Before you go, maybe you could elaborate on what "injury prevention"
means: stronger cockpits, shock absorbing landing gear, BRS
installations, spin-proof gliders?

Eric,

Great question. All of the above, plus some others. Once the accident is
inevitable, the glider just becomes a tool to either protect or injure the
occupants. At this point, you either say "the pilot gets what he deserves
for being a lunkhead" or you say "OK, it's going to happen, what can be done
to reduce the impact (pardon the pun) on the pilot?"

Injury prevention, generically, is keeping someone from being hurt or
killed. Accident prevention tries to keep the accident from happening. If
accident prevention is your goal, then once the accident occurs, you chalk
it up as another training/safety failure, clean up the mess, and redouble
your efforts to prevent the next one. If injury prevention is your goal,
however, you begin to think about how the accident occurred, how the pilot
got hurt, or didn't get hurt, what could be done to prevent that in the
future. What contributed to the injuries or fatality, and how the whole
situation could be fixed to keep injury from occurring in the future, should
the same kind of accident happen to someone else. Forget about protecting
the glider: protect the pilot!

Certainly, anything that absorbs energy in a crash sequence is a good idea,
like crumple zone cockpits, energy absorbing landing gear, maybe even
airbags (here comes another flame). Antisubmarining restraint systems.
Breakaway knobs and switches, so your face doesn't absorb the energy as you
flex forward at impact. Oxygen system fittings that break away safely,
without leaks (ever seen an oxygen-fed fire? Not pretty.) Easier to eject
canopies, should you have to bail.

Think how to improve the environment at your glider port: are there
telephone wires off the end that could snag a low pilot? Don't just train
him not to be low: reduce the height, or bury the wires. Same for an airport
fence, if close to the threshold. Are there sufficient landout areas in the
event of a rope break?

I don't want to rewrite my article here, but I hope this answers your
question. If I didn't make it clear enough, just ask again.
Thanks for asking.

Bob