Scary moments in your life when you have come close to death and it wasnt your fault

I had been on a trip to York one evening. Me and a friend hadn't managed to secure a hotel room for the night so we had to drive back after the gig we had been to. Sleeping in the car in McDonald's car park wasn't particularly great, my friend managed to sleep a couple of hours but I got none.

We ended up taking to the road again at about 4am and I fell asleep a couple of times while he tried to stay awake and drive. It got to about 6am and by this stage I was trying to keep awake because I was worried both of us hadn't had enough sleep and would cause an accident. So I was sitting there staring straight ahead trying to stay awake and be as alert as I could for both of us while he drove. After a while we were driving along the motorway at about 60mph behind a lorry. The lorry slowed down as we came close to some traffic. And we kept on going. And kept on going. I was thinking "we'll slow down in a split second" while the back of the lorry came closer and closer to us. I looked over at my friend to see his eyes were closed, his head down and he was falling towards the wheel. I realised we had about two seconds before things went drastically wrong. I screamed his name and hit him on the arm, at which he woke up with a start, looked at the back of the lorry fast approaching and slammed on the brakes. I was ****ed and insisted we pull over again, which we did, and got more sleep before taking off for London.

I think that's the closest I've come. If not to death then to very serious injury.
 
One time I witnessed a flatbed stacked with fruit crash straight into roundabout, I was hit be a flying passionfruit and knocked unconscious. During this time I had an out-of-body experience, floating around in the dark, I heard tapping, looked down and there beneath me was a guy on a walkway repairing some kind of industrial fixture, as he was working the fixture just fell away and as I watched it go down I saw another man in what appeared to be a Ghostbusters uniform working below, I wanted to catch the fixture and as I thought this I dropped straight down to it, though I could touch it, I couldn't seem to exert any effort upon it, so I dropped down further to try and block it as I was sure it wouldn't be able to exert any force on me. As I came into the light below I realized I was naked, yet I was not ashamed, I carried on falling and I landed, straddling the man below, as I landed my balls dunked into the back of his head as if he were non-corporeal, it felt warm, hot even, but not painful. The man drew away from whatever he was doing and I looked up as the heavy fixture hit me, I woke up back in my own body.

People said I had only been out for a few seconds, and it didn't feel like I'd been out any more than that. Even after all this time, my balls tingle as I think back on what happened that day.

Lysander said:
Driving with sleep deprivation story
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I've heard quite a few people recount something similar, I'm surprised there aren't more incidences of cars veering off the road in the night with no other vehicles involved.
 
Around 1984 I was working as a subbie Yard-gang at Ketton Cement doing basically what was considered too dangerous for their own yard-gang.

Our team were assigned to muck down No.7 gantry tower (A very tall building).
As we brushed the cement dust kicked up and started choking us badly so in desperation I went to one of two doors next to me and flung it open to get some air.

I had never been up this high in that particular building and so didn't know it.

By the grace of...something I never stepped through the door which was just as well as it was about a 200 foot drop straight down !

GANTRY TOWER dawned on me as I weakly fell backwards.

Everyone gasped in wary amazement knowing they could just of easily done the same only stepping through the door.

The door NEXT to that door led out onto a platform.

1 life used up !!
 
Rroff said:
Dunno about wasn't my fault but as a child I nearly fell over a 60+ foot cliff on dartmoor - was running along without really paying attention to where I was going and just as I was one step from running over the edge something stopped me uh dead in my tracks almost like running into a wall - pretty scary realising how close a call it was.
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Very similar to me, we went to California on holiday and were driving from san fran down the coast. Every couple hours we hopped out the car and ran on to the beach. Most of them had a dune/bank between cars and beach. Like the 10th beach I was running to the top, expecting a long beach stretched out before me but instead it was just a god knows how long drop onto rocks and powerful waves crashing on to them....... that was so close I don't like to think about it.

