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Luck can seem like such an ephemeral thing until something happens that leaves such a lasting impression that you perhaps stay up at night, wondering what could have happened. Near death experiences are, perhaps, the pinnacle of this feeling.
Someone asked “People who escaped death by complete luck. What happened?” and netizens who have gone through close calls shared their stories. So get comfortable as you read through, prepare yourself for a few shivers, upvote your favorite examples and be sure to comment your thoughts and similar stories below.
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
I lived in the attic of apartment of an old Victorian house. I kept hearing noises in the walls until one night I woke up to a room full of bats. Needless to say I didn’t want to live in an apartment infested with bats - so some friends of mine said I could live in their extra room. I moved really quickly because, bats. Ugh. Anyway, 2 days later the entire old Victorian house went up in flames and burned to the ground. I thought, whew, got outta there just in time. But that wasn’t the end of it. A few days after that some detectives showed up on campus where I had class and asked to speak with me. They started asking me all these questions about whether or not I knew this guy who lived in the basement of the old house. I explained that I may have said ’hi’ in passing a few times, but that was it. Well, it turns out that the guy was obsessed with me - moved into the basement of the building because I lived there - and he freaked out and SET THE FIRE when I left because he didn’t know where I went. I had NO IDEA. They found a bunch of pictures of me and all kinds of creepy s**t in his belongings. Luckily no one was hurt in the fire and he went to prison for arson (which carries a stiffer penalty than stalking- smh).
I love bats now. Bats are my friends. Thank you, bats.
Adrian 1 year ago
Bats are cool, period. It's extremely unlikely they will have rabies, let alone transfer it to a human. They consume a huge amount of mosquitoes, which are much more dangerous to humans.
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Kali Chaos 1 year ago
I live in an old Victorian, and we get the occasional house bat. I do not know their ingress or egress location(s?), but they don't sh*t in the house and have never bitten any of the dogs or humans. So I just kinda assume this was probably their house first, and let them be bats.
Bored Trash Panda 1 year ago
The bats were warning you to get out! Good bats! Bats are awesome! (I love bats)
RELATED:
#2
Cancer Stage 4 Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia.
Doctors told my parents I had a 1% chance of survival over the next 6 months and basically to prepare for my funeral.
Well little ol me probably sold my soul to the devil because I beat the s**t here 30+years later and went from a blonde haired kid to a red haired adult (hence the sold soul)
Donkey boi 1 year ago
Devil: So, what's the price? OP: I wanna beat this leukaemia... Oh, and red hair please.
Marcellus II 1 year ago
So many people change to red-ish hair after leukemia, and often from straight to curly.
Kali Chaos 1 year ago (edited)
This is the best. Check out "Devil's Rhyme" by Brooke Westpine on YouTube, I think you'd love it. This is not promotional, I just really love the song and think you'd vibe with it. Happy you're still with us, love it when people defy odds like this!
#3
On an island called Cat Cay in the Bahamas, there is an area called the Flats, where the tide rolls out extremely fast for a mile. You can walk on the sand and find incredible things (sand dollars, crabs, shells). The water moves out so fast, fish are lying on the sand still alive.
The tide comes back in just as fast. Like a tsunami of water. I was 8, out there with my mom. She forgot that day was daylight savings time and misjudged. Thought we had another hour. The water came in and we started running. But before we knew it, we were up to our necks and the suction out to sea was so strong, it ripped off both our water shoes and her shirt. She carried me on her back, one step at a time, staying completely calm. The water was up to her ears.
When we got to shore, we both lied on the beach completed exhausted. She could barely walk.
Moms are incredible.
Bored Birgit 1 year ago (edited)
Wow. Mom must have been terrified not only for her, but more for you and didn't show it to you. Hero Mom.
Marcellus II 1 year ago
small kid no, adult yes. The water comes up at the same rate as many places (say 1cm/min) but if very flat then say 1cm higher = 600m further and you have 600m/min or 10m/sec.
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#4
Three times come to mind for me.
First - drunk driver going 100mph+ hit my vehicle. They were coming down the wrong side of the highway that late evening. I swerved and woke up in the floor of my truck.
Second - working in a restaurant, glasses straight out of the dishwasher. Grabbed two out of the rack for a table, and one sheared at the base, fell and hit my wrist. 3 tourniquets at different spots on my arm later, they were able to stop the bleeding. I was wearing a watch with a metal band, and that stopped the glass from cutting further.
Third - found out I had Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. Dr said another 2-3 months without treatment, and I’d have been dead. Finished chemo last month and in remission.
Anyone know a good gift for their guardian angel? Mine has been working overtime…
FoxEcoLimaIndiaCharlieIndiAlfa 1 year ago (edited)
I would guess, that the best gift you could give to your guardian angel, would be, to just be a good person, treat yourself and others well and if possible, help those in need, when able to. Pretty much l, don't make your guardian angel regret all the work, that they've invested in you.
LakotaWolf (she/her) 1 year ago
I’m not religious at all and I love this idea :) I don’t believe in guardian angels, or fate, or karma, but I think “giving”/helping others and treating one’s self well is an ideal thing for us all to strive for!
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two-sided llama 1 year ago
I don’t know what to saw except don’t drive behind a truck carrying logs
Kali Chaos 1 year ago
Wow. Love and light to you, that's crazy. In my experience, offering tobacco, a small snack, and some soil from around your home in a bowl of water, left out in moonlight overnight. Sage, cedar, sweetgrass.
MushroomHead22 1 year ago
jesus christ.. i can only imagine that when you really do go out, it won't be extraordinary
Display_Name 1 year ago
I think I'm running out of lives. The words "You almost died." have been spoken to me 5x in my entire life. Two of those were within the last year.
#5
The light turned green at the intersection. I started to move forward, but the driver in the lane next to me honked and hit his brakes. I hit my brakes too and looked around. Just then, a car blew through the red light going 45+ miles an hour. Had I continued through the intersection, my little hatchback might have been T-boned on the driver's side by a much larger vehicle. Thank goodness that other driver saw the car about to run through the light and honked his horn or I might have been flattened.
Paul C. 1 year ago
I'd been to a concert in London many years ago and was driving south down to Sussex on the A24. Gone midnight, probably bit too fast, suddenly thought, what if an animal was to run out of the woods. Raised my right foot and slowed down a bit, a bloody great Deer bounded across the road just in front of me. Half asleep mates in car, what was that? Nothing go back to sleep.
Szzone 1 year ago
"Nothing go back to sleep" - lol, what a legend. Seriously though, good thinking. This is why we need able, skilled people driving cars at night with a good head on their shoulders.
Load More Replies... PHOTOBOB 1 year ago
I was the one that saved a life or two in a similar situation. Had just pulled up to a light as it turned red. There was a motorcycle on the cross street and they were about to move ibto the intersection. I saw a car coming from the opposite direction going way too fast to stop. I laid on the horn. The cyclists responded by flipping me off. The delay was enough for the car to go through the intersection at least ten over the sped limit. Middle fingers turned to thumbs up as the biker went on their way. Neither was wearing s helmet so I take credit for saving them. Might be a bit much, but that is my story and I am sticking to it.
Limey 1 year ago
I am glad this happened … but you should always check for yourself and don’t assume another road user is going to do what they are supposed to. As a motorcyclist, this is the best advice I was ever given and I pass it on to you. Thank goodness you were safe, but always check for yourself
Ur Cupid Grookey 1 year ago
I was on call with my mom while she was driving once, she was at a green light but she stopped the car because her phone came off it's stand. As she went to pick it up a truck came zooming past (They ran a red light) if it weren't for my mom dropping her phone she would've been toast.
Bored Trash Panda 1 year ago
OMG this happened to me last Monday. I was on my way to my son's school for a concert. Started to go and a car coming up the road on my passenger side flew through the red light, I had to slam on my breaks or he would have t-boned me, even so he was very close to hitting the front of my car. Luckily the car next to me saw me stop so they did to.
#6
I attended a meeting in the south tower of the World Trade Center on Monday, September 10, 2001. That meeting had originally been scheduled for the following day.
PickleRick 1 year ago
It’s hard to believe that it’s been this long ago. Seems like yesterday.
Lee 1 year ago
Seems like yesterday and forever ago at the same time. It will never NOT be almost trancelike horrifically surreal what happened that day., all of that just....gone.
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Xenia Harley 1 year ago
I heard about so many stories like this, (I worked close enough where many people commuted to the World Trade Center.) One, a colleague said a friend got hit on the turnpike and was late going in to the World Trade Center, pulled onto the shoulder very annoyed when he witnessed the plane hitting the tower.So, car accident saved him. I heard many stories like this! Wild!
Biofish23 1 year ago
My brother in law was supposed to be on one of the planes, but he overslept and made a last minute switch to a different flight.
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Upstaged75 1 year ago (edited)
One of my best friends had just exited the subway that was located in one of the towers and was on the bridge that connected them to the World Financial Center (where she worked) when the first plane hit. I couldn't even say anything after she told me what she experienced. She ended up having to walk home that day, which took her about 8 hours. Since she happened to be wearing heels that day she ended up with permanent foot issues. But she's alive, which I'm very grateful for!
Gen X Feral 1 year ago
Idk why you're getting down voted when it's true. More people have died in the name of religion than any other cause on earth.
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Robert Trebor 1 year ago
My brother worked a block away, and often had meetings in the twin towers. He was not there that morning, as he had to go to a conference with his son's teacher.
Donkey boi 1 year ago
I still find it weird that there are adults alive that were not even conceived when it happened. I have a colleague that has a mortgage, but had to ask someone what 9/11 was.
Jen Mead 1 year ago
My cousin was a bicycle courier in NYC at that time. He delivered packages to one particular company in the WTC so often they got to know each other. That morning, he ran into one of them on the ground floor. She said "Is that for me? I'll take it now, save you a trip up top." She signed for it and off he went. If he had taken the package to the office, he would have been up there or in the elevator when the first plane hit.
Tamra 1 year ago (edited)
My husband and his colleagues were scheduled to be in meetings in one of the twin towers on that day. Last minute, he was asked to go to a separate meeting in Canada. His partners were just getting ready to leave their hotel rooms to go to the meeting in the tower, when it was hit. Watching the news was surreal.
and_a_touch_of_the_’tism 1 year ago
I’m too young to remember, but my mom was working in NYC at the AMNH when it happened… she says the one thing she’ll never forget is the smell.
#7
My frat bro’s mom was in the Chi Omega house at FSU in 1979. Ted Bundy broke into the house while they were sleeping and killed the two girls in the room across the hall from hers and seriously beat up two other women. She had to testify at his trial. What saved her? She locked her door.
Aud (formerly Spooky) 1 year ago
Jesus christ. When I was little, I used to live in the same neighborhood as Israel Keyes before he was caught. He never targeted families with children, so thank goodness for me & my brother.
Ottawa 1 year ago
He is actually suspected of committing crimes against children. They just couldn't prove it.
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Sophia Athene 1 year ago
My college suitemates hated hearing our resident assistants harp on locking the individual dorm doors and to not put anything in outer doors to hold them open. I kicked out every rock I found. My roommate agreed with me and we locked our room doors and let the others do what they wanted. It was years before I realized that the assts were talking about the Bundy murders when warning us.
