I read somewhere that if you find yourself falling from height into water, you basically have two choices:

1) try to land feet first and make yourself as skinny as possible. If there's too much force though, it will break your long leg bones and drive them into your abdomen and chest like spears (shudder).

2) try to land flat and horizontal, spreading the force of impact out onto as much of your body as possible. People have survived bridge falls like this that probably would have killed them had they chosen option 1, but had some of the most severe bruising I've ever seen.

I suppose that if you were falling on land, and had a perfectly flat featureless landing zone, option 2 might work... I think some skydivers have survived like this - basically hitting the ground flat and reportedly "bouncing" when they hit! Given the hostile terrain at the base of most crags, I wouldn't think this would be practical - if you were to land on a raised rock, all of the initial impact force would be concentrated there.

Probably a ton more but I'll try:

Spleen laceration/rupture-->internal hemorrhage-->shock+death
Brain hemorrhage=death (usaully, or vegetative state)
Heart bruising leading to irregular rhythm and death
Fractured ribs-->pneumothorax-->no oxygen=death
Neck Fracture-->spinal cord laceration-->no breathing=death
Head trauma-->seizure-->no breathing=death
Any artery laceration-->massive blood loss-->Death
Massive Crush injury (like a vehicle accident)-->kidney failure-->death
:(

Speaking of falling into water... here's a horror story for ya.

We used to jump off this bridge (high school days), it was about 80 ft above a canal. We used to take a keg out and try to slam your beer before you hit the water. A girl jumping one day landed on her butt (wearing a bikini) she had to be pulled out of the water, noticeabley in pain and bleeding profusely. A trip to the ER and it was determined that the force of the water on her anus ripped it open. Not much later a guy was killed when he hit a log that had floated down the canal. That ended my jumping days.

I know, I fell 14 m on a wooden floor in a gym (forgot to tie my 8 properly). I fell in a sort of sitting position (my knot failed when I let go of the last hold after having readched the tope of the route). In the one and half second, available (-.5gt²+14=0=>t= 1.69s), I can testify that I barely had the time to think about my kids, and slightly extend my arms behind/below me.

I smashed my 2 wrists, and one heel, broke 4 vertebra including C2 (resulting in hematoema compressing the spinal cord), injured one kidney, and had to fight to breath. But I am alive, and climbing again

i heard somewhere that around 60-70 ft is where falls start to get fatal into water.... i know a ton of people have done DWS off of Mayorca, with 60' cliffs, and even have jumped off the top with no deaths to my knowledge... granted the top 10'-20' looks like all jug hauls, so figure most falls were between 10' to 50' or so. cool show on the discovery channel last night where they dropped a dummy into water from 150'.... it ripped the legs right off the dummy and tore it to shreds. not good.

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I know, I fell 14 m on a wooden floor in a gym (forgot to tie my 8 properly). I fell in a sort of sitting position (my knot failed when I let go of the last hold after having readched the tope of the route). In the one and half second, available (-.5gt²+14=0=>t= 1.69s), I can testify that I barely had the time to think about my kids, and slightly extend my arms behind/below me.