Agreed that the risk is very low, but years ago, I ran over a battery left in the middle of a dark country road and it tore off the rubber donut support and bent the mount it attached to; had the O2 sensor been sideways, it would have been gone. But then again, my tv antenna was struck by lightning 2 years ago, so ..... your experiences may be different.

 

I was just saying that the chances of that happening are so low for the typical driver that its not worth worrying about (and if it is frequent, he really needs a lifted truck instead, lol)

That situation you mentioned has to statistically be a near lottery winning odds type of accident:
-Object is just short enough to clear the body but just tall enough to hit a sideways O2 (which is only maybe a 1-2" total range -any shorter and it misses practically everything, any taller and it destroys the engine cradle)
-Object passes under the car in the narrow 6" wide area where the O2 will reside
-Driver doesn't see said object in time
-No lower cars pass through the area + hit the object between the time its dropped and the time you come through (as an object that would hit the O2 on a relatively high monte would obliterate the front end on something like a sports car, compact/subcompact car, etc.)


One other interesting note is that the later W body cars got rid of the U bend completely from the factory and just hang the O2 sensor off the side like the aftermarket downpipes do.