Our school went to one of these, forget the name, adventure week things, build a raft, abseiling, horse riding.......... the last one didn't go well. Apparently some dirt bikers near by when like 25-30 of us were on some trail on horseback hit it's brakes, they squealed loudly and about 30 horses all bolted with 11-12 yr old kids on them. Mine decided to go into the trees so was literally getting smacked in the face by branches, my leg got caught in the stirrup, so was hanging on to the side of the horse for dear life when I finally fell backwards and luckily leg came out so I just hit the floor. Had an insane bruise on hip/side of thigh as I landed on some rocks.

Another guy did get dragged by the stirrup for a couple hundred metres, one of the teachers went down with the horse, he started to stand up with another horse decided it was going to jump him and the horse, he was literally inches from having his face caved in as he dropped back down to the ground. Wasn't the most fun of holidays, if that happened today we'd all have gotten a bagload of money in compensation.
 
When I was 7 or 8 I was at some big aqua-park in Spain whilst on holiday.
Was just walking in to one of the larger wave pools and was crossing the drainage grid that catches any water overflow. The grid collapsed and me being the skinny runt I was I fell down in to the gap. It was about a 10ft drop before the system went under the pool and the water was recycled. Smooth tiles the whole way down and a steep slope.
The only reason I didn't fall is I flung my arms up and my rubber wristband (the one that shows you're allowed in) caught on part of the broken grid. It held for just long enough for a woman who had also been on the grid to catch my arm. She was wedged in because she was somewhat larger than me.
Anyways, yeah...pretty close to being sucked in to the wave mechanism...wouldn't have ended well for me.
 
Was out on a rough shooting trip with a few friends several years ago. One of my friends was using a 3 shot semi auto 12g shotgun. We were walking about 10 yards apart when a pheasant was risen up by one of the dogs, my friend raised his gun and swung in my direction, fired two shots and the momentum of his swing ended up with the gun barrel pointing at me, he had actually pulled the trigger for the third shot at this point, but by an extreme case of good luck the round had jammed in the gun. I almost passed out and it was well over an hour or so before i finally calmed down.
 
setter said:
Was out on a rough shooting trip with a few friends several years ago. One of my friends was using a 3 shot semi auto 12g shotgun. We were walking about 10 yards apart when a pheasant was risen up by one of the dogs, my friend raised his gun and swung in my direction, fired two shots and the momentum of his swing ended up with the gun barrel pointing at me, he had actually pulled the trigger for the third shot at this point, but by an extreme case of good luck the round had jammed in the gun. I almost passed out and it was well over an hour or so before i finally calmed down.
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Your friend sounds like an absolute moron. Basically the prime type of idiot who should NEVER have a gun in his hands.
 
Only one for me was when we had a bad winter somewhere around 2007.

Had to cross a very busy road on the walk home from work. As normal I walked up hill towards the roundabout as traffic snarls up there. HGV was first in queue for roundabout normally a good thing as they can't move quickly. There was a car about 6ft behind this.

Started crossing and the HGV went to pull away, just spun it's wheels and starts rolling backwards at a reasonable pace. Ran across and heard the crunch as it rolled back into the car behind.

Glad i didn't become the meat in that sandwich.
 
setter said:
Was out on a rough shooting trip with a few friends several years ago. One of my friends was using a 3 shot semi auto 12g shotgun. We were walking about 10 yards apart when a pheasant was risen up by one of the dogs, my friend raised his gun and swung in my direction, fired two shots and the momentum of his swing ended up with the gun barrel pointing at me, he had actually pulled the trigger for the third shot at this point, but by an extreme case of good luck the round had jammed in the gun. I almost passed out and it was well over an hour or so before i finally calmed down.
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I have looked down spout of a semi with one in- one at flush and one at 3 shot clay shoot - both shooters never checked before coming off stand - I did learn a few new dance steps.

Dave
 
  • Men with guns in Africa.
  • More men with guns in Africa.
  • Men with poison dart arrows in Africa.
  • The water supply in Africa.
  • The occasional muppet motorist in the UK.
  • All motorists in Malta.
  • Someone on track who didn't see me fast approaching behind him.
  • Dodgy electrical appliance giving me 240v.
 
Not sure if it was my fault or not, but here goes.

