# Remember arm amputation by car window? Is that still a thing? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 18, 2018, 7:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remember-arm-amputation-by-car-window-is-that-still-a-thing/812623 "2018-04-18T07:37:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2018, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remember-arm-amputation-by-car-window-is-that-still-a-thing/812623/61 "2018-04-19T21:50:56Z")
I had a teacher in high school (in the 60s) who had about a third of the top of his forearm sliced off when he had his arm side-swiped d it was resting along the side of the driver’s side window. It had happened years before I knew him, and his arm had a kind of hollow along the bone, and it was a bit crippled. Good object lesson to teenagers learning to drive! ---
**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2018, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remember-arm-amputation-by-car-window-is-that-still-a-thing/812623/62 "2018-04-20T01:44:04Z")
And when will [Paul](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1BfM_sygww) ever learn? ---
**Author:** ![The\_Librarian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_librarian/32/402_2.png) [@The\_Librarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Librarian)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2018, 8:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remember-arm-amputation-by-car-window-is-that-still-a-thing/812623/63 "2018-04-20T08:24:34Z")
> [@Hampshire](#): > > If this happened a lot in the past, or even nowdays, you’d think there’d be dozens and dozens of occurances of people’s side mirrors getting clipped of their cars. You just don’t see that kind of thing happening. If it does it’s usually getting clipped while pulling into a garage or parking too close to someone. Never hear of a mirror getting clipped by a passing vehicle. To add a data point: I recently clipped the mirror of a passing vehicle (@ 2x30 km/h) . Still got the bills to prove it. ---
**Author:** ![Sveltington](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ab097/32.png) [@Sveltington](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sveltington)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2018, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remember-arm-amputation-by-car-window-is-that-still-a-thing/812623/64 "2018-04-21T02:42:47Z")
I have never heard of this happening; but back when I first learned to drive my boyfriend would quickly pull his arm in when I drove down a narrow street. I steer with my left because when I learned to drive I was a smoker and used my right hand for that. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2018, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remember-arm-amputation-by-car-window-is-that-still-a-thing/812623/65 "2018-04-21T03:33:15Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > I doubt it was ever a “thing.” A rare freak accident maybe. Within the last week or so I opened a link I knew better than to open and saw a similar recent accident. Someone was driving through a gas station parking lot with his arm out the window and clipped another car. The arm wasn’t completely off but pretty close. I remember reading in the 70’s that surgical repair experience coming out of the Vietnam war was leading to improved outcomes for the far more common elbow surgery for sideswipe injuries So, air conditioning, wider roads, different car shape. Because of improved side impact protection, I can’t comfortably rest my arm on the car windowsill at all. Even if the window was open. Which it’s not, because I have the heater and air conditioner both on, to demist the windshield, and I don’t smoke ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2018, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remember-arm-amputation-by-car-window-is-that-still-a-thing/812623/66 "2018-04-21T17:29:30Z")
I don’t want to call “bullshit”, because it’s obviously something that can and does happen. I just can’t imagine such amputations being something that happen very frequently. I mean how often do you have oncoming traffic or objects along the side of the road passing within an arm’s length of your car? [An arm? No. Maybe a giraffe’s head.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2CreF916KI0) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remember-arm-amputation-by-car-window-is-that-still-a-thing/812623.md?page=3)