Bored Trash Panda 1 year ago (edited)
My dad and uncle went to high school with Georgann Hawkins in Tacoma, one of his victims from Seattle., he also babysat someone my dad knows when she was little. I also knew someone that was almost abducted by Gary Ridgeway, the Green river Killer. She was working at a bar at the time and he tried getting her to go with him after work. Thankfully she said no and had a bouncer escort her to her car.
#8
Was 16 in Bermuda, riding my moped into town when I came up to a bus stopped at a red light. I came to a stop, and then, as is tradition, I scooted around the bus to be at the front of the traffic. No more than 10 seconds later a second bus plowed into the back of first bus at 30-40 mph. I would have been pancaked, no question.
Apparently the second bus driver had had a medical event, and lost consciousness. I just sat on the side of the road for 30 minutes and looked at the trees, contemplating my mortality.
#9
One time i went on a blind date with a guy and everything went great. We wanted to go to his apartment but suddenly my mother called me that my dad is in the hospital so i left my date there and rushed to the hospital. After that i didnt hear from the guy but few weeks later the police knocked on my door and i needed to go to the station because they wanted to ask some questions about my date. Turned out he already r*ped 4 girls and one of them died after they met.
GettingCereal 1 year ago
I know. "Died after they met" is a weird way to say murdered. Or did she commit suicide? Or did she perish from the injuries?
Load More Replies... #10
Back in the year of 2000, 7 year old me and friends were outside exploring. That days location happened to be a power station. Older 9y boy lost his life on top of a machine, electricity burned a hole through him. I lost both my hands trying to climb up and help him. Amputated below my elbows.
Power entered both arms, excited in armpit one side, neck other side. Power never went through my chest or I'd be dead aswell.
Ur Cupid Grookey 1 year ago
@Tobias Reaper you know this can actually happen. Imagine being amputated and then somebody says it's fake. :(
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ElvenFairy 1 year ago
In the UK we used to have all these public service adverts that were designed to scare you. One of them was about electricity stations. It showed a little boy collecting a ball then went inside and getting electrocuted. There was one about a kid getting stuck inside an old fridge, one about a kids foot getting pulled down the side of an escalator etc. They were terrifying to young me and I still avoid the edges of the escalator in my 40s
Sophia Athene 1 year ago
We had a class in high school (a bit late) about power lines safety. Prior to 2000.
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Betta Fish 1 year ago
I'm going to give you an upvote, maybe not the nicest way to say it, but you arent totally wrong. I do sort of agree, like going to one of these places in incredibly dangerous and probably stupid for some kids to go to, and even dumber to touch equipment, but they were kids, and kids aren't always the smartest i guess.
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Diya Lakshmi Kishore Kumar 1 year ago (edited)
But how did he type it? Unless he has someone to scroll through BP for him...
Phara from Flanders 1 year ago
Come on, in these days? There are people typing with toes or a mouth piece, but today, just speech to text is around. So many solutions available...
Load More Replies... #11
I'll try to make a long story short. My ex-wife and her boyfriend she had behind my back tried to hire someone to kill me so that she could have my life insurance and there wouldn't be a custody battle over our daughter like there would be if she just left me. Luckily for me, the guy they hired to do the job was an undercover deputy working a completely unrelated case against the d**g selling gang her boyfriend belonged to.
Yeah. . .finding out about all this was a nice surprise. I had absolutely no clue.
The boyfriend got 10 years because the gun he gave the deputy to kill me with was stolen, and he had other stuff related to the gang on him. She got 5 years for conspiracy and was released after 3.
Hamster pancake she/they 1 year ago
Only three years is ridiculous for trying to kill someone.
Tabitha 1 year ago
Stupid. No one is worth throwing your life away and going to prison for. She should have taken her lumps like the rest of us do, worked out a custody agreement with OP, and gone on with her life. Then again, she was cheating with a d**g dealing gang member, so she should never even be able to have a quick glance her child again, just because she’s incapable of making good, responsible, grown up decisions.
Sven Grammersdorf 1 year ago (edited)
If you're not already a criminal who knows a hitman, you can't hire a hitman. Any stranger who says they are a hitman is a cop. Always.
Donkey boi 1 year ago
Pretty sure I saw the police interview of this. A YouTube channel, it was either JCS Criminal Psychology, or someone else like that.
#12
Being born at 26 weeks. Doctors gave me a 10% chance of survival and somehow I beat the 90% odds against me.
FoxEcoLimaIndiaCharlieIndiAlfa 1 year ago
Same, I was born around 24/25 weeks, in 1985, weighed 2.2 lbs/1 kg. If I did somehow survive, I was likely to have severe cognitive and physical disabilities. Glad I was able to prove them all wrong. 🙏
Emo Nemo 1 year ago
How... How did you weigh 2.2 lbs that 25 weeks gestation? The average is 1.5 lbs. I was born at 36 weeks and weighed 3 lbs.
Load More Replies... Sven Grammersdorf 1 year ago
They just pull those percentages out of their butts, and they inflate them so they look like super-doctors when the patient pulls through
Marykay Klim 1 year ago
yeah! medical technology continues to expand to allow amazing lives saved.
Isabel Galvez 1 year ago
I had a weird blood disease when I was 2. The doctors told my parents I'd never go back home again (they used those words). Later that day they got in a taxi and were crying, so the taxi driver asked them about it. This taxi driver knew a doctor in France who helped extreme cases. Long story short, a month later I went back home.
#13
My only example...
We went to party at Paul Smith college, my friend's favorite cousin was a student there. Bonfire, booze, and someone had the bright idea to bring out a snowmobile.
I was gonna ride on it but had to go to the bathroom. I guess I took too long because he asked a different girl to ride with him. She did.
They were both killed like 2 minutes later.
It was traumatizing.
It blew my mind for a long time. Had I just held my pee in, I'm the one currently in a coffin instead of Kristine.
#14
I was at the Boston Marathon, watching my sister run the race. I’m from the west coast and there’s this incredible hot chocolate place that they only have on the east coast (Max Brenner - so good). I told my husband and brother in law that I wanted to go there and then we could watch her finish the race since it was next to the finish line. We were a block away when my BIL checked her location and we realized we would miss her if we didn’t watch right then. We cheered her on and then 45 seconds later the bomb went off right next to Max Brenner. Basically my sister’s race time saved us from being at the center of the attack.
Upstaged75 1 year ago
My best friend's father had thankfully not finished the race yet and was about 300 yards away when the bombs went off. We're all so grateful he was slow that day!
Betta Fish 1 year ago
One of my teachers was there, and her family was standing right by the bombs like a minute before the explosions, and they had a little girl who ran off, so they went to catch her, and if they hadn't have chased her, the whole family would have died.
Load More Replies... Jaya 1 year ago (edited)
There are probably people for who the opposite is true though: they were supposed to be far away from the danger, but at the last moment decided to go get coffee and end up injured/dead because of it. For every person who survived something because they decided to go left instead of right, there's a person who died because they decided to go left instead of right. The only difference is, we hear the stories from the people who survived because they walked to the left, and don't hear the stories from the people who died because they walked to the left, because they're too dead to talk, so we´ll never know they changed their idea and walked to the left.
Load More Replies... #15
When i was dumb kid of ten years old a guy in a s****y car asked me to hop in and help him find his lost puppy. My dumb a*s was about to get in when my little bro happened to ride by on a bike and started screaming. He probably saved my life.
_physically_insane_(he/him) 1 year ago
That’s the exact thing my parents said kidappers would say to me to try to get me in their car
Tempest 1 year ago
That would be the exact way in which I, an adult, would get kidnapped. Stupid me would get hyped up about helping a pup out! But, perhaps unfortunately for them, my parents wouldn’t have to worry much cause the kidnappers will definitely return me once they realize how useless I am..
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SnackbarKaat 1 year ago
As a small kid I would read this book about a girl who was at the fair with her mother and brother. The girl got lost and a man said he would help her. While he was walking away with her, her mother ran to her and got her back. As a kid I didn't understand why the mother in the book was so upset, the man was trying to help!
Display_Name 1 year ago
10 ye old me would have said, "Good luck finding your puppy." I didn't like dogs back then.
TheForrestGreene (he/they/it) 1 year ago
i remember when i was told that a kidnapper would say that, i told my mom "i'll just tell them that i'm allergic to dogs!". kid logic lol
Isabel Galvez 1 year ago
There is a video online of a guy showing mums at the park how easy it is to steal a child when you have a puppy. It's scary.
#16
I was at an indoor shooting range testing a potato cannon (don't ask). I was leaning against the stall wall with my hand behind my head while my buddy took a shot with it. Suddenly, I felt a pinch/burn sensation on my wrist. I took a look at my arm to see blood streaming from a half inch deep hole on my wrist. The idiot in the stall next to me wasn't sure if his handgun was empty, so he did the most logical thing. He pointed it at the stall wall and pulled the trigger. The bullet grazed my wrist, about 3 inches from my head. That's the only time I've ever seen an RSO tackle someone.
LB 1 year ago (edited)
What does RSO mean here? I googled it but is it Registered Sex Offender, Road Safety Officer... what? ETA: nevermind, it's probably Range (as in shooting range) Safety Officer. It makes sense these places would have security, but I've never seen one irl so I didn't know the term.
Robert Trebor 1 year ago
My friend Mark was standing in his back yard when a bullet hit him. It had been fired by an idiot a half a mile away, randomly shooting in his own yard, and only the distance saved Mark, as the bullet was almost out of gas by the time it got to him.
Kali Chaos 1 year ago
You usually have to take some required courses to get registration at a gun range, so the safety officers are like the lifeguards of guns. They can't stop you from being stupid, but they can save you in the event of a lot of stupidity. In this instance, I hope dude got cited, banned and lost firearm privileges. Why would you not test it at a target, are you new here, what's wrong with you? I hope you also sued the heck out of him.
der sebbl 1 year ago
Even I, having zero experience with firearms and will probably never even be holding one, know that you don't test if your gun is empty by pulling the trigger
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Seanette Blaylock 1 year ago
Hope the RSO got a few good punches/kicks in, and/or gave you a chance to do so as well.
Hannah Taylor 1 year ago
Last Christmas, my sister was standing in her yard when two men got into an altercation. One of the had a gun and fired it, hitting my sister in the leg. Fortunately, it only caused a bruise and put a hole in her pantleg,but boy, was she PIIIIIISED! Get this: she was more furious about the fact that considering where the bullet struck, that could have been a child.
#17
Sudden Cardiac Death at work. Co-worker gave me CPR, paramedics got my heart beating again. 5% survival rate.
I ate a lot more ice cream once I was healthy, again.
Adrian 1 year ago
The definition of death is constantly evolving. It used to be when your heart stopped...
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TheNewJenBrady 1 year ago (edited)
Same for me when I was 32. I wasn't feeling well and so had my SO take me to the doctor. I collapsed while the nurse was walking me back to an exam room. CPR, a few shocks with an AED, 5 days on life support and 2 ICDs and I'm still here 15 years later🤪
Bored Trash Panda 1 year ago (edited)
have you not heard of people that have died during surgery and brought back? or people dying by drowning and brought back? When your heart stops, you are dead. You can not be alive with no heartbeat....
Load More Replies... #18
I was in the passenger seat of my dad's small sports car (low to the ground) when a crowbar came off a work truck in front of us and flew into the windshield of our car. Somehow it stopped a few inches away from my face and I luckily happened to be looking down, which meant all the glass that would have ended up on my face was all in my hair instead. I always think about how lucky I was, I can't explain why that crowbar stopped half in and half out of the car. Crazy to think that if it didn't stop it would have hit me square in the forehead.
