Phew, That Was A Near Miss ! (1 Viewer)

bringbackrattles · Jul 3, 2019

A stowaway on a plane fell out and landed next to a chap sunbathing in his garden. Sounds bizarre but it really happened, and it could have resulted in 2 deaths instead of one. It got me thinking about a near fatal incident that happened to me back in the 70's. I was working on the railway laying down and repairing track, when my jeans at the bottom of one leg got wedged tight inside the rail. As I was trying to untangle it the lad up the line sounded the klaxen to warn us of a train approaching. I was now in a panic and shouted to my workmates that I was stuck, two of them had to grab me and pull me away physically and drag me on to the side of the track. The train whistled past at speed with me in shock and everyone saying " fucking hell that was close ! " Another few seconds and I'd have been smashed to bits. That was my near miss, any more near death experiences ?

clint van damme · Jul 3, 2019

Also train related, years ago was coming back from Brum and my mate dared me to open a train door which I did, the force of the door swinging open nearly pulled me out, was right by the edge of the open door.
Another time we were on the railway bridge with a fishing reel and using it to lower a toy gun down, when people were walking along it looked like a gun was suspended in the air pointing at their face, which we thought was funny as fuck.
While we were doing it a train.passes behind us, must have only been foot or two away and we didn't hear it

If one of us had taken a step back we'd have been mince.

olderskyblue · Jul 3, 2019

Not me, but a mate from my teens.

He had a motorbike accident, and was pronounced dead.

He woke up on the slab in the morgue....

clint van damme · Jul 3, 2019

olderskyblue said:
Not me, but a mate from my teens.

He had a motorbike accident, and was pronounced dead.

He woke up on the slab in the morgue....

What?! How the fuck did that happen?!

chiefdave · Jul 3, 2019

olderskyblue said:
Not me, but a mate from my teens.

He had a motorbike accident, and was pronounced dead.

He woke up on the slab in the morgue....

Are you sure that's a mate and not a movie you've watched?

olderskyblue · Jul 3, 2019

I can't remember all the gory details, but he'd hit his head (no helmet back then) and when he finally got a doc to look at him, I think his heart had stopped.. (just long enough for the doc to say he's a goner)

He eventually healed OK, and no lasting damage.... apart from the nightmares..

Otis · Jul 3, 2019

Went up a mountain in the Lake District as a complete novice and was wandering around a winding path, about half way up, and as I turned a corner I was just one step away from falling completely off. No idea how much a drop it was, but it was high up. Would have been instant death.

Also, when I was in Russia, I went on the underground in Moscow. Their automatic doors there are vicious. Or they used to be anyway. Snapped back viciously after you passed through.

I went through an automatic door, but my bag got trapped. I reached out to grab it, but my wife grabbed my arm and pulled me back just in time and just as the doors were snapping back with incredible force. I am sure it would have ripped my arm off.
I can't type with my left hand, so you lot would have all benefitted.

I also remember using a sea front pier as a slide.

It was quite slippy and I was taking a run up and then sliding whilst trying to stay on my feet. It was great fun.....until I lost my balance and landed flat on my back with quite a thud. It completely winded me and I couldn't breathe. My girlfriend was laughing at first, buy quickly saw that I clearly wasn't breathing at all and had turned purple.

Luckily some people came running over and got me breathing again, but it felt like forever and I thought I was going to die.

Also, when I was about 3, I swallowed a plastic spinner from a spinning top and got it lodged in my throat and again I couldn't breathe. My dad had to hold me upside down and whack me several times before it finally got dislodged. My parents tell me they really thought I was going to die.

So......anyone want to be my friend?

olderskyblue · Jul 3, 2019

chiefdave said:
Are you sure that's a mate and not a movie you've watched?

I didn't know the lad until we all went on holiday. He was mates with a good friend of mine and came along, and he told the story then, confirmed by my mate and a couple of others, as I didn't believe it.

fellatio_Martinez · Jul 3, 2019

A few years ago I was walking to work in the dark at 6am in freezing weather and struggling to walk. I was inadvertently skating most of the way.

