There’s a reason why there are so many safety campaigns out there encouraging people to wear helmets when biking. If you’re involved in a crash, there’s a strong likelihood that you will be thrown from the bike and be unable to control your fall. Injuries to the head can be as minor as a few bumps and scrapes or as serious as a skull fracture, which can increase the chances of brain damage.

It stands to reason that someone being thrown from a fast moving bike is going to hit the ground hard, and often these types of falls result in broken bones. The most common bones that cyclists break in accidents are their legs, elbows, hands, clavicle, and jaw.

Besides breaking their jaw, cyclists who hit or land on their face tend to find themselves with broken or missing teeth due to the impact.

Even if slamming into the ground doesn’t break any bones, it may result in pinched or otherwise damaged nerves. This can lead to severe pain or even a complete loss of feeling in specific areas of the body. Often this is temporary, but not always.

Land hard on your head, neck, or back and you might do serious harm to your spinal cord. This can leave you with diminished strength, ongoing pain, or even cause paralysis in certain situations.