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Original poster

Do you have a That was Close moment?

181 replies

Daleksatemyshed · 05/05/2021 18:58

Local news had a gas explosion in a house, terrifying footage of part of the house going up like a rocket, several people were hurt and the house is a complete wreck. Some years ago my DM (who was elderly with Dementia) turned on a couple of burners on the cooker but didn't light them, I arrived pre work to drop something off to a house reeking of gas!
I got the house aired out and had a Gas fitter cut off the supply.
Watching the news brought home how close my DM was to disaster and probably serious injury. I still feel guilty I didn't sort this before hand.
Anyone else care to sooth my guilt?

OP posts:
LoudNowSing · 05/05/2021 19:03

My OH drove off a cliff by accident. He was saved by one of the few trees on the cliff (his car was stopped by the trunk). A meter either side and he and the car would have fallen 30m into a ravine.
I actually vomited when I saw the car. OH was completely unhurt.

Original poster
Daleksatemyshed · 05/05/2021 19:07

@LoudNowSing, my word, that's scary!

OP posts:
Cocolapew · 05/05/2021 19:11

Years a go a bomb went off in my town. I was looking out of an open third floor window and got thrown backwards by the blast. As I was lying on the floor our giant media unit started to wobble. I just managed to roll away before it came crashing down.

Aniseeeds · 05/05/2021 19:13

Had a similar incident with the gas where we went on holiday but pure chance meant we had to turn round and head back as we had forgotten passports. Got in the house and the place reeked of gas, my sister had cooked some pasta before we went but must have turned on the gas hob by mistake but not lit it. Thank god we headed back as the house would have been left for a week!

We were debating going to Thailand one year for Christmas and opted to go to Austria to go skiing instead. Imagine our shock when we saw on Christmas Day in the news the devastation of the tsunami and how lucky we were that we decided to opt for a snowy Christmas instead of a sunny one!

Spudina · 05/05/2021 19:13

I’ve had three. I was hit by a car and thrown in the air. Fractured my pelvis but otherwise was ok. There was a sporting thing, but the worse was when I nearly drowned on holiday. I just couldn’t get out of the sea which kept crashing in me and dragging me under. It was terrifying.

Honeybobbin · 05/05/2021 19:15

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

ThePontiacBandit · 05/05/2021 19:27

I was driving under a motorway bridge when I saw something flying towards me...I ducked and covered, heard a huge thud. When I got where I was going, I checked the car roof but saw nothing. Thought it was a bit odd. Mentioned it to my Dad when I got home and he said “There’s a brick-shaped dent in the bonnet!”. If it had hit at a different angle and come through the windscreen, I’d have been done for.

Zarinea · 05/05/2021 19:30

Staying with a friend in a hotel in Tel Aviv. We both work up with a start in the middle of the night, thought 'that's weird', and went back to sleep.

Turned out a rocket landed in the sea about 300m from us.

Original poster
Daleksatemyshed · 05/05/2021 19:36

@Aniseeeds you must have nine lives like a cat

OP posts:
bigbeatmanifesto · 05/05/2021 19:39

On a school trip to the Isle of Man, I couldn't swim neither could a friend, aged 11 almost the whole class was in the sea bumping waves, basically just floating allowing ourselves to ride the waves, only after a few mins we realised we were pretty far away from the rest of our group, but no worries we will just doggy paddle back... except now there was a current and we were fighting against it pretty hard it just swept us out further. Cut to 3 teachers spotting us and diving into the sea and pulled us to shore, thankgod our friends who didn't want to paddle in the sea thst day but instead wanted to go rockpooling pointed out to a teacher that we were waving. Saved our lives.

littledrummergirl · 05/05/2021 19:45

We were moving a doorframe when the dc were toddlers. It was being a pig to remove so dh started sawing through it so it would come off in pieces.
We were lucky that when he sawed through the stupidly placed gas pipe that the sparks didn't ignite the escaped gas.

My df was once driving across an ungated railway crossing. The bell wasn't working and the sun angle meant he couldn't see that the lights were on. The train hit the car on three sides and the only seat intact was the drivers. Df walked away without a scratch.

Essexgirlupnorth · 05/05/2021 19:47

My Grandad traveled through Kings Cross the day of the Big fire in the 80s missed it by a couple of hours.
I went through Potters Bar a day or so before the train derailed.

JesusInTheCabbageVan · 05/05/2021 19:52

When DS was about 5, he nearly hanged himself in a soft play centre. It was a strip of loose fabric at the top of a bouncy castle slide, and it somehow got looped around his neck. He had a big rope burn but was fine, thankfully.

Funnily enough I was thinking about it just the other day and asked him if he remembered it, but he didn't.

LadyMonicaBaddingham · 05/05/2021 19:55

My car was hit by a train. I was fine, though shaken - but a few seconds earlier and ☠️

JesusInTheCabbageVan · 05/05/2021 19:55

@Zarinea

Staying with a friend in a hotel in Tel Aviv. We both work up with a start in the middle of the night, thought 'that's weird', and went back to sleep.

