Can a Overlean Cause more Injury Than a Cutout?

[gon2fast]

I am still nursing some wounds from back to back "over the front" crashes recently. Fortunately I was able to walk away from both mishaps with flesh damage mostly. I know that the second mishap was cutout as the board fried, but the first may have been an overlean where the wheel was over-torqued, but regardless, it hurt like hell. 

As I was pondering why my left knee is still very sensitive to touch I started to think about the crash that injured that knee. I was on a trail going 25mph and hit a tiny bump then blammo! From the damage on my jacket I can see my left arm extended up towards my head which exposed my side torso which got ground up really bad. Really no lacerations on the knee so it was just a good whack to front or side.

This got me to thinking that the position I was in prior to mishap defined how bad I would get hurt and what parts of my body would be affected. My definite cutout was at 15mph. I hit the ground hard.. very hard. Worst crash to date, but did not walk away with the worst injury from a EUC.

This leads me to believe that if one overleans their head and upper torso will be at far more risk for injury due to body position. With a cutout the body will be in a more upright position and the feet and legs come into play more with the initial impact. I think that this is the only reason that I was able to walk away from the high speed crash with minimal injuries. 

By the way, you cannot outrun a cutout, it is like dodging a punch you did not see coming

Also, I am no genius so please poke holes in my theory.

[mrelwood]

 

20 hours ago, gon2fast said:

This leads me to believe that if one overleans their head and upper torso will be at far more risk for injury due to body position.

Interesting theory, one that I’ve never seen discussed before.

 I’m not ready to generalize all cutouts as causing lesser damage though; a wheel can cutout while accelerating just as well. In that case a cutout can actually be worse, since you have no platform to jump off from, as the wheel goes completely limp. But a sudden dismount, for whatever reason, is surely better handled if you’re upright / not accelerating at the time.

20 hours ago, gon2fast said:

By the way, you cannot outrun a cutout, it is like dodging a punch you did not see coming

Well said! There are people who are determined  that a cutout can either be run off or rolled out. But they seem to able to ever only ride below 20km/h, or have never crashed before and have a bit of a surreal idea on human reflexes.