Do you have a That was Close moment?

[Daleksatemyshed]

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?

We were having some work done at the back of the house. DD1 and I were in the front room. There is a very heavy mirror above the fireplace. DD1 was dancing on the hearth (summer, no fire). I put her down for her nap. 10 mins later the heavy mirror (Shaken by the work) crashes down on the exact spot she had been dancing on. She’s 14 now and it’s still haunts me. It would have killed her.

DP was working in a multi floor department store and walking across the top floor a kid was climbing on a very stupidly placed sofa next to the escalators and caught him as he was about to fall over. was called all sorts by the parents for grabbing their child.
On a hill walk, the weather changed very quickly so we found shelter and stayed too long and it got too dark to find our way down the hill and stayed overnight until dawn, very cold and hungry.
DP and kids were on the other side of the road waiting for me when I stupidly stepped out in front of a bus that swerved sharply to miss me and swerved again to avoid them on the other pavement.

I died in intensive care. I had developed septicaemia after miscarrying late in pregnancy. I remember turning to speak to my husband who was standing behind by head and feeling so devastated and tired that I wanted to die and I did. It was literally like someone turned the power off - straight out. The doctors resuscitated me and I remember it was just like gradually waking up again and lying looking up at the ceiling. I'm no longer afraid of dying - it was alright.

My dh was lifting the floorboards to put in some sound proofing. One bit was being a nightmare so he decided to use his circular saw to saw through the floorboard. Seconds later there is a loud bang (threw the saw down) and was haring down the stairs to switch off the electricity and the water as he'd sawn through a water pipe. My uncle came to help repair the damage and said he was a millimetre away from cutting through the gas pipe! Both the gas and the water pipe had been set just into the top of the joists by whoever had fitted them. Made us all feel so sick as it would have probably killed him, my dd whose room was right where he was working and probably our cat.

I was walking home from work coming to the very busy crossroads at and I saw a little girl about to walk across opposite me as the green man came on, a car went through the red light at about 50 mph as she stepped on to the road and was so close to hitting her. My heart stopped and we just looked at each other knowing what could have just happened had she walked out half a second faster. Still gives me chills.

Another one. Our previous neighbours were building a huge retaining wall at the end of their garden. Our kids were friends and used to go to each other's gardens to play. One day my kids went to their house, and as my yd went over the wall collapsed. She was a second away from being hit by it and probably being killed. Same yd as in the story above.

Filled in a British style date to request no airstrikes at a specific location, obviously interpreted by Americans because I woke up to tremors. The building next to us was flattened, and the building we were hiding in was badly damaged. A guy in the next room was killed by shrapnel.

Had our windscreen shot through once, I'm short so it sailed through the headrest about an inch above my head. Got scars from the glass, but survived. Had an embarrassingly low altitude helicopter crash. We stayed inside and braced, and then ran out as fast as we could before anything sparked. I'd like to point out I am not a soldier, and went into my career with the goal of a snazzy corner office and beautifully tailored suits.

DD had meningitis when she was 6. I didn’t realise. Should have got her to the hospital much sooner. It’s only with hindsight I realise that the doctor in PICU who came to the waiting room to tell us that they’d managed to get a line in and start fluids could so easily have come in and said “I’m sorry...”

Totally my fault. My horse kicked out excitedly once as I was stood behind him leaving his stable. I felt the cold shoe on his hind left hoof brush past my temple but it didn't touch me. How I didn't get kicked and die there and then I've no idea. My guardian angel was there that day. I was shaking for hours afterwards. I've never led a horse into a stable since without turning them around and keeping their head with me until I'm out and the stable door is bolted

I was flying on a test flight as part of the
C of A (certificate of airworthiness) and part of the test was to dive the aircraft to the maximum allowed speed, known as VNE, (vertical never exceed).

During the dive the speed was going up, but not quick enough and the whole plane was screaming in a near vertical dive.

We finally got to VNE speed and it took two of us to pull out of the dive, and we were a hell of a lot lower than we should have been or either of us were comfortable with.

When we landed there were wrinkles in the aluminium skin on top of the wings, and we had the airspeed indicator tested and it was under reading!

Turns out we had dived past the speed when the wings can come off!!

When I'm having a bad day, I often think that I could have so easily have slammed into the ground wingless, in a farmers field somewhere in Suffolk.

Mine are pretty tame but sometimes still give me the heebies
On holiday in Symi, had a lovely evening, back to our fab hotel overlooking the port, woke up to terrible rumbling and huddled under the covers for the rest of the night. Ventured out in the morning to buildings on either side collapsed, port devasted - major earthquake! We were sooo lucky!
Second one, snoozing by the pool on holiday, DH suddenly leapt up, ran to the kids pool and dragged out a pretty lifeless wee boy- remembered his school swimming lessons and did cpr on the wee lad- what felt like hours later he coughed and started breathing . I asked him what made him suddenly go to the pool and he says he really doesn't know - that was very close.
Fate really does seem to play a part

Not me but my grandad.
He was driving along the motorway years ago behind a lorry carrying big logs. He had just noticed that some of them were looking a bit loose when he said he had a feeling that he should lean over the car. He undid his seatbelt and leant across so his head was on the passenger seat. Just as he did one of the logs came loose and skewered his car.
When the police arrived on the scene they immediately threw a cover over his car as the log had gone right through where the driver would be and they were sure he must be dead. It wasn't until he started banging that they checked on him. He escaped with only minor injuries.

