But the flip side - how many crashes didn't happen with straps pulled tight because the rider knew he had no choice but to find a way to ride through the situation? I know I've ridden through my share. Knowing you cannot pull your foot out has a way of sharpening your focus. (Rode clips and straps exclusively until 2000. The vast majority of those miles was with deep traditional cleats and straps pulled tight. Last platform pedal was 1965.)

As far as injuries after crashing, ie unclipping or still clipped - those injuries are different but I am not sure that one is substantially better than the the other. More skin gets shed in strapped in crashes. I suspect the odds of the bike taking some impact for the rider is better still strapped in.

I don't think safety was very high in the thought process when clipless pedals appeared. As I recall, it was all about the float. LOOK pioneered float. Time and then Shimano followed a few years later. Until Shimano the focus was geared toward the racing crowd. I don't recall safety even being mentioned. Shimano stepped in and from then on, it was all about marketing. Then you heard about "safety" but how much of that talk was market driven? And certainly to the uninitiated, ie the untapped market, arguing that clipless was safer than toeclips and straps was an easy sell.

When I watch criteriums these days, I regularly see riders unclipping for crashes ahead of them and often not making that turn. There was a lot less of that 40 years ago. No one had time to loosen their straps! So it was "what do I do to get around this?" And often we found a way. And when we didn't? The level of carnage wasn't all that different.

Ben