Slips, trips and falls are some of the most common safety incidents, including here at TWU. While avoiding falls as much as possible should be the priority (by being aware of your surrounding and always using caution) knowing HOW to fall in a manner that will reduce the likelihood of injury is also important.
Below are tips and videos for falling forward, backward, and to the side. It is recommended that members of the TWU community practice falling in the manner depicted in the videos until it becomes second nature.
Thanks to the Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) Class of 2011 for sharing this safety information with us. A link to the full presentation on this topic can also be found below.
Falling Forward
Do:
Don't:
Keep your head up
Quickly slap ground with palms
Breathe out
Fold your body (like an accordion!)
Lock joints
# Elbows
# Wrists
# Shoulders
Falling Backward
Do:
Don't:
Tuck chin
Round Back
Squat
# Bend hips
# Bend knees
Keep arms out to the side
Slap palms on ground
Use extended arms to break your fall
Falling Sidways
Do:
Don't:
Tuck chin
Grab opposite hip
Squat
Roll onto back
Slap ground with free hand
Extend your arm to break the fall
Fall directly onto hip
DPT Class of 2011 presentation (the embedded videos will not work as this is a PDF version, but they are the same as above).
