# Would you die from 11 meters drop **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 21, 2020, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-die-from-11-meters-drop/848270 "2020-02-21T00:38:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2020, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-die-from-11-meters-drop/848270/81 "2020-02-25T21:06:11Z")
> [@Paul\_C](#): > > It depends and depends again. A fall doesn’t have to be deadly under 50 feet but 5 feet could be just as well. What you fall onto and what position you’re in matter a great deal more. For example if you fell on grass it could be dry hard ground underneath causing more injuries. If the ground was damp and loamy you could have less injury. If you fell into some bushes with thick foliage and flexible branches it could soften your fall. Hard, solid branches could impale through soft tissue causing lots of damage. Assuming you’re replying directly to the OP, he/she asked about a direct headfirst fall onto concrete, so that eliminates the vast majority of scenarios in your response. ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_C](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f14d63/32.png) [@Paul\_C](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_C)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2020, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-die-from-11-meters-drop/848270/82 "2020-02-25T21:56:40Z")
Then I’d make my answer 90% of instant death. 5% chance of subsequent death and 5% chance of survival with 50% chance of having permanent immobilization due to injuries to the spinal cord. ---
**Author:** ![LadBible69](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/76d3ee/32.png) [@LadBible69](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LadBible69)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2020, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-die-from-11-meters-drop/848270/83 "2020-02-27T13:18:29Z")
> [@Machine\_Elf](#): > > You’ve got the correct speed, 14.688 m/s (32.83 MPH), but velocity has no place in the f = m\*a… That gave me a headache…and I don’t know why but reading it made me want to throw up. ---
**Author:** ![Nars\_Glinley](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nars_glinley/32/8177_2.png) [@Nars\_Glinley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nars_Glinley)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2020, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-die-from-11-meters-drop/848270/84 "2020-02-27T22:15:44Z")
> [@Paul\_C](#): > > Then I’d make my answer 90% of instant death. 5% chance of subsequent death and 5% chance of survival with 50% chance of having permanent immobilization due to injuries to the spinal cord. Honestly, I don’t see how anyone survives a 10 foot head-first drop onto concrete without smashing their skull and/or breaking their neck. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2020, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-die-from-11-meters-drop/848270/85 "2020-03-01T17:31:52Z")
Do you know about the woman who survived a fall from a height of 33,330 feet?: > **[Vesna Vulović](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vesna_Vulovi%C4%87)** > > Vesna Vulović (Serbian Cyrillic: Весна Вуловић, pronounced \[ʋêsna ʋûːloʋitɕ\]; 3 January 1950 – 23 December 2016) was a Serbian flight attendant who holds the Guinness world record for surviving the highest fall without a parachute: 10,160 m (33,330 ft; 6.31 mi). She was the sole survivor after an explosion tore through the baggage compartment of JAT Flight 367 on 26 January 1972, causing it to crash near Srbská Kamenice, Czechoslovakia. Air safety investigators attributed the explosion to a br... She was a flight attendant on a airplane that was blown up. She was trapped in the rear section of the plane. It came down on a section of a mountain with lots of trees, which cushioned the plane. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2020, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-die-from-11-meters-drop/848270/86 "2020-03-01T17:41:05Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > Do you know about the woman who survived a fall from a height of 33,330 feet?: > > [Vesna Vulović - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vesna_Vulovi%C4%87) > > She was a flight attendant on a airplane that was blown up. She was trapped in the rear section of the plane. It came down on a section of a mountain with lots of trees, which cushioned the plane. Yes. I know about it (and have since I was a kid) and I suspect a number of other people here know about it. That’s a bit different a situation as the one presented in the OP: > [@](#): > > can you die from landing head first from a 36 foot drop onto concrete. The answer to that is clearly “yes.” Unambiguously. “Will you?” That answer to that perhaps may have some argument, but I would guess “almost certainly so.” ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2020, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-die-from-11-meters-drop/848270/87 "2020-03-01T17:41:46Z")
I once knew a guy who fell into a vat of peanut brittle. He didn’t die, he just hardened to death. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2020, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-die-from-11-meters-drop/848270/88 "2020-03-01T17:44:35Z")
I realize that was a different situation, but I just wanted to mention it anyway. ---
**Author:** ![RioRico](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f04885/32.png) [@RioRico](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RioRico)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2020, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-die-from-11-meters-drop/848270/89 "2020-03-01T20:13:48Z")
I live amid tall Western cedars and Douglas-firs. A 20-foot section of treetop broke off in a storm and landed on a light steel shed, crushing it. Later, a similar section fell in another storm and landed on my house roof, with zero damage. The difference: #1 was in autumn, before snowfall. #2 was in midwinter; the tree fell into two feet of snow, which totally cushioned the impact. Without the snow, I’d need a new roof and furniture. Had I dropped 35 feet from a tree into conifer needles and forest duff, I might escape with some fractures. Had I dropped onto concrete, I’d be in bad shape. Where’s that airhook when I need it? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-die-from-11-meters-drop/848270.md?page=4)