Near death experiences

[Michaels]

I have had 3, all car related.

1. Was driving to work which was at Chirnside Park, i took Eastlink to work and get off at the Ringwood bypass turn off.basically the turn off starts as two lanes then as you get around the corner another two lanes join on next to the left lane that you are initially in from the turn off (not sure if that makes sense or not..)

anyway, it had been drizzling a little bit but nothing too heavy, going just under the speed limit i made my turn off and proceeded around the bend. there was a van in front of me (i was in a toyota sedan) so i couldnt see past it or anything. all of a sudden the van swerves off to the right sharply, I then see that there is a car stopped in the middle of the left lane (broken down, hazard lights not working either) so i had to swerve around the stopped car too.

ended up losing control of my car and flung across the road spinning wildly into the 2 new lanes of on coming traffic. my car finally stopped in the middle of the 2 new lanes facing the on coming traffic which included a semi and several other cars. somehow or another my car had turned off during all of this, so i had to quickly start it back up and drive off the side of the road into the emergency lane to avoid being hit head on.

how i managed not to hit anyone while spinning out of control i'll never know. was pretty shaken up.

2. My GF and sister decided they wanted to go do some late night shopping at Chadstone and asked if i could drive them. It was night time but the roads are pretty well lit up in our area. we are making our way down Pound road (two lanes both going towards the freeway entrance, then a medium strip and then two lanes going back the other way after exiting the freeway) which leads to the freeway entrance.

So we were in the right lane and around 500m from the freeway entrance there is a street you can come out of on the left hand side to either turn left to get onto the freeway, or go across those two lanes and sit in the turning lane area to turn right to head back away from the freeway. literally as we got to that intersection a car shot out from the left straight across the road wanting to turn right and i only had enough time to yell "sh!t!" before slamming into the drivers side door at around 68km.

My car was a 95 model toyota which had no air bags in it so the impact was pretty full on. sat there in shock for a few seconds and made sure my GF and sister were alright (no injuries, just really upset and shocked). I look up and see the drivers door was completley smashed in and i could see the driver was fully concious but i feared his legs were trapped or crushed. i rushed out and went to check on him and managed to rip his door open and he got out and was ok, as was his female passenger.

One of his mates happened to be driving past and saw his car and stopped to check it out. this guy was huge.. he came charging over threatening to kick the crap out of me for what i did to his mate, was terrified. luckily the guy who pulled out in front of me grabbed his mate and told him to get lost and that it was his fault etc. Car was written off and ended up buying a VZ holden.

3. This one happened last year. Was driving on the South Gippy freeway to work in the left lane, wasnt any traffic for some reason.. driving on the freeway sitting just under 100 listening to MMM hot breakfast having a laugh then all of a sudden i can feel myself losing total control of the back end of the car. Before i know it the back of my car has kicked out to the left then i have shot across the other lanes of the freeway spinning out of control again and slam into some medium sized trees bouncing off them until i finally hit one that is slightly bigger that stopped me.

For some reason the airbags once again didnt go off. sat there in total shock again. people had already pulled over and ran over to me to help. I got out and asked what had happened, turns out a truck merged over from the right lane and went straight into the back of my car causing it to spin out.

weird thing was i actually knew the truck driver, and he even commented that he saw my car and noticed the richmond numbers plates and made comment to his work mate to make sure we don't touch his car (cause he is a richmond supporter to) while they were driving.

Police turned up and were gobsmacked that i was able to walk away from that. Had sore ribs and neck for a few weeks but that was it.

Now im not into religion but my grandmother is, and the day i got my P's and my own car she got me a St Christopher medal and said i must leave this in my car at all times as it gives you safe travel. So i reckon i owe her one..(or 3..)

 

[MisterMarcus]

Not exactly 'near death' in the same way as the others but....

My wife was supposed to go on a business trip to Holland last month, and only cancelled at the last minute because her boss changed his plans.

She would have been on MH17 flying back home.....

 

[Hudu Gurusingha]

I have had 3, all car related.

1. Was driving to work which was at Chirnside Park, i took Eastlink to work and get off at the Ringwood bypass turn off.basically the turn off starts as two lanes then as you get around the corner another two lanes join on next to the left lane that you are initially in from the turn off (not sure if that makes sense or not..)

anyway, it had been drizzling a little bit but nothing too heavy, going just under the speed limit i made my turn off and proceeded around the bend. there was a van in front of me (i was in a toyota sedan) so i couldnt see past it or anything. all of a sudden the van swerves off to the right sharply, I then see that there is a car stopped in the middle of the left lane (broken down, hazard lights not working either) so i had to swerve around the stopped car too.

ended up losing control of my car and flung across the road spinning wildly into the 2 new lanes of on coming traffic. my car finally stopped in the middle of the 2 new lanes facing the on coming traffic which included a semi and several other cars. somehow or another my car had turned off during all of this, so i had to quickly start it back up and drive off the side of the road into the emergency lane to avoid being hit head on.

how i managed not to hit anyone while spinning out of control i'll never know. was pretty shaken up.

