What could cause broken wrist (colles fracture)?

A fall: The most common cause of a broken wrist is a fall onto your outstretched hand.

FOOSH: Stands for fall on outstretched hand. Thus is still the most common mechanism of injury. By the way while colles fracture is a common moniker for a wrist fracture and colles described the anatomical findings of a typical extra articular distal radius, using colles as a diagnosis lumps too many different well known fractures into one overly broad category, so medical persons should try to specifi.

Fall: The most common mechanism of injury for a colles fracture is fall onto an outstretched wrist. These fractures sometimes require operative treatment.