Most people would have resigned themselves to their fate, but not Christian Kandlbauer. After losing both his arms in an accident five years ago, the 22-year-old Austrian had managed to regain a high degree of mobile independence, thanks to a mind-controlled robotic limb built specially for him by Otto Bock of Healthcare Products.
With the new arm, he had managed to get a driver’s licence in October last year, and was able to drive himself to work every day in a specially adapted Subaru Impreza outfitted by German company Paravan.
Sadly, Kandlbauer died last Friday from injuries sustained after his car veered off the road and crashed into a tree, according to reports. The cause of the crash was unknown, nor was there any suggestion whether the prosthetic arm played any part in it.
The car had been prepared to meet the Kandlbauer’s specific needs. An easy to operate power-assisted steering – which had a fail-safe mechanism to ensure he had full steering control in case there was a power steering failure – as well as a contact button to operate up to nine safety-related functions (horn, indicators, headlamps, wipers, hazard lights, among them) was part of the dedicated build.
Other special mods included a four-point seatbelt, a special emergency brake, an electrically-operated sun visor as well as specific adaptation of various control elements (like a push button to operate the power windows with the elbow). The car was approved by local transportation authorities.
Kandlbauer lost both arms when he was 17 after being electrocuted when climbing up an utility pole. Bock said that Kandlbauer was the first person outside the US to wear the innovative left-sided limb, which recognised signals from his brain and moved accordingly. Four of his nerves were redirected to his left chest muscles to help operated the arm, while a normal prosthetic piece was used as his right arm.
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Kesian :(
Maybe his robotic arm is powered by Mircosoft OS, that might explain the “crash”.
Shouldn’t laugh on people’s expense, dead or alive.
Get yourself some sense of humour
What if one of your relative died in that way and people “get some sense of humour” out of it?
a mac fanboy making a joke about a man who died in a car accident… (-_-)
RIP dude
just like PR always condemn BN. its a brainless comment
You like people to comment like this if you met an accident?
Think before you write a thing please.
Was saying to redxdevil.
sadis membaca cerita ini. apapun takziah utk keluarga mangsa
owh my, this is so sad. RIP.
maybe…suddenly blue screen appear (Windows)..he cannot do anything…
RIP. It was all fate.
The arm ran out of battery?
Might have nothing to do with the arm. If the arm failed, he could have stopped the car with the foot brake. He was probably speeding.
he shud’nt drive impreza…. toyota prius is more suitable….but yae its too late already…RIP.
pity him..its amazing though that he can drive all this while..even normal malaysian can’t drive properly plus killing other people while recklessly driving
Rest in peace Christian :'(
maybe the poor guy fell asleep. RIP
I cannot help but conclude that he was driving fairly fast when the fatal accident happened. The speed that thrills is the speed that kills! Speeding is best confined to
overtaking and the race track.
I would says a lot things are not being told. Only those who are involved in the accident investigation would know what was the root cause of the accidents. It could be
Driver?
Car?
Robotic arm?
Rest In Peace…