Originally Posted by canklecat

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Judging from injuries my friends and I have experienced the past year or so, the most common serious injuries from falling off the bike are broken clavicles (two friend this year alone, both younger than I), wrists/forearms (one friend broke both wrists/forearms in a fall), and bruised/cracked ribs (one friend, and myself). The fellow whose wrists/forearms were broken may also have had a head impact and concussion because his memory of the incident wasn't clear. ...................................

It may also be that falls happen more quickly than we can react, so the rider doesn't have time to extend a leg or knee in an instinctive effort to prevent falling or reducing impact. While I see some advice claiming that we should be able to roll with a fall or move our bodies in a way that minimizes injury, I see no evidence that most humans are capable of reacting that quickly. If you watch slow motion videos of professional cyclists falling, usually things happen so quickly they cannot react in time to prevent anything. If they can't do it, what are the chances of us ordinary humans "rolling" to minimize impact at speed? Pretty much nil. I remember consciously rolling with the fall back in February to avoid impacting my shoulder, but that fall was at only 10 mph or so. On a street or in a race at 20 mph? Nope.