I came to a junction and saw a van approaching quite fast so I stopped but it was so icy that I just kept sliding into the road. The van sped by and clipped the tip of my nose. Another few inches and I would have had my face caved in.

shmmeee · Jul 3, 2019

Was being taught to swim in Malta when I was a kid, and nearly drowned. Had to be pulled out and given CPR. Not learned to swim since.

Also when 17 drove head first into a wall on the ring road (station exit) At 40mph, felt fine but the ambulance guys seemed impressed I wasn’t dead. Shock hit me a few days later.

skybluetony176 · Jul 3, 2019

olderskyblue said:
Not me, but a mate from my teens.

He had a motorbike accident, and was pronounced dead.

He woke up on the slab in the morgue....

Had something similar happen to a mate of mine in that he was supposed to have been killed in a motorcycle accident. His family turned up at hospital to be told he’d died, they all went home and walked into the house to a ringing phone. It was the hospital apologising, they’d been a mix up and he wasn’t dead after all. It came to light that two motorcycle RTA victims had come in at the same time, one pronounced dead on arrival the other critical and somehow they mixed them up. Even worse the mistake was only realised when they took the dead man’s family to my mates bed and they recognised straight away that the person in the bed wasn’t who he was supposed to be. My mate made a full recovery and still rides motorbikes to this day. Although at a much gentler pace now.

skybluetony176 · Jul 3, 2019

A mate of mine stumbled and fell of a tall kerb in Falaraki (wasn’t even drunk) straight in front of a fast moving tourist coach. Luckily for him I have Ninja reactions and the strength of an Ox, I managed to grab him and pull him out the way before he’d even got to his feet. The coach would have hit him for sure, not saying it would have killed him but at the least it would have been very serious.

richnrg · Jul 3, 2019

clint van damme said:
Also train related, years ago was coming back from Brum and my mate dared me to open a train door which I did, the force of the door swinging open nearly pulled me out, was right by the edge of the open door.
..

I think I was on that same train (unless its a very common occurrence). On way back from an away match? (Vile/West Brom/Wolves etc?)

clint van damme · Jul 3, 2019

richnrg said:
I think I was on that same train (unless its a very common occurrence). On way back from an away match? (Vile/West Brom/Wolves etc?)

I hadn't been to football.
Just dossing about in Brum

Though it's comforting to know there's someone equally as stupid out there.

richnrg · Jul 3, 2019

clint van damme said:
Though it's comforting to know there's someone equally as stupid out there.

they're probably not out there any more

fellatio_Martinez · Jul 3, 2019

skybluetony176 said:
A mate of mine stumbled and fell of a tall kerb in Falaraki (wasn’t even drunk) straight in front of a fast moving tourist coach. Luckily for him I have Ninja reactions and the strength of an Ox so I grabbed hold of the bus and held it in mid air while my mate got to his feet

That's how I wanted the story to end.

Sky_Blue_Dreamer · Jul 3, 2019

When I was very young I swallowed a 10p and it got lodged and it took quite a lot of smacking me on the back to dislodge it.

My mum had some teeth taken out as a child and was taken home by my nan and put to bed to sleep off the anaesthetic About 15 mins later my nan went to go to the loo and heard my mum coughing and choking so rushed in to find my mum was purple in the face. She stuck two fingers down her throat and my mum brought up a huge amount of congealed blood that had blocked her airway. It's why i always remember to bend forwards with a noseblled, not tilt it back.

fellatio_Martinez · Jul 3, 2019

Sky_Blue_Dreamer said:
When I was very young I swallowed a 10p and it got lodged and it took quite a lot of smacking me on the back to dislodge it.

My mum had some teeth taken out as a child and was taken home by my nan and put to bed to sleep off the anaesthetic About 15 mins later my nan went to go to the loo and heard my mum coughing and choking so rushed in to find my mum was purple in the face. She stuck two fingers down her throat and my mum brought up a huge amount of congealed blood that had blocked her airway. It's why i always remember to bend forwards with a noseblled, not tilt it back.

That reminds me....

