How does a broken neck kill somebody?

Well, your spinal cord is the way that your brain communicates with the rest of your body, when you fracture or dislocate a cervical vertebrae (breaking your neck) you can damage the spine, which prevents this from happening. If it happens around the level of C3 or higher, then you will disrupt the phrenic nerves, which go to the diaphragm and allow you to breathe, so you die from suffocation because you are no longer able to activate the muscles you need to breathe. Of course, you're also completely paralyzed at the time, it's hard to tell exactly what you're experiencing at the time, but even if the initial trauma doesn't knock you unconscious, the lack of oxygen soon will.

first of all there are many parts to this #1 you don't always die from a "broken neck" you can break 1 or more of the vertebrae in your neck and live but wen one of those breaks and then goes into your spinal cord that is when you have a problem...when you cut your sinal cord into two pieces you lose all functions from that point down...the spinal cord area around your neck controls your drive to breath so when you break those vertebrae and then they ompletely cut your spinal cord you quit breathing..usually happens first..also fromthis kiind of accident could have hit his head so hard that the brain injury caused his death rather then the neck injury hope it was helpful, and sorry for your friends loss!

it severs your spinal cord which your brain uses to control everything so neck broken nothing works

see your neck is apart of yout spinal chord and when your spinal chord snaps, messages dont get to your brain. when your brain isnt getting messages it turns off and hence y u do. thats y ppl are hung so they loose function of their brains.