2. My GF and sister decided they wanted to go do some late night shopping at Chadstone and asked if i could drive them. It was night time but the roads are pretty well lit up in our area. we are making our way down Pound road (two lanes both going towards the freeway entrance, then a medium strip and then two lanes going back the other way after exiting the freeway) which leads to the freeway entrance.

So we were in the right lane and around 500m from the freeway entrance there is a street you can come out of on the left hand side to either turn left to get onto the freeway, or go across those two lanes and sit in the turning lane area to turn right to head back away from the freeway. literally as we got to that intersection a car shot out from the left straight across the road wanting to turn right and i only had enough time to yell "sh!t!" before slamming into the drivers side door at around 68km.

My car was a 95 model toyota which had no air bags in it so the impact was pretty full on. sat there in shock for a few seconds and made sure my GF and sister were alright (no injuries, just really upset and shocked). I look up and see the drivers door was completley smashed in and i could see the driver was fully concious but i feared his legs were trapped or crushed. i rushed out and went to check on him and managed to rip his door open and he got out and was ok, as was his female passenger.

One of his mates happened to be driving past and saw his car and stopped to check it out. this guy was huge.. he came charging over threatening to kick the crap out of me for what i did to his mate, was terrified. luckily the guy who pulled out in front of me grabbed his mate and told him to get lost and that it was his fault etc. Car was written off and ended up buying a VZ holden.

3. This one happened last year. Was driving on the South Gippy freeway to work in the left lane, wasnt any traffic for some reason.. driving on the freeway sitting just under 100 listening to MMM hot breakfast having a laugh then all of a sudden i can feel myself losing total control of the back end of the car. Before i know it the back of my car has kicked out to the left then i have shot across the other lanes of the freeway spinning out of control again and slam into some medium sized trees bouncing off them until i finally hit one that is slightly bigger that stopped me.

For some reason the airbags once again didnt go off. sat there in total shock again. people had already pulled over and ran over to me to help. I got out and asked what had happened, turns out a truck merged over from the right lane and went straight into the back of my car causing it to spin out.

weird thing was i actually knew the truck driver, and he even commented that he saw my car and noticed the richmond numbers plates and made comment to his work mate to make sure we don't touch his car (cause he is a richmond supporter to) while they were driving.

Police turned up and were gobsmacked that i was able to walk away from that. Had sore ribs and neck for a few weeks but that was it.

Now im not into religion but my grandmother is, and the day i got my P's and my own car she got me a St Christopher medal and said i must leave this in my car at all times as it gives you safe travel. So i reckon i owe her one..(or 3..)

Holy crap dude how do you even drive after going through all this!

 

[Ashton Agar]

Not exactly 'near death' in the same way as the others but....

My wife was supposed to go on a business trip to Holland last month, and only cancelled at the last minute because her boss changed his plans.

She would have been on MH17 flying back home.....

Shit! **** that's a scary thought!

 

[Doss]

I've had two, I suppose.

1. Contracted bacterial meningitis from my mother as a newborn. Almost killed me, apparently.

2. When I was 18, I was walking along in Brunswick when a pane of glass from a pub window three stories up fell and shattered on the ground about a metre from me. Would have almost certainly killed me had it hit me.

I was in a car crash at age 20, but it wasn't severe enough to really warrant labelling as near death. Gave me nasty headaches for days and a blood nose, though.

 

[Xtreme]

I almost drowned when i was 3 years old

Was at a hotel in Sydney, one minute i was standing above it, next thing i know i'm sinking down the bottom. Ask anyone and they will say i was not under water for very long and was no chance i would die........ i say watch the commercials, a few seconds where nobody is looking is all it takes. The funny thing is, it was my sister that alerted everyone and rescued me................. we've had a strained relationship for years (always fighting etc).

 

[MisterMarcus]

Shit! **** that's a scary thought!

She was absoutely hysterical because she initially thought a couple of her close friends and colleagues were on the plane (they were at that business meeting). But it turned out they'd stayed back for a conference or something so caught a later flight.

Pretty scary stuff....

 

[Shupe]

I ride a motorbike and one night I was on my way to my girlfriends place. I was about 60 seconds away when I'm happily cruising along the 60km/hr road and a pizza delivery driver goes straight through a stop sign. I hit the skids, back wheel locks up and starts to slide out. I manage to recover it and stay upright. The car passed literally cm's in front of me.

The little pizza face gimp doesn't even so much as recognise what just happened and continued to drive on. As I was so close to my destination I rode the rest of the way home where I proceeded to take off my hemet and smash it against a wall (whoops, those things aren't cheap). As a motorcycle rider, I get these little close calls quite often, but all are easily avoided by just paying attention. However this one instance had me rattled - could not see it coming. Getting hit side-on at 60km/hr would've created a bit of damage.