I started drinking when I was around 16 and one day my friend told me how great Captain Morgans was, which made me want to try it. Asda had some special offer on so I bought 2 litres and spent that night with my friend drinking it with coke. It was really easy to drink and I idiotically drank well over a litre in a few hours and stumbled home into bed.

My sister walked past my room to go to the toilet around 2am and could hear me coughing violently so she looked in on me and I was lying on my back choking on my own vomit.

All I remember is waking up covered in sick after my sister pushed me onto my side. I would have been dead if she hadn't needed a piss.

That pretty much put me off spirits for life.

Sky_Blue_Dreamer · Jul 3, 2019

I did neck almost an entire bottle of Cinzano when I was 17 at an end of school house party cos no-one else would drink it as it was vile. It was really hot and all I remember was looking into the sun and then everything went black until I woke up in my bed following morning and a cut on my head had soaked through the pillowcase, the pillow, through the sheet and stained the actual bed. Apparently I'd fallen over coming up the steps and fallen into an old wall in the garden which collapsed and I smacked my head on the way down. The smell of Cinzano makes me heave to this day.

Also cut my head open on the steps in reception when I fell over. Covered a couple of teachers in blood and a policeman at the school giving a talk (he took me to hospital). My mum always told me of the terror when she opened the door to the teacher, still in his shirt covered in blood, saying "there's been an accident".

SBAndy · Jul 3, 2019

Last summer I was doing a barbecue at a charity event and had borrowed their equipment. Gave it a good clean prior to cooking and cracked on. When you’re cooking that many sausages at once you expect a fair bit of smoke and fire. Put the tongs down on the side and they started melting into the metal worktop. Looked below and the gas canister had caught fire! Absolutely shitting it, I popped an oven glove on to turn it off whilst my mate poured water on the fire. If that had gone up it would have obliterated everyone in a 5m radius as the canister was quite big.

Otis · Jul 3, 2019

Sky_Blue_Dreamer said:
I did neck almost an entire bottle of Cinzano when I was 17 at an end of school house party cos no-one else would drink it as it was vile. It was really hot and all I remember was looking into the sun and then everything went black until I woke up in my bed following morning and a cut on my head had soaked through the pillowcase, the pillow, through the sheet and stained the actual bed. Apparently I'd fallen over coming up the steps and fallen into an old wall in the garden which collapsed and I smacked my head on the way down. The smell of Cinzano makes me heave to this day.

Also cut my head open on the steps in reception when I fell over. Covered a couple of teachers in blood and a policeman at the school giving a talk (he took me to hospital). My mum always told me of the terror when she opened the door to the teacher, still in his shirt covered in blood, saying "there's been an accident".

Funnily enough, that's the exact same thing my mum said to my dad when I was born.

Mcbean · Jul 3, 2019

This thread is a bit scary - main thing is we have all survived and I think as I got older I liked to think I learnt to - I think some of today’s kids don’t get that learning - I don’t like to think of the close shaves motorcycle wise but probably my stupidest escapade involved walking across a frozen lake - fortunately when the ice broke it was only knee deep

bringbackrattles · Jul 3, 2019

It shows when your time is up that's it. To escape serious injury or even death is either pure luck, or fate ? Along with my railway near miss, I've been near to leaving this mortal coil many times. But here I am in my sixties still pissing off my window cleaning customers, even though I came off my ladders once and if it wasn't for a thick layer of snow covering concrete, it would have been game over I reckon. As my late mother would often say " when your times up, there's nothing you can do about it." She was a miserable sod at times !

Westendlad · Jul 3, 2019

bringbackrattles said:
A stowaway on a plane fell out and landed next to a chap sunbathing in his garden. Sounds bizarre but it really happened, and it could have resulted in 2 deaths instead of one. It got me thinking about a near fatal incident that happened to me back in the 70's. I was working on the railway laying down and repairing track, when my jeans at the bottom of one leg got wedged tight inside the rail. As I was trying to untangle it the lad up the line sounded the klaxen to warn us of a train approaching. I was now in a panic and shouted to my workmates that I was stuck, two of them had to grab me and pull me away physically and drag me on to the side of the track. The train whistled past at speed with me in shock and everyone saying " fucking hell that was close ! " Another few seconds and I'd have been smashed to bits. That was my near miss, any more near death experiences ?

