Wearing pedal cleats a safety feature?

Real Cyclists

Angono, Rizal PHL   | March 5, 2013

We are praying that our fellow biker Rene de Leon get well soon.  He broke his leg when he fell and his leg bore the weight of the fall.  How I wish this would not happen to many of us who frequently figure in this kind of accident.

I suppose he had no shoe cleats on?

I too fell several times but I wore shoe and pedal cleats and each time I fell, I was not able to remove my shoe from the pedal.  So I fell with the bike and my thighs, legs, arms, and side of the helmet bore the brunt of the fall.

 I had scratches but thanks God, no broken bones.

Let the bike take the fall

I had been hearing a lot of advice from older more experienced bikers to let the bike get the full force <energy> of the impact or fall or collision.  That why carbon fiber frames are safe:  they fully absorb the collision energy and break into many pieces.