Times when you almost got killed or injured

[Rotayjay]

If you're comfortable sharing, what are your stories of near-misses, when you came close to serious injury or worse?

I had a minor experience when I was about 13. I leaned too far over a candle on a low table, and the front hem of my untucked, buttoned shirt caught fire. Seeing the flames suddenly licking their way up my shirt, I started running forward for no particular reason. I headed towards the backyard, maybe to stop, drop and roll on the lawn. As I ran, a moment later I grabbed the shirt, ripped it open, bursting the buttons off Superman-style, and threw it off. The flames fizzled out as it sat in a heap on the lino kitchen floor.

I looked down at my torso and found not the slightest burn. I don't know how the hell I managed to get a flaming shirt off without a scratch. I guess adrenaline makes you stronger and quicker.

When I was in my mid-twenties, I was driving in rural South Australia with my then-girlfriend. It was near sunset and it was a small car - big mistake. I was doing about 100 km/h. I spotted a kangaroo, on the passenger side of the road, pointing towards me like it was going to T-bone us. You're not supposed to swerve, but my reptile brain did. I wrenched the car to the right, and it bounced around on what felt like two wheels. 'You've blown a tyre!' my girlfriend said. I wrestled the car onto a straight path again and brought it to a stop.

My girlfriend hadn't seen the kangaroo and took the violent motion to be a high-speed tyre blowout. I was very lucky not to hit the kangaroo, or roll the car and get us killed, or stranded injured on a quiet road at nightfall. I'm not sure whether the kangaroo would have hit had I just applied the brakes, and what effect that would have on a small car.

I'm sure there are plenty much more interesting stories to tell than mine.

 

[mr bagcroft]

When courting my lady early days, we jumped in the car to go somewhere, it was a hot day and she was carrying a bottle of coke.
5 minutes in she picked up the coke, but it was not her coke you see.
It was a half empty bottle with three months of ciggie butts in it.
She took a big gulp, and the rest is history, I am still here and so is she but only just.
I gave up smoking, but not till decades after.
Its important not to show them your a soy boy push over.

 

[the_interloper]

Walking out of the Bellagio the morning after the night before in Vegas. Looked the wrong way when crossing the hotel driveway, nothing there, some campaigner driving like a lunatic the other Yankee way, deadset lurched back out of instinct, felt the breeze of the car go past, * me it was close, would have gone flying

 

[raskolnikov]

Held at gun point by border patrol at Bishkek airport in Kyrgyzstan.

 

[mr bagcroft]

Held at gun point by border patrol at Bishkek airport in Kyrgyzstan.

Did you get the stash through ok ?

 

[raskolnikov]

Did you get the stash through ok ?

Yes thank god.

 

[Butters and Pepper]

As a 9 or 10 year old at the local pool, I did a run up and somersault over the raised edge of the pool, into the water.

Have never been good at gymnastics-type moves, or swimming.

In latter years, with retrospect, I can see the immense danger, and I don't actually know how I survived it.

 

[Mofra]

Drunk in Nairobi after curfew, carrying alcohol, pushing through 6 corrupt cops armed with AK47s

Almost lost it on a sharp corner on Death Road in Bolivia

Close call in a rip in Anglesea as a kid. I remember fighting the waves for ages while I was underwater, then I stopped fighting it and everything became absolutely peaceful and still, even with the crazy wave action. It was surreal. Next thing I knew I was spluttering on the beach.

 

[MatthewB]

i was wakeboarding about 20 years ago, came off, nothing major, but i got stuck upside down under water unable to kick my feet out, finally managed to kick them out, have had a fear of being underwater and drowning ever since that

 

[Syd]

Skull fracture in Year 5 that left me in a coma for 10-days
Lost the brakes on a 1962 Pontiac Catalina (yank tank) at over 100mph (17 at the time), stopped the car in a large field (that's around 160kph in comparison)
Rolled my car on a bend in West Germany at over 100kph, not a scratch
Recently Pneumonia (not pleasant as a diabetic) and a lengthy hospital stay and recovery

but the most dangerous is I've been married 3 times.

 

[Simon_Nesbit]

Skull fracture in Year 5 that left me in a coma for 10-days
Lost the brakes on a 1962 Pontiac Catalina (yank tank) at over 100mph (17 at the time), stopped the car in a large field (that's around 160kph in comparison)
Rolled my car on a bend in West Germany at over 100kph, not a scratch
Recently Pneumonia (not pleasant as a diabetic) and a lengthy hospital stay and recovery

but the most dangerous is I've been married 3 times.