Turned out a rocket landed in the sea about 300m from us.

Someone's going to have one of those in a couple of days... there's an out of control rocket due to land on or around 10 May, and they won't know where until about six hours before it hits.
Millano · 05/05/2021 19:58

@Honeybobbin

My DS nearly stepped out in front of a truck. I was parked up waiting for him to pop into the shop and another driver spotted it and waved frantically. I realised and screamed my son's name at the top of my voice. He stopped a split second before he would have been mown down. It keeps me awake at 3am quite regularly.
This made me nearly cry just imagining it... and the sleepless nights you no doubt endured. I cannot fathom the horror.
Original poster
Daleksatemyshed · 05/05/2021 20:01

Thank you everyone for sharing, you're all making me feel much better but I'm sorry you've all had to have such awful moments. @JesusInTheCabbageVan

OP posts:
Original poster
Daleksatemyshed · 05/05/2021 20:02

Sirry, meant Jesus you'll never forget

OP posts:
Millano · 05/05/2021 20:07

Was driving on the m25 earlier this year with my then v new DS. Cautious driver, slow lane, speed limit, constantly checking mirrors. I look in my rear view mirror and all I see is the grill of a massive lorry behind me. It was so so close. Couldn't even see his windscreen he was so close. So in my panic to move away, I touched the brake instead of the accelerator. My bad. (His for being so close though that he had to take drastic measures though obviously). He had to emergency brake on the motorway. I drove away shaking and panicking l at how close he has been to driving into the back of me. And my son. I still suffer from nightmares about it. A few minutes later, after his panic had no doubt subsided, he drove alongside me as I was turning off the motorway, and throw an object on the roof of my car. I majorly swerved and nearly crashed. He dented the car roof. Could have gone through the windscreen and killed me and DS. When parked and calmed down, I called the lorry company and gave. Them. HELL. We nearly were killed twice in one short journey.

tentosix · 05/05/2021 20:12

So called smart motorway with no hard shoulder, driving in the left hand lane. I was driving a transit van. I was distracted (unusual for me on a motorway) by a huge car transporter on my right, it felt too close. Literally 5 or 6 seconds and there in my carriageway was a broken down van taking up half the carriageway. I thought I would hit it and have no idea how I squeaked through the tiny gap. Transporter must have seen it and moved out...no idea.

A few weeks later 2 men were killed at that spot when they got out to take details after a minor accident.

EineReiseDurchDieZeit · 05/05/2021 20:15

Yes there was a similar big explosion some years ago, basically next to my road in an area I often cut through to get home, I was out of town.

theluckiest · 05/05/2021 20:18

These are terrifying.

My dad skidded on black ice & his car went under the back of an HGV. He lost consciousness for a moment & when he came to, the bonnet had gone under the back of the lorry & his windscreen was an inch away from the back of the HGV. If he'd hit it any harder, he would've been killed.

AlexCabot · 05/05/2021 20:19

Dh fell under a train in the station when he was a toddler. FIL managed to grab him and pull him out just as the train started moving.

It's been nearly 50 years, dh doesn't remember but MIL still feels a bit sick thinking about it.

I was driving on a NSL road, so doing 60. Went round a bend and a transit van was on the wrong side of the road coming straight at me. I couldn't swerve out of the way but at the last minute he swerved back onto his side of the road. Missed me by centimetres.

I had to pull into a lay-by to pull myself together. My sister was killed in a collision very similar (hit head on by a car on the wrong side of the road) and I was shaking for a good fifteen minutes before I could set off again. I lay awake that night wondering if the pure fear I felt when I saw the van coming at me was what she felt too.

AlexCabot · 05/05/2021 20:21

@tentosix

So called smart motorway with no hard shoulder, driving in the left hand lane. I was driving a transit van. I was distracted (unusual for me on a motorway) by a huge car transporter on my right, it felt too close. Literally 5 or 6 seconds and there in my carriageway was a broken down van taking up half the carriageway. I thought I would hit it and have no idea how I squeaked through the tiny gap. Transporter must have seen it and moved out...no idea.

A few weeks later 2 men were killed at that spot when they got out to take details after a minor accident.

Those smart motorways are fucking lethal. Who the hell came up with it?
lonel · 05/05/2021 20:22

When my son was about three we were staying in a hotel in France on the fourth floor (no lift!) and he was walking up the stairs in front of me. It was one of those stairwells where you go round the central shaft and you can see right down all the floors. At one point, almost at the top, he slipped and put his hand out to the upright spindle on the banister to steady himself - but it wasn't attached, it swang away and I saw he was about to fall through the gap. It was awful. I grabbed him just in time and I was so upset but tried not to scare him. Then I left him with DH and went down to bollock the manager in my heartfelt but imperfect French. They knew exactly what I meant so they obviously hadn't seen it as a risk and they sent someone up to nail it down immediately. I dreamt about it for weeks thinking "what if I hadn't been watching him?" "What if I had been more than a step behind?" Shock

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