LIKE zombie appendages flailing in the wind, arm danglers, are taking over our roads.
Illegal throughout most Australian States, dangelers - for short- can be seen making their passengers, and other drivers, nervous.
Danglers disregard road safety and can be seen driving all vehicle types, including fully-loaded 18 wheelers.
Arm danglers come in all shapes and sizes, some of which include: The flowing arm, the beat-box arm, the middle-finger arm, the muscle arm, the inked arm, (or worse the inked-muscle arm), the hold-on arm, the smoking arm, the mobile-phone arm and sometimes a pair of feet - just to keep you guessing.
Confronting a dangler is like pulling teeth.
They will ignore your warnings and well-wishes, even threaten you with the "middle-finger arm".
You might be wondering what goes on inside the mind of the dangler? We don't know.
All we know is there appears to be a motivation to dangle appendages, mostly from the windows of moving vehicles.
Could dangling signify a person's strength and stature in society? Is the dangler simply demonstrating his or her driving prowess? Or is the dangler trying to offer onlookers a rear glance at their new tattoo? A tattoo needs to be admired, after all, and what better place than on the highway while driving 100km per hour.
But who hasn't dipped an arm or dangled a toe and felt the power of the wind rush through your fingers before? As a kid, I dangled my head out of a car window and was enthralled by the rushing air and sense of freedom.
But the roads changed.
It wasn't long before horror stories emerged, kids losing arms while dangling them from buses.
And my dangling days were done.
Too many what ifs.
The risks outweigh the benefits.
What if, during your moments of arm-flowing ecstasy, a loaded semitrailer comes barreling towards you? You haven't got time to react and splat! What if, you're dangling out of the window ant the driver makes an emergency turn? You lose your balance and splat! Too many what ifs.
But then isn't life about taking chances and risking it all? Why not live on the edge or live dangerously? Live in the moment.
Need to get to the shops for example, why not risk it all.
I'm sure James Bond would hang his arm out of his car window, without a care in the world.
Alas, danglers will continue their dangling ways and new varieties may be introduced - I'm working on the sunroof arm.
But you can sleep well at night with the knowledge that your appendages are safe, at least while kept inside the moving vehicle.