 When the subject was dropped, the head would be forced into hyperextension by the full weight of the body, a sufficient force to cause the fracture.However, despite its long association with judicial hangings, one study of a series of such hangings showed that only a small minority of hangings produced a hangman's fracture.Apart from hangings, the mechanism of injury—a sudden forceful hyperextension centered just under the chin—occurs mainly with deceleration injuries in which the victim's face or chin strike an unyielding object with the neck in extension.