Television, movies, and the 24-hour news cycle play on our fears of injury and death by sensationalizing events such a shark attacks, gun violence, and terrorist attacks, but what a lot of people may not know is that falls rank as the second leading cause of death by injury, just under car accidents. The most common setting for a fall isn’t at extreme heights or when we place ourselves in a perilous situations, falls happen most often in everyday settings.

Unlike car accidents or gun violence, falls don’t require any outside factors to occur, but just like other causes of injury, the impact of a fall can be life altering. Mosaic Magazine published an informative piece over the summer that examines how we can reduce falling injuries by learning the best way to react to all three stages of a fall: initiation, descent, and impact. What you do during these three stages can determine how severe your injuries will be. Additionally, the writer notes that the state of your health at the time of a fall weighs heavily on the outcome — this is why falling is so much more common and hazardous for the elderly and disabled. The article outlines the five main steps that anyone can take to prepare for and react to a fall in order to improve the outcome.