why can8

Of course, I know why. The first reason is, we don't even recognize it as crashing. I continually hear from pilots who say they broke a downtube "on landing." (I even hear from pilots who tell me--with a straight face, I swear--that they broke a keel or a leading edge "on landing.") The second reason is, we don't think it's possible to fly without breaking downtubes from time to time. I mean, after all, sometimes you're coming in to land and the wind switches, or that thermal breaks off, or you're trying to squeak it into that small field, and you just can't help flaring with a wing down, sticking the leading edge, groundlooping, slamming the nose (WHAAAAACK!) and breaking a downtube.
We regularly observe our fellow pilots breaking downtubes, which also reinforces our perception that this is "normal." I'm going to go out on a limb here. I'm going to say that if you've broken more than one downtube in the last five years of flying, you're doing something seriously and fundamentally wrong. Either you're flying too hot a glider for your skills, or you're flying in too challenging conditions, or at too difficult a flying site.
Now let's ask one more thing. If hang glider pilots stopped dying, and if hang glider landing areas stopped resounding with the sound of WHAAAAAACK every second or third landing (in other words, if hang gliding started looking like fun instead of both terrifying and deadly), do you think maybe the public's perception of the sport might change? (Not do you think more of them would want to do it? In truth, no, they probably still wouldn't.) But do you think maybe they'd stop thinking we were crazy for doing it?
Maybe they would. And maybe they'd be right.