Poor lads working on the tracks in Port Talbot this morning were not as lucky as you BBR..........Just read they were wearing ear defenders so didn't hear the train coming.

Covstu · Jul 3, 2019

Was about 8 years old and up a tree and fell about 30ft, hit a few branches and missed the spikey metal railings by a few mm. I had a large scratch on my leg where it scraped but that was it!

bringbackrattles · Jul 3, 2019

Westendlad said:
Poor lads working on the tracks in Port Talbot this morning were not as lucky as you BBR..........Just read they were wearing ear defenders so didn't hear the train coming.

I'll check that out. Railway was a dangerous Job, we had lots of scrapes.Back in the 70's we drank most days ! There were 10 of us in our gang, all piss heads and even the foreman would come to the pub. Health and Safety was Poor, we were told to keep our wits about us and that was it. How none of us were killed is a miracle !

larry_david · Jul 3, 2019

At uni I accidentally left the gas hob on for about 2 hours and sat upstairs oblivious. Came back down stairs and the smell was so intense, felt like I couldn't even see properly. Turned it off opened as many windows and doors as possible and thanked christ my smoking housemate didn't light a cig.

Could have killed at least 6 people that day, they still don't know it

Gazolba · Jul 4, 2019

Mcbean said:
This thread is a bit scary - main thing is we have all survived <snip>

But who knows how many people did not survive who might have been contributing to this thread otherwise.

The closest call I ever remember having is once in London I was about to step off the curb and a car came zooming around the corner and missed me by about an inch. If I'd stepped off the curb a couple of seconds earlier, I'd have been dead or maimed for life.

Exactly the same thing happened to my mother in Birmingham, she was just about to step off the curb and a car came zooming by at high speed very close to the pavement. Missed her by inches.

hill83 · Jul 4, 2019

I had meningococcal meningitis and septicemia when I was three and my parents were effectively told to prepare for the worst. Fully recovered though after 2 and half weeks in hospital with no lasting damage.

rob9872 · Jul 4, 2019

I once had a heavy cold

Otis · Jul 4, 2019

rob9872 said:
I once had a heavy cold

How heavy?

olderskyblue · Jul 4, 2019

hill83 said:
I had meningococcal meningitis and septicemia when I was three and my parents were effectively told to prepare for the worst. Fully recovered though after 2 and half weeks in hospital with no lasting damage.

So the worst happened then...

Otis · Jul 4, 2019

Not for him. It's only the rest of us that have suffered.

rob9872 · Jul 4, 2019

Otis said:
How heavy?

Very

pastythegreat · Jul 4, 2019

Had more than my fair share of near misses when I was in Iraq and Afghan.
Normally mortar or Chinese rocket attacks. The occasional bit of sporadic gunfire or IED.
But the closest was having an 81mm mortar round land in the dirt about 6 or 7 meters away from me. If it had not been a dead round, they'd of been sending me home in pieces.
The closest exploding mortar to land near me was probably about 50-60 meters away. And fuck my life was it loud. When that explosion went, I was like a rat up a drainpipe. Never moved as fast in my entire life. Unlike the other one when I was frozen to the spot.
Another time when I was lead driver if a patrol convoy and we were fired at by an RPG. A mixture of panic, luck and just a smidge of skill (more luck and panic though) and it missed us by about 40 feet. It carried on past us and soft detonated over some waste ground a couple of hundred meters away.

At the time I was what? 19-20-21. It didn't faze me at all. None of it did. All the close calls I had never bothered me at the time. It's only now that I'm a lot older (and slightly wiser) that I look back and realise how lucky I was.
To see so many good friends killed or injured. To know that I'm still here and can still run around the park with my kids and a football (well, kind of).

It just wasn't my time.

Phew, That Was A Near Miss ! (1 Viewer)

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