The Other Guest 1 year ago
A co-worker brought in a photo of her son's car after a close call similar to this one. A piece of wood - maybe a 2 x 2? - came off another vehicle & hit his windshield, moving at an angle. It broke through the glass directly in front of his face, and pierced the headrest next to his left ear.
Hannah Taylor 1 year ago
Excuse me while I go to change my Depends.......😳
Load More Replies... #19
Was swimming at an Australian beach, stupidly not between the flags, got smacked by a rogue wave and was stuck in a riptide, I was knocked out cold and pretty much drowned, still to this day I don't know how I got to shore, when I woke I was up on the wet sand of the beach and had 5 jellyfish around me.
HI, I'M A SHOUTY MAN 1 year ago
SWIM BETWEEN THE RED AND YELLOW FLAGS!!! Please. Especially if you're a tourist and/or not a confident swimmer, only swim between the flags and don't go in too deep. I know it seems tempting and safe but seriously, it's not worth the risk. Trust me.
Upstaged75 1 year ago
I love the show Bondi Rescue, but they must get frustrated with having to save all the idiots who think they don't need to swim between the flags! Or tourists who can't swim (and have never been to a beach before) but still think it's a good idea to go in the ocean - usually while wearing clothes instead of a bathing suit. It's a dangerous beach and quite a few people have drowned there.
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DaisyGirl 1 year ago
As an Aussie and former life saver the above is utter BS. There is absolutely NO WAY you end up back on the beach from a riptide, even more so if out cold. You have to swim parallel or an steep angle to beach to make it back safely... however 8 times out of 10 u need to be rescued to make it back.
Melissa Leyva 1 year ago
The jelly fish may have actually saved him. If they stung him repetitively the adrenaline would have restarted his system when he floated towards shore.
Upstaged75 1 year ago
Mocking someone who drowned is not particularly funny dude. :(
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#20
I grew up in a rural town in Southern Ontario and took the school bus every day. One afternoon, I got off the bus at my driveway and as I always did, I walked across the road to our mailbox to get the mail. As my school bus drove away, it was partially blocking my view of the opposite lane. As I stepped to the yellow line in the middle of the road, I suddenly stopped as if someone grabbed my backpack to yank me back. Just as I stopped another school bus came flying past me, missing me by only a few inches. I was stunned and couldn't believe it. These buses would drive super fast on those back roads too, had to have been at least 90kmh. Nearly knocked me on my a*s.
I have no idea what stopped me. Intuition? Paranormal? Part of me thinks I died then and there and this is one of many alternate timelines I've skipped through.
Salty_Sasquatch 1 year ago
I think OP probably heard something or saw something out of the corner of their eye that made them stop to figure it out.
Jeremy James 1 year ago
I have a theory that every time I've had a near-death experience, my consciousness preserved itself by shunting me into a parallel universe in which I did not die.
Sven Grammersdorf 1 year ago
I have the same belief. Everyone dies of old age.
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#21
Street light collapsed on me (my neck) and onto the face of the girl in front of me on a 5th grade field trip. I was surprisingly fine, while the girl in front of me got helicoptered out. She made a full recovery though!
FoxEcoLimaIndiaCharlieIndiAlfa 1 year ago
Wow, definitely sounds like a freak accident. Glad all turned out well in the end, considering.
Iseabail Munro 1 year ago
Had an incident like this on my street as a kid. teen boy stole a car and took it joyriding but crashed in to a lamppost, Survived the crash but as he got out the light part fell off and crushed his head. 80s style big round top lamppost.
Kraneia The Dancing Dryad 1 year ago
That sounds like a lawsuit in the making. Glad everyone is okay though.
#22
Had a boundary wall of a balcony fall from almost 8 ft right after I walked by under it…. It was a very windy day and I was just enjoying the weather outdoors. Because of the wind a door just banged open in front of me, so I just walked towards it to shut it close and as soon as I walked there the wall just fell right where I was standing. Would have been crushed and died right there just missed by a couple of seconds. But that incident gave me a new perspective about life. Cherish life folks as u never know when ur time comes.
Upstaged75 1 year ago (edited)
I was once helping a friend load her horse in to the horse trailer. He really didn't want to cooperate and kept backing out as soon as he got in. So we decided to try and close the back door/ramp immediately when he stepped all the way in. (Usually we put up a bar behind the horse before the door is shut but he wasn't letting us do that) He finally went all the way in and we pushed the ramp up so it could be latched. But before I could get the latch fastened he freaked out and threw himself backwards against the ramp and came flying out of the trailer. I somehow moved just in time, but I came within about half a second of being crushed under a 40 pound steel ramp and a thousand pound horse. It most likely would have killed me. This was over 20 years ago and I still get chills thinking about how close it was.
FoxEcoLimaIndiaCharlieIndiAlfa 1 year ago
Umm, except that I do know, when my times up, Miss Cleo, told me... /s
#23
I was out backpacking with friends on the Washington coast. We didn't get a permit on our way out. A park ranger stopped by our camp and when he saw we didn't have permits he sat with us for a bit while he wrote one for us. We asked him about his job and he was telling us how he had been cleaning up dead marine mammals off the beach all day. That there was the worst case of red tide blooming that he had ever seen. We currently had a pot of mussels cooking on our fire.
If we had gotten a permit, he probabltly wouldn't have stopped to talk with us.
If he had come by an hour later, we would have all already eaten the poisoned shellfish.
If he had come by the next morning, he might have just found a pile of bodies.
Verena 1 year ago (edited)
If you had gotten a permit, you might have gotten the warning, so you hadn't collected the mussels? How do these permits work?
Bryn 1 year ago (edited)
And they might not have. They needed a permit to be on the land, most likely.
Load More Replies... Bored Trash Panda 1 year ago
Idk if I believe this one. I grew up in Washington and we would go clamming a lot. They always had signs posted everywhere when there was red tide.
Privacy Much 1 year ago
Having worked in retail, you would be shocked at how people can miss big bright signs right in front of their faces.
Load More Replies... #24
The guy who set fire to my house used lighter fluid on a wet mattress he found behind the house. It's because he used the wet mattress that the fire spread slow enough for us to wake up, see the smoke, and call the fire department. Fire department told us that, had the mattress been dry, we'd be dead because he put it up against the side of the house with the gas line. So not just burnt to death, confetti'd. I guess I'm thankful for the stupidity of cr*ck heads.
Sven Grammersdorf 1 year ago
Crack. It's called crack. It's freebase cocaine, made from cocaine hydrochloride and baking soda.
1 year ago
The most intriguing part of of this story is the fact that this person casually mentions a arsonist finding a wet mattress discarded behind their house
#25
Did not inherit the genetic mutation that caused both of my siblings to have a cardiac arrest at 30… it was a 50/50 chance.
Sven Grammersdorf 1 year ago
The lottery's odds are a heck of a lot longer than 50/50
Load More Replies... #26
One day I was walking through the streets of my city when I decided to change my usual route to surprise my friend for her birthday. As I was on a side street with little traffic, she heard the sound of an explosion coming from behind a nearby building. Frightened, I turned around and saw a car that had just lost control due to engine failure and was crashing right where I had been standing seconds before. Thanks to that sudden decision to change path, I escaped death by pure luck.
Kaedyn Walsh 1 year ago (edited)
This is why I ALWAYS listen to my intuition and also don't mind if things "hold me up". I've had many, "Man, if I had been 30 seconds earlier...." scary moments.
Jaya 1 year ago
It's just as likely to happen the other way around though: that your intuition sends you INTO the path of danger, instead of out of it. And the thing holding you up, can just as likely be the reason you get injured, where you would have been fine if you were on time.
Load More Replies... Sven Grammersdorf 1 year ago (edited)
I call BS. Why would engine failure cause a driver to lose control? Your steering and brakes still work without the engine running.
#27
Was driving home from a party with a friend in the car. Had a cop car on random patrol following me down to a main intersection.
Avoiding any sort of risk of getting a ticket, I was being extra cautious when waiting for the light to change.
My side had only just changed to green and since I was slower than normal moving off the line, it stopped me getting plowed by the semi that blew through the other part of the intersection on a red at full speed.
I was just stopped there in stunned silence. Even the cops took a minute or two to reflect on what had happened before they peeled off and lit that truck up.
I ended up coming back along the road where the cops had finally managed to pull that driver over. 5km away from where the incident happened.
Salty_Sasquatch 1 year ago
I saw a short video once of an intersection with three lanes each way. The dash cam of the car right behind the first car in one lane showed all three front vehicles moving ahead right away when the light turned green. All three were absolutely disintegrated by a semi that came flashing through the intersection, just gone. I used to pride myself on having quick reflexes that among other things made me first to get moving across an intersection. That video made me seriously reconsider that.
Pheebs 1 year ago
Same, though in my case it was at least two incidents where I paused and just missed getting creamed by someone in too big of a hurry to stop. Somewhat high number of red light runners around my area, so I’ve taken to being slower.
Load More Replies... Jack and Coke 1 year ago
I always look both ways before moving at a light. I've seen too many red light runners these days. People are so impatient.
Tabitha 1 year ago
Same here. Just because the light has changed doesn’t mean everyone is doing what they’re supposed to do—-and then you have the incidents beyond anyone’s control, where the brakes go out or the driver loses consciousness.
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Mike Beck 1 year ago
Some of these surprise me. When my light turns green, I verify that people are stopping before I start out. I don't care how well you think you drive, you don't control the other drivers.
Sophia Athene 1 year ago (edited)
Hubby and I had a 12 hr drive to visit back home with family. We couldn't afford 2 plane tix. My grandpa would tell me to drive carefully. One day I told hubs was a good driver and he said he trusted hubs but not the other drivers. I'm choking up remembering the kinds of things he said to me. I tried to quit my PhD program a semester in and I told him I wanted to. He set my @$$ straight. I went back. It took 5 1/2 years but it happened. He died 5 months before I graduated. My grandma came and brought me his Bible to keep. Shouldn't read and comment so late.
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Robin Childers 1 year ago
The cop probably figured the poster was checking their pants for streaks.
#28
Worked at my local mall while in college. I’ve always prided myself on never being late. I was going in early to go to my bank which was at the main entrance. Series of ridiculous events began to happen and I found myself running late, which really frustrated me-again, rarely, if ever happened. I drove quickly to find police cars, flying past me. As I approached the mall, I saw the cops swarming the main entrance, where I was headed. A woman had entered the main entrance with a rifle began shooting as she entered, continued as she walked through the mall. She killed 3, wounded 7, some critically. No doubt I would have been in the line of fire had I not been late. She spent decades in jail and was recently released.
Paul C. 1 year ago (edited)
Sorry, for those of us who are stupid, she killed 3 people and critically wounded 7 and you say she spent decades in prison, before release? Did you mean to say she was locked up for life and the key was thrown away?
Kaedyn Walsh 1 year ago (edited)
"she spent decades in jail and was recently released." She did her time for the crime and was released. If she'd been locked up for life she would not have been released. I hope that helps you understand what she was trying to say :)
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Virginie Michaud 1 year ago
Indeed. No evidence she was released actually. She got 3 consecutive life sentences plus 7 10 year sentences. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sylvia_Seegrist
Load More Replies... #29
Tornado passed over my car on the freeway in Texas.
