Losing a Hand

Having the hand get mangled is going to be extremely painful and he might even pass out from the pain, which could complicate the scene, or not.

Having the trailer run over something and having it fly back and slice off his hand above the wrist might not cause him to pass out, (depending on his tolerance to pain), and if he doesn't he might be able to deal with it enough to finish the scene.

As to after affects, how soon after? I have read where many amputees suffer from ghost limb itching, and other such maladies. If its his dominant hand, he will have to readjust his grabbing/grasping habits for eating, drinking, writing, things like that. Believe it or not, I've read that learning to wipe your ass with your non dominant hand is a challenge.

I'm not sure you can reach anything from the floor of a box trailer that would take off your arm. But if your guy is trying to get back into the trailer, I think you've got a good possibility.

Box trailers have one of two types of doors. One if the roll-up door, which isn't much help to you. But other type door consists of two parts that swing open. There are little holders on the side of the trailer to hold these doors open. They're not designed to be open at highway speeds.

So while your guy is hanging off the back of the trailer, one of the doors breaks loose from the latch, starting it swinging back. The driver, seeing the door in his mirror, slams on the brakes. The door will slam shut. If it hit your arm just right, I can see it either taking off, or coming close to taking off, an arm.

Otherwise, you're going to have to have something wrap around the arm and him being thrown from the truck. However, this is more likely to cause a separation at the shoulder.

Best of luck,

Jim Clark-Dawe

Yeah, only way I can think of for him to violently loose his hand would be for the vehicle to drive over something sharp.

I've cleaned stretches of road for service projects in scouts, and I did see a large piece of scrap metal there on more than one occasion. There are service people and such who'll try to make a sweep every so often. A sharp piece of that can cut a tire open. And the hobos will tend to gather that sort of stuff near a city to sell for scrap.

If it's out in the country a ways then you might find something like that.

As far as getting mangled, I don't see that happening without him being pulled from the trailer and possibly dragged on the road. At which point he has greater things to worry about than loosing his hand. And when he does loose it he'll also have to worry about the traffic right behind him. Not a pretty scene.

If you want something thrown from the tires, I'd go with a snake. Depending on how far north you are (further south, they're called alligators), the rubber carcasses of tires are called snakes. Either have the retread come off the tire or have the truck hit one. Personally I think it would hit the ICC bar, but hey, it's possible. But a snake can easily way up to a hundred pounds, and would hit with enough force to take out an arm. I've seen the destruction they can do to the ICC bar (ICC bar is the bar on the end of the trailer to prevent cars from going under the trailer from the rear).

Best of luck,

Jim Clark-Dawe

jclarkdawe said:

If you want something thrown from the tires, I'd go with a snake. Depending on how far north you are (further south, they're called alligators), the rubber carcasses of tires are called snakes. Either have the retread come off the tire or have the truck hit one. Personally I think it would hit the ICC bar, but hey, it's possible. But a snake can easily way up to a hundred pounds, and would hit with enough force to take out an arm. I've seen the destruction they can do to the ICC bar (ICC bar is the bar on the end of the trailer to prevent cars from going under the trailer from the rear).

Best of luck,

Jim Clark-Dawe

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Just what I was going to suggest. Depending on how your MC is positioned, it's feasible. The other idea of the door catching his arm is also good.

My father has driven semi trucks most of his life, and used to talk about incidents where pieces old trailer tires have done horrendous damage, to other vehicles and to people.

As far as consequences of losing a hand, there could be infection, although it seems there wouldn't be time for that in your story.

Make sure you look up blood loss from a severed hand. I imagine they are not going to have much time before they bleed out. A tourniquet would definitely be required quickly.

Here's an article about a little girl who had her hand severed by a jump rope. Not sure if that helps.

adding to what TAndry said: he won't have much time before he passes out from blood loss, but in the time after the hand is severed, while he's still conscious, he's not going to be able to do anything particularly impressive. when you lose a lot of blood, you can't think very clearly and you don't have much strength. you need to get him back into the trailer pronto after he loses his hand, while he still has the strength to do it.