
  
  Studies done of cats that have fallen from 2 to 32 stories, and are still alive when brought to a veterinarian clinic, show that the overall survival rate is 90 percent of those treated.
   BULLET::::- "Sherlock, Jr." (1924). While hanging from a water tower, Buster Keaton pulled a rope that released water from the tower, knocking him to the ground. In the scene, he stood and ran into the distance. During a routine physical examination 11 years later, an X-ray revealed that Keaton's neck had been fractured.
   Section::::Reception.
   In fatal crowd disasters, compressive asphyxia from being crushed against the crowd causes the large part of the deaths, rather than blunt trauma from trampling. This is what occurred at the Ibrox disaster in 1971, where 66 Rangers fans died; the 1979 The Who concert disaster where 11 died; the Luzhniki disaster in 1982, when 66 FC Spartak Moscow fans died; and at the Hillsborough disaster in 1989, 96 Liverpool fans were crushed to death in an overcrowded terrace, 95 of the 96 victims died from compressive asphyxia, with 93 dying directly from it and 2 others dying from related complications. In confined spaces, people push and lean against each other; evidence from bent steel railings in several fatal crowd accidents have shown horizontal forces over 4500 N (equivalent to a weight of approximately 450 kg, or 1014 lbs). In cases where people have stacked up on each other forming a human pile, estimations have been made of around 380 kg (838 lbs) of compressive weight in the lowest layer.
   BULLET::::- On August 30, 2008, at approximately 4 p.m. PDT, 20-year-old Michael Rohrer of West Hollywood, California was struck by a coaster vehicle passing overhead after he entered a restricted area below the ride by scaling two 6-foot perimeter fences to retrieve a lost hat. He was treated at the scene by park first aid, then airlifted to the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles in comatose condition. He was pronounced dead on August 31, 2008 at approximately 2 a.m. PDT. Cause of death was attributed to blunt force trauma.
   Falling (accident)
  
  Falling is the second leading cause of accidental death worldwide and is a major cause of personal injury, especially for the elderly. Falls in older adults are an important class of preventable injuries. Builders, electricians, miners, and painters are occupations with high rates of fall injuries.
  
  Long-term exercise appears to decrease the rate of falls in older people. About 226 million cases of significant accidental falls occurred in 2015. These resulted in 527,000 deaths.
  
  Section::::Causes.
  
  Section::::Causes.:Accidents.
   Examination of data from between 1990 and 1998 of this type of suicide within New York city showed the highest number of deaths were within the populus aged 65 and over (Abrams "et al" 2005).
  
  Section::::Prevalence.
  
  In the period between 1987 and 1990, 39 people were treated at the University Hospital Bochum with injuries sustained by falls from height.
  
  A study of 1998 (Joyce & Fleminger) reported that according to the Office of Census and Surveys 1990-1994, 4% of all deaths by suicide were accountable by falling from height or jumping in front of a moving object.
   BULLET::::- On April 16, 2004, a 16-year-old girl from Pontypool was killed after falling approximately 30 m (100 ft) from the top of the Hydro (now called Drenched) ride at Oakwood Leisure Park, Narberth, Pembrokeshire. During a trial brought by the victim's family against Oakwood, a jury returned a narrative verdict stating that the victim died due to being improperly restrained.
  
raw_presuppositions: If you land on your feet after falling from a high distance, you should survive. If you land on your feet after falling from a high distance, you should survive.
raw_corrections: Hitting the ground at terminal velocity is not survivable, even feet first. Hitting the ground at terminal velocity is not survivable, even feet first.