Kraneia The Dancing Dryad 1 year ago
It used to be the thing that you hid under an overpass if a tornado came through. They don't recommend it now as you could get sucked out and up into the tornado. But, we did that once when I was little. Very scary.
Salty_Sasquatch 1 year ago
Yes, I heard that too. Evidently the overpass just sucks the fast wind through faster due to the constriction. I guess it's the muddy ditch if I'm ever in the line with a tornado. Just hopefully not in Florida and there's no crocs in the ditch.
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Nenyone_yay 1 year ago
Am i mistaken, or is the picture depicting a dust devil, not a tornado? Or is there a difference besides "dust devils are smaller"?
#30
2nd day in Iraq, mortar landed about 100 feet from me. Closer would have been bad. Last day in Iraq, mortar landed 20 feet from a bunch of us, was a dud.
JustAnotherPanda (she/they/he) 1 year ago
Who downvoted you?!? So annoying
Load More Replies...In the realm of uncertainty, luck often carries with it an air of unpredictability. Just as luck plays a huge part in near-death experiences, so too does knowledge when one embarks on quizzing adventures.
If you're looking to test your wits and perhaps gain some new insights while having fun, consider exploring the cartoon universe.
#31
While going 100+mph on a motorcycle, I went in-between 2 deer bounding across the street. I fortunately didn't have any time to react or I would've surely hit the second one. Instead I just eased off the throttle to a stop, and took a few minutes to breathe and think about how bad that all could've gone.
Limey 1 year ago
I am a motorcyclist. Yes it is. Buy yourself a track day if you want to do that stupid s**t,
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Michael None 1 year ago
When I worked in a hospital they would call ahead with whatever case was being rushed in to the ER. Whenever there was a motorcycle crash they would get the transplant team up and prepped. Chances of survival are so low if your are in a motor cycle crash they only rush you to the hospital so that someone else can use your organs.
DC 1 year ago
I've rode a motorcycle at 300 km/h. Two times, a rented Hayabusa. Perfectly legal, btw, to go that fast. German Autobahn is a trait, at times... But ... if you compare 200 km/h to 100 km/h, you know how far you have to look forward, anticipate what other vehicles' drivers would want and try to do, ... 300 is a totally different experience. Given, early sunday morning, it's practically empty and you don't see other vehicles for several minutes, and as it's pretty straight, you can do that without unreasonable risks to be taken, but ... pretty much only then. Doing 200 on a regular workday afternoon is a lot more dangerous - and, not speed related, but riding a motorcycle and getting into a few dangerous situations (usually by stupid people in cars), pretty much evaporates any fear to experience in a car ... there's a lot of metal, airbags and whatnot around you, ...
Load More Replies... Hannah Taylor 1 year ago
It doesn't take a Sequoia tree to take you from 100 to 0 in 0.0 seconds.
#32
Had been eating at Luby's in Killeen Tx, every day for lunch. Skipped lunch one day to finish out the job I was doing. On my way out of town, I pass Luby's, and it's all taped off with a pickup truck sticking out of the wall. Cops everywhere. Some guy crashed into the building, got out, and started shooting all the employees and customers. The truck hit the booth I'd been sitting in all week.
#33
Not me, but my father tells a story of driving along a bush road in Bouganville before the revolution there. He was in the car with my mom, baby me and my 5yr old brother. There was a cardboard box on the side of the road, blowing a bit in the window, like an empty shipping box type thing, and he was going to run over it to amuse my little brother. At the last moment he pulled away though, worried about there being something side it.
As we drove past he looked back in the rearview mirror and saw two little kids crawl out of the box and look after him as we drove down the road.
Jill 1 year ago
Why would you purposely hit a random box on the road?? ANYTHING could be in it! A piece of equipment, nails, tools, kids, animals - literally anything! I've heard tales of people putting unwanted pets in boxes and leaving them in the street to get run over and killed! NEVER EVER purposely hit random boxes on the road!! You might just save a life or at least not risk damaging your car.
Roberta Surprenant 1 year ago
My uncle saw a car in front of him on the freeway discard a bag out the window. He stopped and found a puppy in that bag... years later that dog saved his life by waking him up when he fell asleep while smoking a cigarette and set the bedding on fire.
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#34
While white water rafting, my raft was going through rapids when I got ejected from the raft and sent underwater. I swam up and hit my helmet on a rock. It was pretty dark and murky. That is when I realized that I had been pushed by the current either underneath a rock outcrop or into an underwater cave, I'm not really sure which. Trying my best not to panic, I did the only thing I could think of, use my hands to grip the rock and push myself against the current while kicking. After what felt like an eternity underwater, but it was probably no more than about 2 or 3 minutes, I noticed the light was getting brighter, and before I knew it, I had reached the surface. Once at the surface, the current of the rapids shot me downstream, and I floated to the nearest bank of the river to collect myself.
Edit: It has been pointed out that it is unlikely I was underwater for that length of time. I agree that my memory during such a stressful event is probably unreliable, so I will add that the length of time I was underwater was long enough for the rest of my group to become concerned about my wellbeing.
But I would like to say that I don't think I possess any significant ability to hold my breath. I was a fairly fit teenager at the time, but honestly, I think most of you reading this, under those circumstances, would be able to hold your breath for much longer than you thought. Survival instincts are a hell of a thing.
AlchemisT 1 year ago
You can't predict what fear and adrenaline will make you do. 2-3 minutes is not that difficult for a fit person.. especially if you are holding it for your life.
Jakobi 1 year ago
You have about twice the amount of oxygen in your lungs then you think. You only use it when you need to.
Load More Replies... #35
Got admitted to the ER after my potassium levels tested low. They gave me an IV and a couple pills, and then kept me in the hospital a couple days until I was at a normal level and were sure that the medication I was on wasn't lowering that significantly.
The next day, when the doctor came to check on me, he said he did not know anyone with such low potassium in their bloodwork that was still alive.
Eastendbird 1 year ago
Before I was diagnosed with Celiac disease my blood haemoglobin level was 31. Normal range is 115-165. Doctors were all "How are you upright and walking around like normal?"
DC 1 year ago
Which units? I remember that the normal range, stated on a bloodwork sheet in hospital, was 12 to 16 or so, mol per ml? Anyway, it's about one fourth of normal, therefore, you should be just fine as long as the most exhausting thing you do is walking, but, while that still feels normal, anything more exhausting would feel like exhausting you as fast as operating at your total limits, because ... it would be so. Our cardiovascular system is about four times oversized, in regard to idling and nonexhausting activities like walking at normal pace without anything to carry, which makes diseases taking their toll on your performance not appear at all, if you aren't into sports, before they are truly serious. Like, your case was. Guess you're fine by now, knowing where it came from and what to do about it?
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OneHappyPuppy 1 year ago
My ObGyn once asked me how I'm still alive with my record low vit D levels
Bored Trash Panda 1 year ago
My husband went to the ER in January. He had a blood sugar of 1856, normal level is like 80-120ish. He was not aware he has diabetes. He was put on a continuous insulin IV drip for 24 hrs then insulin intermittently. All of the doctors were stunned that he walked in there. We have had 3 doctors tell us that is the highest they have ever seen. I think the highest recorded was like 2000ish. He is now on medication and eating better, no soda or sugary drinks.
#36
Walking through a dutch town at old years eve, loud bang and 15 cm next to my head a large metal traffic sign stuck in the wall which somebody blew off a pole 25 meters away. On a holiday with a huge hangover me and a friend decided to swim to the pizzeria on the other side of a 3km wide lake. Halfway we both were completely exhausted and very much undercooled with large purple spots appearing on our bodies. And when we started to be convinced that we'd die a random tourist in a small fishing boat appeared and took us in. Falling 9 meters down at work, but landed in the only sandpile due to construction works on for the rest a concrete floor. Sliding with the bike on a wet road and went under a bus from the side and came out in the back without hitting anything. I should be dead..
FoxEcoLimaIndiaCharlieIndiAlfa 1 year ago
I wonder what the purple spots, that appeared on their bodies, in the lake, was caused from?
Salty_Sasquatch 1 year ago
Low or no blood supply due to the extreme cold. Times like that the blood goes to the interior of the body to keep that warm. It's an automatic reflex.
Load More Replies... Hannah Taylor 1 year ago
The bike slide sounds awesome (I know, tacky.) He would have made a great stunt driver.
#37
Had a tree fall on me. I was 2 steps away from being crushed by the trunk.
Paramedics made sure to tell me that while I'm sitting there with a flap of skin hanging off my scalp. Like, thanks, dude. For pointing out I almost died while I was already in shock.
Sleepy Panda 1 year ago
This is really unhelpful. Ive had near death experiences twice due to different medical conditions, each time I wouldn't have known it if I wasn't told, neither time was it necessary for me to know that if I hadn't received treatment when I did that I would have died. Both times messed me up mentally and I now suffer from health anxiety as a result.
Sleepy Panda 1 year ago
These types of statements are really unhelpful I mean.
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iBlank 1 year ago
I was out for a run in the woods on a windy day. Something about the sound of the trees near me seemed off and I stopped. 1 second later the top of a tree crashed down on the trail in front of me. Saw a couple comments already about following your instincts, and I fully endorse that!
#38
I have been close to death 4 times.
First time when I was born. I literally shot out of my mom, and the midwife only just managed to catch me before I hit the floor.
Second time when I was around 8 or 9. I fell from one of those raised sand pens. I landed in a way that should have broken my neck (because in theory I could not have landed beneath the large tree trunk right beside it without hitting the back of my head on it).
Third time I was skiing. I lost control of my skis down a mountain and went off course. I hit a tree really hard. If I hadn't been stopped by that tree, I would have tumbled over the edge and fallen down the mountain.
Fourth time was when I gave birth to my stillborn son. An hour or so after giving birth, I started bleeding a lot and was rushed to the operating room.
#39
Like 12 years old, the main power line from our house to the street power pole caught on fire from a squirrel chewing on it. I saw the fire, parents not home, so I get a cup of water and try throwing it up to the power line to put the fire out. I did this a few times and I couldn't get the water high enough to reach the fire so I called 911 and they made it there within like 10 min. The fire man said I'm lucky the water never made it up there because the current could have traveled back down to me and caused a cardiac arrest. I still think about that from time to time. I wonder why no one cared there was three children home alone all under the age of 12 at 11 on a school day.
FoxEcoLimaIndiaCharlieIndiAlfa 1 year ago
So, why were 3 kids, 12 and under, at home alone, at 11am on a school day?
𝐆𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐦-𝐏𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐚 1 year ago
Because the past really was a foreign country. When I was a child, the 'rents turned all of us loose after breakfast (on weekends) or after school (on weekdays) and we were expected to just go off and amuse ourselves until it got dark. Lunch was left on the stoop for us, but we were expected to stay outside and stay out of our parent's hair. If we were home on a school day for some reason, we would have been turned out of the house right after breakfast as if it were a weekend. ESPECIALLY if parents had to be away. The thinking was, "Who KNOWS what trouble they'll get into in the house alone? Make them play outside." No one ever worried about the trouble we might get into outside.
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#40
Left the gas on when I was little making eggs. My stepfather came back early one day from work. He never did that. Chances are I would have either blown up or died from poisoning.
Salty_Sasquatch 1 year ago
Again, why the heck is a small child at home alone using a gas stove?