I was going to say I got married, but you win.

 

[Syd]

I was going to say I got married, but you win.

Did I?

 

[Channels]

Dropped a motorbike on a sweeping bend and slid across the road narrowly missing a car coming in the opposite direction.

 

[Plugger35]

Walking out of the Bellagio the morning after the night before in Vegas. Looked the wrong way when crossing the hotel driveway, nothing there, some campaigner driving like a lunatic the other Yankee way, deadset lurched back out of instinct, felt the breeze of the car go past, * me it was close, would have gone flying

I nearly got cleaned up looking the wrong way crossing the road in the States too and I also nearly had a head on collision there when I drove on the wrong side of the road after turning at some traffic lights, luckily there was a driveway nearby that I was able to swerve into to avoid a collision.

 

[Rotayjay]

Drunk in Nairobi after curfew, carrying alcohol, pushing through 6 corrupt cops armed with AK47s

Almost lost it on a sharp corner on Death Road in Bolivia

Close call in a rip in Anglesea as a kid. I remember fighting the waves for ages while I was underwater, then I stopped fighting it and everything became absolutely peaceful and still, even with the crazy wave action. It was surreal. Next thing I knew I was spluttering on the beach.

Are you actually the Flight Centre pilot? So you've driven on the Top Gear Death Road - how long does that take to traverse?

 

[burge13]

Bali, a mate and i got dragged up a side street by cops. We thought we were getting banged up, they only tried to sell us thongs .

No car wrecks or anything but many idiotic (drunk) decisions that could have ended it all

 

[Power Raid]

I was standing on the beach in Krabi when the tidal wave came through. A lot of others didn't make it.

I was in a car with a mate that got flipped on its roof during the Jakarta riots, we put the cab back on its wheels and driver got us to safety to Bandung. The volcano erupted in Bandung and we ended up staying at borobudor and the coast until a wealthy oil tycoon flew us out to safety.

running short of air whilst diving, as we were being pulled down to depths by a tide coming of the back of an ocean pillar. Staying close to the pillar meant certain death and swimming out meant moving into a school of sharks. Mentally one knows the sharks aren't interested in divers but there is no worst feeling than bobbing on the surface, legs dangling, after you've swum through a school of sharks.

 

[Power Raid]

Skull fracture in Year 5 that left me in a coma for 10-days
Lost the brakes on a 1962 Pontiac Catalina (yank tank) at over 100mph (17 at the time), stopped the car in a large field (that's around 160kph in comparison)
Rolled my car on a bend in West Germany at over 100kph, not a scratch
Recently Pneumonia (not pleasant as a diabetic) and a lengthy hospital stay and recovery

but the most dangerous is I've been married 3 times.

speak to your doctor. Surely there are vaccines for this?

 

[Rotayjay]

These are very interesting tales. People in general seem to have near-misses a lot more frequently than they suffer catastrophic injury or die unexpectedly. I'm sure insurance actuaries would have studied the statistics in great detail.

This also goes to the idea that medical advances may one day prevent death by illness or old age - for those who can afford it. But that doesn't mean resurrecting a person who has died from a catastrophic injury.

 

[Billy ray]

i told my wife to calm down once in an argument

 

[Power Raid]

i told my wife to calm down once in an argument

lol, I told my wife to "relax"

whoof, it was liking adding petrol to a fire......"don't tell me to fn relax!"

 

[kickazz]

Drunk in Nairobi after curfew, carrying alcohol, pushing through 6 corrupt cops armed with AK47s

Almost lost it on a sharp corner on Death Road in Bolivia

Close call in a rip in Anglesea as a kid. I remember fighting the waves for ages while I was underwater, then I stopped fighting it and everything became absolutely peaceful and still, even with the crazy wave action. It was surreal. Next thing I knew I was spluttering on the beach.

Maybe you are actually dead and don't realise it yet, sixth sense style?

 

[Mofra]

Maybe you are actually dead and don't realise it yet, sixth sense style?

I'm pretty sure my ongoing employment at Malaysian Airlines puts that theory to bed...

 

[Engimal v3]

One time my mate had an air compressor and for a joke I put it in my mouth and held my nose closed. I thought my brain was bleeding lol

 

[ioppolo]

Held at gun point by border patrol at Bishkek airport in Kyrgyzstan.

C'mon man, what's the context here?
Can't just leave it at that.