The father of one of my neighbors was in his 60s and still working as a construction manager. He was on a ladder (if I recall correctly, he was only up a couple of rungs) when he fell and landed on the foundation wall of the building they were constructing. Broke his back and wound up in a wheelchair, paralyzed from the waist down.
Six weeks ago, I tripped over a dog squeaky toy and fell on my back on a hardwood floor. Transcerse compression fracture in my spine. Doc looked at MRI results and said, “It’s not operable, but it’s good that it broke the direction it did. If it had fractured the other side, you would be paralyzed.”