Hyunjinswife143% real 1 year ago
never said they were a small child, little could mean 12 or 13 depending on their current age
Load More Replies... #41
Brain inflammation, “Brain on Fire”, due to medication reaction in my brain ( Lyrica + Prednisone). Went untreated for 10 months led to a week of 4 NDE’s, multiple different hospital misdiagnosis issues, and at least a 4 year recovery period. When finally diagnosed the Dr’s gave my family no hope of a recovery. None. Today I am healthier than ever and offer this - NEVER GIVE UP, NEVER STOP BELIEVING.
Linda Riebel 1 year ago
So HOW MANY doctors were responsible for this nightmare? And pharmacists?
#42
This was years ago but I still get shivers over it. I was in the Army deployed to the Gulf. We had a short hump back of about 20 kicks but I had hurt my knee the previous day falling of a 113 trying to pee on someone (separate story) Anyway they needed someone to drive a deuce and a half full of water bottles to another unit, offload and take all their trash. I volunteer just to get out of the road march. Make the drive and start the swapping process. Get finished and the other guys truck is full of boxes of water and mine trash bags. I'm completely full but there is one bag left. He tried and tried to get it in but there was just no room so I told him dude you just have to keep that one. He tossed it in the back of his and we started to leave. About 10 seconds after we pull away we heard and felt the explosion. We are fine but the other truck is just mangled. Turns out some asshat had picked up what we guess was a bomblet from a cluster bomb and put it in the trash. It was in that last bag. The other two guys in the truck were pretty shaken but the water absorbed most of the blast. Had that last bag made it on my truck I wouldn't be here today.
Dragon mama 1 year ago
I think this is an excellent time to point out that so so many of our young servicewoman and men are injured or killed due to friendly fire and other non-enemy related events. It's a lot folks
#43
I live in the Netherlands, so it's common to go to school/work on a bicycle. One day maybe 15 years ago I was going to school and just standing at a red light. It turns green, and for some unknown reason I just don't start riding like I always do. Out of nowhere, a car comes speeding by right in my path where I would've been. I never heard or saw it coming, but the collision would've been nasty.
#44
I was in a train crash. Really badly wounded as I nearly lost both my legs on the spot, both leg arteries broken, almost bled out. I didn't know that, but apparently during emergencies such as this the responders have to walk through the wreckage and identify people who are done for and those who are worth trying to save. While it totally makes sense it still feels pretty weird that in the condition I was I was probably worth saving just because I was young and fairly fit and healthy at the time, and that a different person could have come to a different conclusion.
Lesbiancats 1 year ago
Black is de@d, red is life threatening injuries, yellow is injured, but can wait, and green is if they are uninjured/can get themselves to the hospital themselves
#45
A wave turned me over while I was about to drown after breaking my neck at the beach. 0/10 experience ♿️♿️
#46
Car accident Moped vs Oldsmobile I was the moped driver. Straight road car turns from the oncoming lane across traffic. Being a new ish motorcycle driver (moped) I knew enough to know I was f****d. But instead of putting it down or turning or anything, I took my hands off the steering and wrapped my head as I impacted (no helmet) inverting both knees on the handlebars, breaking the key off inside My right knee, and dislocation of my right shoulder as I spun into the windshield shattering The windshield, and dislocating my hip on the concrete. My ignorance saved my life. A seasoned rider would have put the bike down and likely been run over. And my taking the hands off the steering saved my fingers, saved my head and neck (to an extent) and the shoulder (my right was the arm that wrapped my head first and the impact dislocation it would have been my head if I hadn't. Impact speed was 50 miles per hour. Not a single bone broken but permanently f****d my back. And realistically, I should be dead.
Marykay Klim 1 year ago
Yes! Motor bike, bicycle, rollerblades, scooters+ gotta give that brain a fighting chance!
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aubergine10003 1 year ago
As a moped rider, I'd say you were damn lucky. Going 50 with no helmet? JFC.
#47
Was supposed to be in the movie theatre in 2012 in Aurora. My wife and I had gone to the midnight showing of Dark Knight in 2008 at the same theatre. So when Rises was going to come out we wanted to do the same. I’m a huge Batman fan. At the time though I was starting my shift at work at 7am. So I couldn’t see myself going to a midnight show and only getting a few hours of sleep. We decided not to go.
Baby Jenks 1 year ago
This happened: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_Aurora_theater_shooting
#48
Got caught in a flood during a freak storm, the storm knocked out the cable in our neighborhood. so some guy went out for a smoke after the cable went out and heard my friend calling for help and saved us by throwing us a jet ski rope. We were stuck in this flood for two hours calling for help, but the heavy rain and thunder totally drowned us out, so if it weren't for the cable going out, we would have definitely died.
Abigail Strong 1 year ago
For anyone who had to read that a few times (cuz i had to) OP and their friend were caught in a flood and some rando went outside cuz the TV cut off. Rando then saw OP and their friend and then saved them :)
#49
I was riding my bike, and it had to be a day where it rained. I was already on the highway, and I couldn't get off due to traffic, but when it started picking up, I started to go faster. I didn't see a puddle coming up, so I hit it, lost control, and I somehow managed to slide underneath a milk trailer while my bike got crushed by the semi-truck.
#50
I sleep walk/talk. My house burned down Christmas night when I was 11. It started in my bedroom. There was a crimp in the copper line of the old Humphrey gas heater next to the door. The fire went around the entire bedroom. The bunkbed that I shared with my younger brother was burning. From what I’ve been told, I had been yelling about it being too hot and woke my parents. When my dad came to investigate, he saw the hallway leading to our room cutoff by the fire. He climbed through our bedroom window to get us out. I woke up in the front seat of our family station wagon watching our house burn with three crying younger siblings behind me. That old pine house burned fast! It’s the first time I heard the term “lighter wood.”
#51
My grandfather was a navigator for B52 over Europe in WW2. Completed 18 missions when the war ended. Was scheduled for a flight back to England from France a month later to catch his boat back home. He got too drunk the night before and missed his plane. The plane and crew crashed in the ocean and they all died. Unfortunately used that as his excuse to be a drunk for the rest of his life.
#52
Semi took the entire side of the car off except my seat. I'm in a passenger seat, and a semi rips the door off, and I'm not even jostled.
#53
Not me but my friend in 6th grade was sitting a couple seats in front of me on the bus. He moved into the seat across from mine so we could trade Pokémon cards with our binders. Not even 5 minutes later another bus slams into our bus breaking our bus in half at the exact seat he was sitting at. Judging by the bent metal and condition of the seat, he would have 100% not survived that crash.
#54
Not death, but I did escape a kidnapping attempt when I was 9. It was Halloween night and I was walking home from trick or treating with my friends down a neighborhood road. I noticed a van tailing me a bit, but as I was 9, I didn’t think much of it. Then the van stopped next to me and shined an extremely bright light in my face to where I couldn’t see anything. I stood there for a moment confused, but then a voice in my head said “RUN”. I bolted into a field in my neighborhood that had tall grass just as someone was grabbing my arm. I never even told my parents. I just went home and ate my candy. This might be the first time I ever talked about tbh. Again not death related though, but it could have led to that.
FoxEcoLimaIndiaCharlieIndiAlfa 1 year ago
I'm glad that they were able to escape from being nearly kidnapped, but a little confused and sad/upset as to why, this 9 year old child, never told anyone, especially a trusted adult, right after this happening. I would imagine that, if I were in this situation, even if I decided not to tell my parents, as soon as they asked how my night was, they would be able to tell by my voice or body language that something was wrong. I doubt, I would have been able to go out alone or with just friends, at the age of 9, anyway.
Ronna Black 1 year ago
You’re assuming he had a trusted adult. If something similar had happened to me, I wouldn’t have told because I would have gotten in trouble and/or told it was my fault.
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#55
Believe it or not but a big stone flower pot thing fell just an inch behind me from above when I was walking in the ancient town of Split, Croatia. First I heard the noise, then I saw my sister en my mom looking at me in shock. And then when I realized what happened and how if I had walked half a second slower I would have probably died or at least sever brain injury that would’ve required surgery. I actually started crying right there no idea why I guess it was more of a delayed startled reaction and tears were the outlet lol obviously physically I was completely fine but I when think back on it it really changed my outlook on life and death and how it can suddenly all be over because of nothing more than a freak accident.
#56
Was a student pilot in high school and was supposed to fly one Saturday morning. Was lazy and hit snooze, got to the airport late and my instructor said I was too late to fly. The student in the time slot after me took off in the same plane I would have flown and the engine failed on take off.
#57
My abuser choked me past unconsciousness, presumably until my heart stopped. Then, I guess he realized he didn’t want to lose his plaything or go to jail, so he decided to try to revive me with CPR. Somehow, it worked. I woke up with him pumping my heart with his hands. I never went to the hospital. I don’t know if my heart fully stopped or not, but the fact that I survived that — and his many other horrors — isn’t just luck. It’s a miracle. One that I used to regret, but I am now very grateful for.
Wubedhheij 1 year ago (edited)
Please tell the f****r has had every single limb torn off by hand in real life and now is in hell rotting, receiving the worst torture possible.
#58
Parked my car on my slanted unshoveled driveway like a lazy moron. Sat in it for a minute, it stayed put. Walked outside, walked behind it (downhill), and literally a half second after i was out from behind it, all 4500 lbs of it slid right past me. Would have pinned me between the bumper and street for sure. Now, I street park on level ground, shovel, salt, park, wait in the car, then only walk uphill to go around it.
FoxEcoLimaIndiaCharlieIndiAlfa 1 year ago
Good to see that, OP learned from such a valuable lesson.
#59
I’ve shared this a few times, but i had a near death experience of drowning when i was a child. my dad was tossing me gently up in the air so i’d have a little splash in my aunt’s pool, and i kept shouting “higher!” like any kid would. but, my dad is not a good dad, so the last time he did it i remember being tossed high enough i could see the roof of my aunt’s house, and in the free-fall i had time to think “this is gonna hurt, i’m sorry daddy”. i didn’t feel the impact, and i woke up under the water but it was *wrong*. i could breathe the water, it was infinite instead of being able to see the walls and touch them after two strokes, and it was dozens of feet deep instead of the three feet it was designed as. i swam, and swam, thinking i was a mermaid and yet aware i was probably dead, because i knew even by then he’d kill me someday, so why be upset he succeeded. probably better for me. i don’t know how long it felt like, an hour? but eventually a big light was seen above me and asked me if i wanted to stay or go, and i said go because i didn’t want to be alive with my family. but for some reason, i backed down and swam to the surface, and it was so hard i almost didn’t make it anyway. when i broke surface, i was visibly drowning and flailing, but i managed to force myself to vomit and cough out the water by sheet panic as all my dad did was smack my back a few times while my aunts and grandma yelled at me for ruining the water. i got tossed out onto the gravel and took myself inside, and that was it. still here i guess, so must be a reason for it
Abigail Strong 1 year ago
.."yes the spawn is drowning, but JEZUS CHRIST what have you done to my beloved pool water?!?" Some people deserve only hot melted ice cream and frozen spaghetti smh
Wubedhheij 1 year ago (edited)
Still way to nice, they deserve the absolute worst, not minor annoyances.
