IStock photo 7784296 ©Ryerson Clark

Summer 2009 was a tough season for politicians, and not just because of protracted Supreme Court hearings and healthcare debates. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton fell and broke her elbow on her way to the White House in June. In July, Maryland senator Barbara Mikulski missed a step on her way out of church and broke her ankle in three places. And the person behind those aforementioned hearings, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, suffered a spill at New York's LaGuardia Airport that left her with a broken ankle along with what was surely a case of bruised dignity.

Whether or not you're employed by the government, the odds you'll have an accidental fall bad enough to send you to the emergency room in a given year are 1 in 34.68. Overall, about 1 in 3.21 ER visits can be blamed on a fall, making it the most common injury-related complaint listed in the paperwork. Indeed, the CDC reports that falls are the number one cause of non-fatal injuries (PDF) in the U.S. The statistics themselves are almost enough to bowl you over.

After actress Natasha Richardson’s death from a head injury suffered in a fall on the ski slopes, you may wonder about the odds a fall will be fatal. They're reassuringly low, with only 1 in 15,080 people experiencing a fatal fall each year. But head injuries account for half of fall-related deaths and 8% of non-fatal fall-related hospitalizations.

Say you were unlucky enough to die from a fall. What were you doing? Icy winters may come to mind, but the odds a slip on an ice-covered sidewalk did you in are only 1 in 99.36. You’re far more likely to have fallen off a building or just fallen getting out of bed, at 1 in 14.9and 1 in 15.88, respectively. And the odds are high, at 1 in 5.4, you took a tumble down the stairs, just like those Hollywood action sequences that end with a terrible crunch.

It's less exciting, but age also raises your risk of being hurt in a fall, as vision, balance, and health falter and bones weaken. Falls are the leading cause of injury-related deaths among the elderly. People between the ages of 75 and 84 account for 1 in 3.35 fatal falls, and those 85 and older account for another 1 in 2.71.

On a lighter note, having a cat or dog also raises your chances of face-planting on the hardwood floor. About 0.03% of fall-related injuries are due to tripping over Fido or Ginger or their associated objects. So be careful next time you hear a bark behind you or leave the catnip balls lying around. You wouldn't want to match Secretary Clinton’s and Justice Sotomayor’s mishaps with a tale of feline-induced fractures.