I remember running across Copp and his "triangle of life" concept quite a long time ago. I've given it thought from time to time over the years, especially whenever running across anything critical about him.

I've personally come to the conclusion that the usefulness of his advice depends on where in the world you are. If I were in a concrete slab building in Turkey, Iran, Mexico City, or maybe even someplace like Kansas City, then I think his advice could be lifesaving because the odds of structural collapse are not insignificant in a major quake in those places.

But if you live someplace with good building codes like California, where I live, or Japan, then I believe that statistically, you're probably much more likely to be injured from falling/toppling objects versus being squished flat from a catastrophic building collapse. So, a child in a classroom is probably more likely to be injured from falling light fixtures and other debris than having the whole building come down and squishing them, in contrast to Copp's oft repeated anecdote about the Mexico City school or the more recent examples from schools in Haiti or the Sichuan earthquake in China.

If you ever see demonstrations of what happens during a really big quake on those "shake tables", you often see rather large and heavy pieces of furniture or appliances shooting across the room. I think most of us have seen the security camera footage from the Kobe earthquake ( this one). The scene is the offices of a Kobe TV station. Someone is always there--notice the guy, in bed, in the lower part of the screen when the shaking starts very early that morning. Even if this guy were even able to roll off the bed during violent shaking like this, he very well could've been injured by being squished against something. As it was, he stayed on top of the bed and rode it out unharmed, which is the standard advice on what to do if you're in bed when an earthquake hits.

To me, it's basically a risk-benefit thing. Do I do something that may protect against the rare but catastrophic outcome but also expose you to lesser threats, or do something which should protect you against the most likely threats? For me, I consider falling objects (well, other than the entire building falling on me) to be my biggest threat during any earthquake (and not just the one massive Big One, but any large earthquakes over my lifetime), and I'm probably more likely to be hurt by something bonking me on the head or having something heavy slam into me from the side. There are exceptions, of course, even here in California. Like "soft" first floor areas, like carports under apartment buildings or wide open retail space on the first floor of apartment buildings are not good places to be when the Big One hits and you risk getting squished.

But, for anyone who isn't familiar with the "triangle of life", I think it's a worthwhile concept to read up on.