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#60
Fainting in the hospital saved my life. If I had been anywhere else I would have died. Was even on the same door as ICU where they took me afterwards. I was in the hospital because it was 2-3 days after having super invasive surgery to remove a tumor from the inside of my spinal cord. They'd worked on my C4-C7, and I will always have an incomplete spinal cord injury. Anyhoo, my left side was numb all over and I couldn't move anything. I'd just gotten my arm to move that morning but still couldn't use my hand. I had to pee and we discovered id started my period in the midst of the chaos, so the lovely CNA's ran over to maternity and brought me back some of those mesh disposable after birth panties with with the pads made into them (as numb as my junk was, they were comfy! Felt like Always brand Infinity Flexfoam pads in the light blue box. I have no kiddos, but mamas if y'all want comfy periods, I recommend those pads!). They had me on this weird sitting walker that had handles like an elliptical machine and a little gate that closed under your butt, and you basically wall-squat in this thing. Took me to the bathroom, got me leaning forwards and kind of standing, we're cleaning up, I'm helping with my good arm, and the dizzy hits as they're pulling the panties up over my a*s. I remember her saying "oh no! Can you stand up straight as you can, and try to lean a little to the right? You're crooked and leaning, honey!" So I did. She asked me if I felt better, I nodded yes but said "but I can't hear anything" andddd next thing i know 3 ladies are holding me and one says "you passed out a little", THEN I was on the bed and the Nurse was doing chest compressions with one hand & reaching for the code button with the other. I just stared til she noticed me, then we BOTH started crying and she was freaking out apologizing while I was freaking out thanking her and hugging her with my good arm. I was surrounded by doctors and hadn't realized because I was so out of it. I was taken to ICU at 4:30am and spent 4 days there, until my heart finally got a little stronger and the spinal shock wore off and I could safely be upright. That was 7 years ago. I can walk and my left hand works decent but it's still numb and probably always will be. I get dizzy at least once a day, but I just sit down and let it ride until I can get back up again. I have PTSD from the injury and hospital stay, but I'm grateful to be alive. I think about that night a lot. Especially when I do things we didn't think I'd ever be able to do again. Dear everyone with an SCI who is not mobile: I do it for you 🩷
#61
Get dismissed enough times by enough doctors, and you learn to ignore your body, unfortunately. In 2022, I developed a migraine that wouldn’t go away. I’d had chronic pain for almost ten years at this point, so I tried to power through it. I powered too close to the sun. 15 days in, nauseated and unable to see clearly, I was taken to the ER. Turns out.my kidneys were failing, and my whole body was shutting down. A decade-old root canal had developed an infection. With no symptoms. And was killing me. I was in the hospital for almost three weeks. I lost 20% of my body weight, and it took a long time to recover when I got home.
#62
Driving at night on a dark, small backroad, trees on both sides. With me were three ladies, who were just telling me that these roads were so dangerous, because this time of year farmers come bolting down roads with their heavy -"who needs lights, YOLO"- machinery. In the corner of my eye, between the trees, I see a little reflector. The reflector is low to the ground, but suddenly I realize it is moving towards the road I am on, and I brake the car in a reflex. Next thing I know I have to brake completely, because this gigantic dark unlit tractor-trailer turns on the road in a hurry. Nobody in the car realized it was there, and we were all scanning that side road, as we were just talking about the danger. If I would have continued driving, I would have driven the car into that thing without knowing what happened to me. It reminds me of my colleagues in Africa, who keep telling me I should stop worrying about the trucks you *can* see coming towards you, and start worrying about the trucks you *cannot* see coming your way.
#63
Tyre popped on a major uk motorway, car flipped onto its side and hit the railing, then slid to a halt in the lane of oncoming traffic. Luckily it wasn’t rush hour and the cars behind us all stopped. An hour or two later and it would have been much worse. Us and kids walked away with bruises.
#64
Was on a 1000 mile cycle ride for charity. Made it about 900 miles, as a lorry overtook me through a small village in Scotland there was a hanging cable across the road which caught the top of the driver's cab on the lorry, The cable was attached to a telegraph or electrical pole (about 250kg) which was ripped out of the ground. Pole came flying past me sideways and smashed into the lorry. Never felt fear like it.
#65
Back when I was a year or two out of high school, I was riding around town with three girlfriends. We were looking for one of our guy friends to see if he wanted to smoke with us. We hadn’t found him yet, and we were sitting at a red light (heading east). The light turned green, and then my friend who was driving said, “oh is that him at the gas station?” We all turn and look to see if it’s him, and then we realized it wasn’t, so my friend starts to go straight - just as a semi, heading north, blows through the red light. If my friend had gone as soon as the light turned green, we would have been t-boned and probably all 4 of us would have died. Definitely the two on the passenger side. I think about that every now and then.
#66
Was sitting in the backseat of a 1981 Chevy Citation completely still at a redlight with no seat belt on. A semi hit us doing 60-70 mph and all 4 of us walked away. I had 13 stitches in the back of my head. I have three fun theories 1) I am just too hard headed 2) heaven doesn't want me and hell is afraid I will take over or 3) you cannot keep a good man down. The odds are a mix of 1 and 2. I have also been held at gunpoint with a 40 caliber Glock to the chest. I got out of that by fighting crazy with crazy. I finally reached up, pushed the gun harder into my chest and asked my ex if she thought that was going to get rid of me. She laughed and said she knew it would. I laughed and said, "no, I will be right back. I will make a deal with the first devil I see." It stunned her so much that she lowered the gun. I took it and left. I sat in my car for 15 minutes or so just shaking. She was untreated bipolar and I really thought I was going to die. The crazy statement I made at the end was just a last second hail Mary to see if it would work.
#67
I briefly dozed off while driving late at night one time. I woke up just before a pretty sharp curve in the interstate. If I hadn't woken up when I did I would have driven straight through the curve and into the Missouri River. I've never been a religious person but I sent a little thank you towards the sky that night.
Jan Moore 1 year ago
There is a stretch of road I drove to and from work. Coming home about 3:15 pm is my most sleeping time. I would slap my face as hard as I could, rub ice on my face, turn the radio up to insane level and in winter time open the window. I don't remember how many times I've blank out and find myself drifting. Luckily I never met anyone at those times. I also feel asleep in the parking lot after getting to work. Found out a little later that I have sleep apnea so I was severely sleep deprived.
#68
My best was the morning that I showed up at urgent care, then a hospital, featuring a burst pupil, and a fever that should’ve been impossible to survive. I’d been treating some ugly symptoms with the gym for a couple of years, but, however surprisingly, working out isn’t how you fix brain cancer. Shortly before that occurred, I woke up one night, to floodlights and tones. I felt so much pain and sickness that it seemed like I’d die, and I didn’t know the woman telling me to come with her. But it felt like it a dream, so I did, and realized as we were climbing into an ambulance that she was the medic I’d been running with for a long time. I still felt awful, but it was a lot better by the time we were on scene. I had to cut a car, and when we drove back, I was feeling well. I still suspect that hydrocephalus would’ve killed me that night, if it hadn’t been for that call. For months before that, I’d been losing my radial pulse when holding still too long. A couple runners-up: -Very first house fire, as a new firefighter. Beams struck inches on either side of me, but didn’t hit me directly. -While looking for the source of a fire, my officer and I discovered that we were standing on an incredibly hot floor. -Anaphylaxis, from a handful of causes. -Before my second craniotomy, medical aid in dying was on the table, as my cancer was expected to be far more malignant. I considered it very carefully. -Armed, drunken redneck, who forgot he called 911. -Drunk driver deciding to plow through the scene of a vehicle extrication while I was cutting the car. -Multiple drunks with knives, and one with a bloody shard of glass. -Severe autoimmune disease as a small child. -Asthma as an older child. -A couple of near-drownings, in the ocean, and whitewater.
#69
We were on a training mission in the North Sea just off the coast of Norway. We were told to go to the muster area to get ready to board the Ch-46's that were waiting for us on the flight deck. Now, each heli was supposed to hold around 15 to 20 Marines with gear (our alice packs) stowed underneath our feet. They said don't worry about taking your s**t off since its such a short hop to the beach. Heli's give the word to load up so they start counting us off one by one. 17, 18, 19, 20 - I'm number 22. They stop at 21. Guess we get the next one. Heli takes off and has trouble while taking off and proceeds to try to return to the carrier. No luck. It hit another bird that was now where it took off from and flips over and into the cold a*s water. Only 3 survived if I remember correctly. I'll never forget that day.
#70
When I was 10, I fell into a deep swamp wearing heavy rubber boots at summer camp. I was a good swimmer, but no match against the weight of the waterlogged boots. I happened to fall in when I was standing right next to the camp counselor. If he hadn’t been right there to immediately haul me out, I almost certainly would have drowned.
#71
This is my close friend's story that really made me sit and think about life: My friend worked at a county medical examiner's office where she would often sit at a desk near the front of the room to do paperwork. One day she just up and quit her job because she couldn't take it anymore (bad environment, plus was a LOT of working with dead bodies). About a week later a coworker's husband walked in and shot two people- his wife, and the woman sitting at the very desk my friend sat at just a week prior. The woman at the desk died. My friend was almost shot dead at 20 years old. She doesn't regret quitting that job.
#72
Not me but 2 strangers. When I was living in a college town, my roommate was driving me to the store to get some beer. It was dark out with not a lot of light for the street. These two people started crossing the street and were right in front of us as our light turned green. I honked at them and they got pissed off and stopped right in front of our car. The next second, a car came speeding past us in the next lane. Had they kept walking they would have been hit by that car at about 40mph.
#73
Driving home in the dead of night. New moon, no clouds. Dark as f**k in rural Minnesota. Car in front of me is going 40 in a 55. I get to a straight away and proceed to pass. As I get into the other lane, before I get even with the slow car, I suddenly see an entirely black horse with a black Amish buggy behind it. No lights or reflectors of any kind. Luckily I managed to swirve out of the way and avoid an accident but I thought I was gonna kill them for a second.
#74
When I was young my first car was a junker.... The driver seat was held up right by a two by four wedged against the back seat if you took it out the seat went flat below the window line of the car I was working nights and fell asleep behind the wheel and woke up to the roof of my car about 2 inches from my nose and the firemen betting how many pieces my body was in when. I politely told them to be careful I was still alive. Walked away with a few cuts from the glass. My car had flipped sideways on a country highway by a bridge ravine and gotten wedged between two trees. Apparently the other miracle is the way it was wedged all the gas drained out of the tank so I didn't go kaboom.
Hannah Taylor 1 year ago
I see this as a "now let this be a lesson to you" moment. DON'T DRIVE SLEEP-DEPRIVED!
Freya the Wanderer 1 year ago
Time and again I read and hear that a sleepy driver is just as dangerous as a drunken one.
Load More Replies... #75
Smelled gas in my house after coming home from 3 days away, rushed to kitchen to check the gas stove and switched on the light (as customary) on the way in 😖. It was a very dark kitchen with no windows and it was ingrained to just switch on the light as you went in. V lucky and I realised that the second I did it.
#76
This was 14 years ago and still lives rent free in my head to this day… Driving to meet my fiancé to sign papers for our house, and I am on the highway. From the other side of the highway comes a large tire. It bounces over the concrete median divider, lands about a car length in front of my car. Bounces over my car. I watch it be missed miraculously by every car behind me. A second sooner it would have been in my windshield.