Just got off the bus from college, and I looked down the road at the lights and saw they were on red, so decided to jog across the road thinking there wouldn't be any cars coming my way.. got half way across, car hit me and sent me flying across the road, thought I was a goner but only ended up with a few cuts and bruises, quite lucky really. Got up and saw the guys in the Kwik Fit garage just laughing, *******s. The person who hit me didn't even stop..
 
1. I'm about 12 and with my Mum on Tottenham Court Road. She's at bit further back with my sister, and I'm a couple of metres away from a corner, waiting for her to catch up so we can cross together. There's all the usual noise including a fire engine coming down the street. My Mum is calling to me, but I can't really hear what she's saying. I turn around to see what she wants, when a big shadow passes behind me. Apparently, my Mum is shouting and waving at me to get back from the kerb, and as I turn around and see what she wants, the fire engine mounted the kerb and went past about a metre behind me doing about 40 mph.

2. I'm about 18 and riding a Kawasaki GPZ600R through central London. I'm currently stopped at a traffic light. There's the noise of a siren from somewhere distant, but the buildings are tall, the road curves sharply to the left ahead, and I'm wearing a full-face helmet. I vaguely think the siren is from behind me, but I'm sure I'll hear it again if it gets closer. I'm waiting at lights for about 45 seconds, and hear no more sirens, and when the lights change, I zip off and around the bend.

As I get round the bend, I'm already going fairly quickly, so I'm pretty surprised to see a fire engine on my side of the road (no sirens) pelting towards me. At this point we both slam on the brakes. My back wheel is waving in the air, and I distinctly remember the back of the bike sliding round and slapping my left calf. Sliding towards the front of a fire engine really focuses the mind on how big those things are. Luckily we manage to avoid each other by about six feet and go on our separate ways. I'm fine until the next traffic lights when the adrenaline kicks in and I start to feel cold and shivery.

3. I'm going with my boss from our office outside Marlow. He's not finished his presentation, so he's still working on his laptop in the front passenger seat, and I'm driving the mobile sofa they give us as company cars (Peugeot 405 diesels). The roads are small and winding. I drive down a right-left-right downhill country lane, and find a giant dumper truck driving towards me up the hill on my side of the road. The road would be barely big enough for us to pass each other, but the pillock driving the truck decided this would be a good place to try to overtake the cyclist struggling up the hill on the other side of the road. The truck is straddling the centre of the road, and there's no where to go (walls & hedges). I stand on the brakes, bounce my bosses face off the dash, and the truck manages to pull back over without quite killing either me or the cyclist he's trying to overtake.

My boss (who drives everywhere at warp speed in his convertible Porche) says "That was lucky - if I'd been driving we'd be dead now!" He actually kills himself a couple of months later, flipping his Porche in the rain before slamming it into the side of a house so hard, the piano up against the inside wall is knocked over.
 
setter said:
Was out on a rough shooting trip with a few friends several years ago. One of my friends was using a 3 shot semi auto 12g shotgun. We were walking about 10 yards apart when a pheasant was risen up by one of the dogs, my friend raised his gun and swung in my direction, fired two shots and the momentum of his swing ended up with the gun barrel pointing at me, he had actually pulled the trigger for the third shot at this point, but by an extreme case of good luck the round had jammed in the gun. I almost passed out and it was well over an hour or so before i finally calmed down.
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What a stupid **** your friend is...

Who needs enemies when you have idiots.
 
setter said:
Was out on a rough shooting trip with a few friends several years ago. One of my friends was using a 3 shot semi auto 12g shotgun. We were walking about 10 yards apart when a pheasant was risen up by one of the dogs, my friend raised his gun and swung in my direction, fired two shots and the momentum of his swing ended up with the gun barrel pointing at me, he had actually pulled the trigger for the third shot at this point, but by an extreme case of good luck the round had jammed in the gun. I almost passed out and it was well over an hour or so before i finally calmed down.
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This qualifies as 'nearly', yes. ****ing hell, you were lucky that round jammed. Really makes a case for guardian angels.
 
I spent about 6 months with untreated CML back in 2011/12. Does that count? :p

Apart from that I've led a pretty uneventful life. :D
 
I had a collapsed lung when I was 16. I thought I was having a heart attack after googling the symptoms. Few years earlier I got stabbed too.
 
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