Originally Posted by
wphamilton
You can skate straight across if you're not leaning in the slightest amount. That doesn't work on turns though.
If you can react fast enough, in 1/2 second as FB said since there is no warning, you want to twist your body opposite the fall so that you land on the back side of the shoulder and the muscle of your hip, slapping the ground with your inside arm and hand if possible. A slap, not thrust out under you. That's better than going straight down and landing on the shoulder (risks broken clavicle if it hits just wrong). It's hard to do in .5 seconds but not impossible.
Yes, there's maybe some ability to manage the fall, but very little. As I noted these happen very quickly. However inertia works in your favor. There's not much torque applied to your body, so you don't get the 90° rotation that would have you hitting shoulder first. IME (fairly extensive with ice and black ice) these falls usually have you landing hip or thigh first, and the natural action tends to give you the necessary rotation to the back of the shoulder whether you try or not.
In one of my first serious high speed crashes -- a wet steed deck bridge at 25"mph, I was down about as fast as on black ice, and the damage evidence shows that the point of impact was squarely on my shoulder blade, rather than the side.
On the bright side, black ice falls happen in the winter, when you're presumably wearing some more padding than you would in July. I've never been injured by any of my many ice caused falls, other than that shaken up feeling you get from the impact. My concern about black ice isn't hitting the pavement, but who or what may be behind me and whether they're on the same patch of ice or not.