#77
Nearly hanged myself cause I was stupid So when I was around 8 years old,I used to go play at my cousin’s place. One day they decided to play as Spider-Man which is basically using net ropes(so in my country we use mosquito nets and they need to be attached with strings) to swing around, but since I’m a weak lil 8 year old I can’t swing it like my cousin and his playmates so I thought it would be a good idea to tie the rope on my neck and swing it that way Luckily when I jumped of the pillow one of the babysitters saw me and helped me. The only reason I didn’t die is probably because the pillow wasn’t that high and a babysitter,if not I would probably be 6 ft under the ground I’m glad that I’m alive but 11 years after that I still find myself thinking abt that moment
#78
I was just diagnosed with asthma, and only bought my inhaler the day before. I was in work and had such a bad asthma attack that everything around me went black and I said to myself ’This is it’. However, it turns out that I unconsciously searched for my inhaler in my bag and was able to use it in time. None of my colleagues noticed anything strange with me and said that I acted very calmly the whole time. They were just shocked to see me using an inhaler as they didn’t know I had asthma. If I weren’t to pick up my inhaler the day before, the story would’ve been different. Never had an attack like that afterwards.
#79
Not me but my father. He was traveling on biz and a co worker gave him a free upgrade to a full sized sedan instead of the normal sub compact his office would rent. He got into an accident on 7 mile bridge down in the keys same day princess diana got into her accident and died. If it was for the heavier car and upgrade he wouldnt have survived the accident they said. Although ball in the other court, if he was in the sub compact, would he had even been in the same place and time as when that accident occured?
#80
Moose v. compact car This was five days before Christmas and the roads were icy. I was driving home out on a highway at 50 mph. A moose trotted out from the treeline, I slowled to 40 mph, and then they ran in front of my car. The moose slipped at the last second before my Honda Civic went over them. I made it out uninjured. The damage to my car was on the undercarriage and a puncture to the radiator. The moose didn't make it. : ( I got deer whistles on my car after that incident.
#81
I was in Thailand and I thought I knew better than the guides and went to cross the road and when I looked back everyone's faces were a nice shade of white and come to find out later that I did not notice the 18-wheeler bearing down on me that missed me by roughly 4 inches. So if I had left the sidewalk a second later I would have been a hood ornament for a truck in Thailand.
#82
I have a bad habit of narrowly missing dying/being severely maimed while hiking. I do a lot of bushwhacking and I have had two times I was inches from being straight killed by a falling tree. The first one was extra spooky. Me and some friends stopped to take a break and we were using a fallen tree that was still attached to the trunk, making a right angel. My friends sat in the tree while I stupidly sat under it in the triangle. We hung out for maybe 15 minutes then got up to keep going. Right as we started walking away, the tree fell all the way to the ground, right where I had been seconds before and that tree was easily big enough to kill me. Another big tree missed me by inches when I lightly bumped it and the top fell off. Last fall I was stepping over a log and the ground gave way under me and I fell about 6 inches. I was standing directly over a sharp branch pointed right at my groin. If I fell Another 2 inches, I would have been in a lot of pain, 3 inches and that suckered would have impaled me in the groin. Lots of hiking. I always tell myself I'm gonna be extra careful from now on then end up having g Another way too close call before long.
#83
I'm driving home very tired at about 3am on a dark 2 lane rural expressway. I saw a flicker of light on the road ahead. I don't know what it is, a reflector, an animals eyes? I switch lanes and slow down to about 50 mph. A few seconds later, a giant WHOOSH of air, as a speeding van with no lights, just flew by me going north in the south bound lanes! It was a drunk driver! I took me a few seconds to process what I just saw and slowed to a crawl with my hazards on. This was before everyone had a cell phone, and the next exit ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS 100% of the time has a cop sitting at the truck stop. I drive quck to get his attention, of course this is the time he isn't there. I run inside shaking and can barely talk when I call it in on a payphone. The next day I told my Dad what I saw, and he told me about a story on the news where 3 kids were killed in a car by that same van a few miles down the road. The driver was cut in half. The drunk walked away with minor injuries. The van was white. That was the flicker I saw. If that van had been any other color, or had I missed that 1 second of light on that dark road........
#84
In 2014 I was doing this project of documenting and writing up Canadian Military monuments. I grew up in Ottawa but moved to the GTA and hadn’t been back in a while. There was a Leafs game in Ottawa and I was going to use that as a reason to drive up, stay with a friend and photograph the Cenotaph and Tomb of the Unknown soldier in downtown Ottawa. It was a prefect arrangement because my friend worked at the bank right across the street from the memorial. I was going to drive him to work and do some photography first thing in the morning. Day of my trip, I wake up absolutely sick as f**k. I was unable to even get out of bed. It was so bad. I called my friend and cancelled and just gave him my tickets to the hockey game. The morning I was going to be there, a guy went on a shooting spree and murdered one of the honour guard at the war memorial I was going to visit. The timing of my trip and my driving my friend to work would have put me there at exactly that moment. It took a while for me to reconcile the fact my life could be very different or over if I had not gotten sick that morning. Conversely if I had been there, could I have seen him coming and the outcome would have been different? I don’t know.
#85
I was going to celebrate my sisters birthday, but my family was going away on vacation, so we celebrated one day before I had originally planned to come over. I went to the shopping street in town, and then went to see them. The next day there was a terrorist attack on that street, about the same time I would've been there. Although most people survived, there were like 200 cases of PTSD afterwards, and that in itself has been nice to have avoided...
#86
Fell off a roof while fitting a skylight, I stepped onto a hidden access hatch with no hatch lid just a piece of insulation shoved over the hole. Luck would have it the scaffolders had put up a scaffold on that side of the building that day. Instead off falling 12 floors to my death I landed on the scaffold on the 12th and broke my leg.
#87
I heard a voice in my head tell me if I don’t go to the ER now I would die. I’ve heard this voice twice in my life. Both times I felt fine. The more I ignored the voice the louder/thunderous it became. Both times as soon as I stepped into the ER it lead to emergency surgery. One time I had the ER doctors come out to the waiting area to see me and rushed me back to triage. I didn’t remember anything after that. Woke up a week later in ICU. I was told I was very lucky to be alive - gallstones lead to liver failure. The second time that voice demanded I go to the ER I was 26 weeks pregnant. I had gone into labor and had no idea I did. I was informed if I had waiting a min longer I would’ve probably died and the baby as well. Again had gone into liver failure.
#88
Got clotheslined by a fence on a four wheeler right across the neck. These old peckerheads had a f*****g pot patch in the mountains, so they had roped off the trail not with a fence, but with a single wire that you couldn't see until you were right up on it. Just textbook hillbilly s**t. Anyways, because I'm deaf in one ear and the engines were loud, I couldn't hear my mom warning me, so I didn't tense up, and the s**t ragdolled me instead of breaking my neck. This is incidentally also the story of why I don't ride on the back of any ATVs, bikes etc... My own damn mom nearly killed me, so I sure as hell don't trust anyone else. I drive, no compromising.
#89
I was sitting at a stoplight in a convertible when a taxi driver going 100+mph lost control of his vehicle, went into a ditch, and became airborne. His bumper JUST glanced off the left side of my head and my head became mush. If he had been a fraction further to the right, I would have been decapitated.
#90
Last September I was having my first motorcycle class. Driving around the lot in circles, you know. I had never touched a motorbike before in my life. For some reason I lost control, can't really remember how or why, but next thing I know I was slamming face first into a 53' truck trailer parked at a loading dock. 6 broken ribs, face completely split open, broken elbow, broken hands, internal bleeding, you name it. But the thing that saved me is the trailer. If it hadn't been there, I would have slammed right into a warehouse wall and that probably would have been that.
#91
Finally! My time to shine. A friend and I pulled out of sonic and onto a shoulder of a road with a 60 mph traffic. Before we even could think about what was happening, a damn 18 WHEELER hit us! Side swiped the entire side of the car, so bad that I couldn't even open the driver side door. I'm even more terrified of driving next to them than I was before, and I think of how close we were to death, if he would have hit us an inch more to the right, he would have probably flipped us/crushed us.
Jeremy James 1 year ago
In our Driver's Ed class, they brought an 18-wheeler to our school parking lot and had us all take turns sitting in the driver's seat so we would get a sense of where the blind spots are. Never try to pass those things on the right!
Marykay Klim 1 year ago
Great idea for Driver's Ed. I remember our teacher also had been a tester. He said, never to trust someone's signal. It doesn't mean they are really going to turn. So true! More times than I can count I was glad I waited to see them slow down and commit to the turn. Was sure to teach my kids the same lesson.
Load More Replies... #92
I was a very dumb kid and got into many self inflicted dangerous situations but the one that stuck with me was when i nearly choked to death on a plumb pit. Family had gone out for the day and i decided i did not want to go and just stay in and play games and due to some hardcore lazyness and stupidity instead of spitting out the pits i was swallowing them to save having to deal with them later short story even shorter one of them was way bigger than the rest and it got lodged in my throat and i could not get it out little 12 year old me tripped in a panic towards what was 100% going to be me being found dead in a couple of hours and slammed into the floor with my back, i regained consciousness with my dog licking my face very confused and vowed to never do anything similar again
HangryHangryHippo 1 year ago
That was very difficult to read. Remember: proper punctuation is the difference between helping your uncle Jack, off a horse and helping your uncle, jack off a horse
#93
I was driving on an interstate approaching an interchange where I saw several cop cars racing the wrong way at me down the ramp. I was so focused on where they were going to go and how I could get out of their way that I didn't see the car that was running from them barreling at me in the left lane. Thankfully I chose the right shoulder and didn't get in the left lane or I would have been hit head on, I watched in horror behind me as that car ended up crashing into a semi that tried moving to the left shoulder to avoid him. Had I been just a few seconds later or gotten in that lane to avoid the cops that would have been me. As if the crash itself wouldn't have been bad enough, I was in a tiny early 90s Mazda MX-3 and I know I would have only been wearing a shoulder belt because that car had the automatic seat belts and I didn't use the lap belt back then. Would have been my last day for sure, no idea what pushed my wheel to the right side but I'm lucky it did!
#94
Had a massive crash on my dh bike, my neck twisted in ways no neck should twist, shattered my very expensive helmet, and ragdolled for a while. My head dislodged a massive rock in the process (all caught on film) I should not have walked away with only a decent concussion.
#95
My first 4 parachute jumps were from 3000ft. But the 5th one, I was with a couple of guys who paid extra to go to 5000 ft. My chute partially failed with the cords wrapped around my ankles. I was going in head first. Due to the rapid spinning the lopsided chute put me thru, I couldn't use my reserve even though I had tried to deploy it twice. My main finally popped open at 400 ft. Had those 2 guys not taken my flight, my main would not have opened until I was 1600 ft underground. Or something like that.
#96
By some miracle, flooring it through the outer edge of an EF-4 tornado worked. The only casualty was the fender. No I don’t know how we didn’t get pulverized by debris.
#97
While I was delivering pizza with DoorDash, a car drove up into the middle of the road. I honked at it as I was barreling down, but it didn’t move, so I swerved around it just in time to avoid crashing.
#98
He mistook me becoming unconscious and pis*ing myself as me dying.
#99
I was boogie boarding in 10-15 foot surf at high tide. Saw a wave I wanted, as did another surfer, and we raced to get priority position and I was late. 12 footer crashed on my head and sent me to the bottom; which had happened hundreds of times in my life. But this time, while being tossed like a rag doll underwater, my boogie board and leash had wrapped around my legs twice and pinned my left arm to my side. I couldn't kick or use my dominant arm to swim but it really didn't matter as the wave tosses you so much, you don't know which way is up. The wave was holding me down and since it was high tide, I couldn't feel the bottom. I was running out of air and beginning to panic... I had suddenly a moment of clarity and said to myself, "if you don't calm down, you're gonna die." I relaxed and let the wave take me. What felt like a split second later, I felt one of my fins on my foot hit sand, "THE BOTTOM!" I rocketed out of the water and took the biggest breath of air that was the saltiest breath of life. I climbed over the boulders overlooking the spot, shaking terribly, not because I was cold but realizing I had survived. I sat there with my board for about 15 minutes, watching some really good waves on a military base called Point Mugu. There was hardly anybody there, 4 of us, at one of the best surf spots on the entire West coast. After calming down, I thought to myself, "the surf is hardly this good and big." I grabbed my board and launched off the rocks and rode a few more waves as the sun set.
#100
I was working on my car in the garage at night, underneath, taking out the transmission (manual transmission). My work light was c**p, with frayed wires that would sizzle and visibly spark. Since I had to jiggle it a lot, I kept it near me. I got the transmission out and on the floor, and as I was moving it, it snagged and ruptured the fuel line and gas poured out all over me, the sparky light, and floor around me. I have never moved so gingerly, worming my gas-soaked body out from under the car, being careful not to touch the light right next to me, that thankfully did not spark.
#101
I found a lost cat and was going around the neighborhood, knocking on doors to see if she belonged to anyone nearby. One guy put down a shotgun as he opened the door. I’m lucky he didn’t shoot first and ask questions later.
What do you think ?
Justin Tyme 1 year ago (edited)
I was with a friend in Sampoong Department Store in Seoul, South Korea on June 29, 1995. My friend suddenly looked at his watch and said we should hurry and leave because he needed to pick up his wife at a certain time. Moments after we walked out, the building collapsed killing 502 people and injuring 937. We got hit by dust and small pieces of debris but were not injured.
wuehlmaus85_1 1 year ago
I'm still alive, because I'm overweight. In a suicide-attempt I took a large overdose of my medication. If I weighted 10lbs less, I would have been in a coma or even dead.
Tempest 1 year ago
So sorry to hear about this. Glad that you’re still here! Hope you sought help afterwards. Something I’ve heard about similar situations is that people who are saved from suïcide attempts are around because the world wasn’t ready to lose them! (Please this is not saying the opposite is true. It’s just a reminder of how important you are even on days when you can’t see it yourself.)
Load More Replies...
Nano Iders 1 year ago (edited)
Back in the 90s me and some friends decided to go for a drive on the roads around our town. It was still a clear night but you could see a storm coming in the distance. We badly misjudged the speed with which the storm was approaching and suddenly we were under a deluge, hail and all. You couldn't see beyond the hood of the car. As we entered a roundabout we decided to pull over on the side of the road to let the worst of the storm pass instead of keeping on driving, hazards on. 2 seconds after we stopped, a stolen semi without its lights on took the roundabout the wrong way and passed centimeters from where we were stopped. We literally saw it when it was already passing us at at least 70 km/h. If we would've kept on driving, the compact car we were in would've been one more bug smashed on that truck's hood.
Tempest 1 year ago
Not me but my grandma. In my country some seaside towns have rail tracks running parallel to the shoreline. This story happened several years ago. My family and several relatives were having a dinner gathering at such a seaside town when we decided to go for a beach stroll right after our dinner because the beach was close to the restaurant. So right after settling the bill we all walked out, full to the brim with our dinner which made all the adults walk begrudgingly slow (we kids ran ahead). My grandma (who was anyway slow cause of her age) was walking with my mom and aunts. They reached the train tracks which had to be crossed and were taking their sweet time crossing it carefully as to not trip over the rails. It was during this time that a train came rolling from their right side (I think the track was curved so they couldn’t see it ahead). In one heart stopping moment it roared past as my aunts and mom managed to pull my grandma and roll onto the ground in the last second.
Dl B 1 year ago
Was in the air force in 1969. Was sent to Kessler AFB in Biloxi MS. for electronics training. I had already had some electronics in school before entering Air Force so I tested out of the first 6 week course of the training. I got to leave the base for a new assignment 6 weeks earlier than the rest of the guys I had went there with. 3 weeks later hurricane Camille, the largest hurricane to ever hit the US, went right through Biloxi. Wiped the town off the map. Base was not as hard hit and I probably would not have been killed but I do not want to know.
R.C. 1 year ago
I used to live in a small town in northern Ontario. The mall there leaked for decades and had extensive water damage and one day the roof collapsed right over the lottery kiosk. I was shown the security camera footage and there were a lot of customers that day. Then, about 45 seconds before the roof came down, all the customers started wandering off. The 2 women who worked the kiosk didn't make it which is incredibly tragic but thinking how much worse it could have been has stuck with me all these years. What forces in the universe came together to cause all those customers to walk away at that exact moment, I'll never know.
Hannah Taylor 1 year ago (edited)
Two instances in my life. I was working in a printroom (aka a converted Sunday School room). I had been working at a large, solid iron paper cutter that used counterweights to cut the paper. When I went to my desk to do paperwork, that's when it started. First, it sounded like a herd of elephants on the 3rd floor. Next, it gradually got louder. Then the whole building started shaking. I ducked under my desk (old classroom teacher's desk.) When the shaking stopped, I looked around to see what equipment was damaged (I heard a loud crash). Behind the paper cutter, where I had been standing 10 minutes before, one of the bookcases/makeshift paper shelves had fallen on to the cutter. Loaded down with 60 and 65-lb. paper, there was no doubt that I would have been killed. The quake was Loma Prieta, and it still unnerves me.
Hannah Taylor 1 year ago
The second instance: I was living in a house that leaked each and every time it rained. That particular weekend was a very wet one. The leaking in my bedroom was so bad, I was actually running out of room to move my belongings in an effort to keep them from being ruined. The scumlord wouldn't respond to my phone calls. As I was on the other side of the room watching TV, suddenly, there was this horrendous crash. The ceiling near the foot of my bed, where I had been standing less than half an hour ago, totally collapsed. (Did I mention that this happened three days after I had the city inspector come by to check out the mold, leaking, bad plumbing, and NO central heating?) After that happened, that AH of a landlord had the nerve to offer me his childhood bedroom, less than half the size of the one I was currently occupying. That, and "offered" to "let" me move out without paying the current rent. Yeah, no.
Load More Replies... The Doom Song 1 year ago
I almost ran over a 2m long dugite (very venomous snake)on my bicycle. Missed his back end by 10cm. He came out of nowhere and luckily I swerved in the correct direction other wise I'd be dead
Justin Tyme 1 year ago (edited)
I was with a friend in Sampoong Department Store in Seoul, South Korea on June 29, 1995. My friend suddenly looked at his watch and said we should hurry and leave because he needed to pick up his wife at a certain time. Moments after we walked out, the building collapsed killing 502 people and injuring 937. We got hit by dust and small pieces of debris but were not injured.
wuehlmaus85_1 1 year ago
I'm still alive, because I'm overweight. In a suicide-attempt I took a large overdose of my medication. If I weighted 10lbs less, I would have been in a coma or even dead.
Tempest 1 year ago
So sorry to hear about this. Glad that you’re still here! Hope you sought help afterwards. Something I’ve heard about similar situations is that people who are saved from suïcide attempts are around because the world wasn’t ready to lose them! (Please this is not saying the opposite is true. It’s just a reminder of how important you are even on days when you can’t see it yourself.)
Load More Replies... Nano Iders 1 year ago (edited)
Back in the 90s me and some friends decided to go for a drive on the roads around our town. It was still a clear night but you could see a storm coming in the distance. We badly misjudged the speed with which the storm was approaching and suddenly we were under a deluge, hail and all. You couldn't see beyond the hood of the car. As we entered a roundabout we decided to pull over on the side of the road to let the worst of the storm pass instead of keeping on driving, hazards on. 2 seconds after we stopped, a stolen semi without its lights on took the roundabout the wrong way and passed centimeters from where we were stopped. We literally saw it when it was already passing us at at least 70 km/h. If we would've kept on driving, the compact car we were in would've been one more bug smashed on that truck's hood.
Tempest 1 year ago
Not me but my grandma. In my country some seaside towns have rail tracks running parallel to the shoreline. This story happened several years ago. My family and several relatives were having a dinner gathering at such a seaside town when we decided to go for a beach stroll right after our dinner because the beach was close to the restaurant. So right after settling the bill we all walked out, full to the brim with our dinner which made all the adults walk begrudgingly slow (we kids ran ahead). My grandma (who was anyway slow cause of her age) was walking with my mom and aunts. They reached the train tracks which had to be crossed and were taking their sweet time crossing it carefully as to not trip over the rails. It was during this time that a train came rolling from their right side (I think the track was curved so they couldn’t see it ahead). In one heart stopping moment it roared past as my aunts and mom managed to pull my grandma and roll onto the ground in the last second.
Dl B 1 year ago
Was in the air force in 1969. Was sent to Kessler AFB in Biloxi MS. for electronics training. I had already had some electronics in school before entering Air Force so I tested out of the first 6 week course of the training. I got to leave the base for a new assignment 6 weeks earlier than the rest of the guys I had went there with. 3 weeks later hurricane Camille, the largest hurricane to ever hit the US, went right through Biloxi. Wiped the town off the map. Base was not as hard hit and I probably would not have been killed but I do not want to know.
R.C. 1 year ago
I used to live in a small town in northern Ontario. The mall there leaked for decades and had extensive water damage and one day the roof collapsed right over the lottery kiosk. I was shown the security camera footage and there were a lot of customers that day. Then, about 45 seconds before the roof came down, all the customers started wandering off. The 2 women who worked the kiosk didn't make it which is incredibly tragic but thinking how much worse it could have been has stuck with me all these years. What forces in the universe came together to cause all those customers to walk away at that exact moment, I'll never know.
Hannah Taylor 1 year ago (edited)
Two instances in my life. I was working in a printroom (aka a converted Sunday School room). I had been working at a large, solid iron paper cutter that used counterweights to cut the paper. When I went to my desk to do paperwork, that's when it started. First, it sounded like a herd of elephants on the 3rd floor. Next, it gradually got louder. Then the whole building started shaking. I ducked under my desk (old classroom teacher's desk.) When the shaking stopped, I looked around to see what equipment was damaged (I heard a loud crash). Behind the paper cutter, where I had been standing 10 minutes before, one of the bookcases/makeshift paper shelves had fallen on to the cutter. Loaded down with 60 and 65-lb. paper, there was no doubt that I would have been killed. The quake was Loma Prieta, and it still unnerves me.
Hannah Taylor 1 year ago
The second instance: I was living in a house that leaked each and every time it rained. That particular weekend was a very wet one. The leaking in my bedroom was so bad, I was actually running out of room to move my belongings in an effort to keep them from being ruined. The scumlord wouldn't respond to my phone calls. As I was on the other side of the room watching TV, suddenly, there was this horrendous crash. The ceiling near the foot of my bed, where I had been standing less than half an hour ago, totally collapsed. (Did I mention that this happened three days after I had the city inspector come by to check out the mold, leaking, bad plumbing, and NO central heating?) After that happened, that AH of a landlord had the nerve to offer me his childhood bedroom, less than half the size of the one I was currently occupying. That, and "offered" to "let" me move out without paying the current rent. Yeah, no.
Load More Replies... The Doom Song 1 year ago
I almost ran over a 2m long dugite (very venomous snake)on my bicycle. Missed his back end by 10cm. He came out of nowhere and luckily I swerved in the correct direction other wise I'd be dead
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