Really emotional reading these.

I was driving back on the M5 near Bristol. Fairly busy motorway, everyone doing about 60-70mph. I was in the middle lane, behind a flatbed truck. Traffic in all the lanes, nowhere for me to go at the time.
A huge wide tarmac broom detached from the truck in front, and started flying through the air towards me. It seemed to be in slow motion, I couldn’t slam on the brakes as there would’ve been a pile up, so I braked as much as I could, calculating the broom would land on the road in front of me and potentially bounce back up. It was coming at me sideways on like this ———-E
Luckily it landed and didn’t rebound up, otherwise I would’ve been killed. My car went over it and somehow, we all were fine. Cars came to a halt, truck drove off, probably with no clue. Had to drive for 3 hours after that to get home but only after stopping for half an hour to stop shaking.

My brother has had two motorway accidents. Once where a deer ran out in front of his car, luckily he was ok. Deer ran off and couldn’t be found but probably was not ok.

The other was where a lorry clipped his car when overtaking, sending him spinning in a circle so he ended up facing oncoming traffic in the third overtaking lane. 😱

These things make me never want to be on a motorway again.

As a baby our family car was involved in an accident - I was a sitting on my mum's lap (in the days before car seats) as the car somersaulted. I was whiplashed and thrown into the windscreen but luckily came out unscathed though my Mum's milk dried up overnight from the shock.

As a student I was (stupidly) taking a shortcut with my friend across a dual carriageway when my bicycle was hit by a motorbike. The whole of my back tyre was folded in two - 20seconds earlier I would probably have died or been seriously injured. I left the bike padlocked to a lamppost and then it was nicked!

When I was living in the US as a student I was the passenger in a speeding bashed pick up truck when the door I was leaning against swung open and I swung out into the road. Crazy fun times.

On 7/7 I travelled through Kings Cross at the same time as the bus bomber and took a similar route to him to get a bus to work as like him I couldn't get on the tube. At the last minute I went down Grey's Inn road rather than Southampton Row guessing what bus to get.

We had a narrow escape driving along a Country B class road last week, as we approached a bend to the left in the road, a Powerful motorbike overtook us at speed, only to be met by another Biker coming in the Opposite direction around the Bend.

How they managed to miss each other and avoid a Head on Collision l will never know, had we been a few mins sooner I’m sure one of them would have ended up being thrown into the path of our car by the impact.

The entire road is signed with the local Police Road safety signs, with slogans such as ‘Dying for a Ride? Think Speed, Save lives’ or Simply announcing the Amount of Road fatalities there have been along the Accident Blackspots in an area over the last year.

Another narrow escape we had was following a large Lorry up the M6 one morning en route to the A55 Coast road down to Conwy. It was winter time, with freezing overnight temperatures the night before.

Suddenly, a large thick sheet of Ice is hurled backwards towards us off this Lorry’s roof, causing us to swerve to avoid it. Thankfully there was nothing coming up in the middle or outer lanes, but once we had recovered slightly from the shock, we reported it to the Highways Agency, as there were still some rather thick and large chunks of ice on the surface of the road where it happened.

I was doing about 60mph on a three lane stretch of motorway, with very little traffic. I was in the middle lane, on my way from the fast lane over to the slow lane, having overtaken a car in the middle lane, and with my exit about a mile and a half ahead I was gradually heading for the slow lane. A good way ahead of me I could see a car on the shoulder off the slow lane.

As I drew closer this car backed at high speed straight out across the motorway, completely blocking my lane.

I had to swerve violently into the fast lane to avoid T-boning it. I thought we would roll over.

I had three little children in the back seat. Still catch my breath thinking about it.

Also, driving with DS after picking him up from university, a deer clattered out directly in front of my car, going from left to right. I could see the white of his eye.

Another time, after dropping DS off, and driving back through a blizzard, I was at the point where I was seriously wondering if I was on the road or in the fields, when ahead of me I saw a snow plough. I managed to get in behind it and drove for miles, but then it left the road and I was once again on my own. Luckily I only had about an hour of my journey left, and the outer suburbs (and better lighting) of the city I was heading to lay about twenty minutes ahead. When I got home I realised my entire body was so tight and rigid from concentrating on trying to see that my ribs hurt. I ran a bath and polished off two hot whiskeys before bed.

I was straightening my hair with my old cheap straighteners (I was waiting on new Cloud Nine ones coming after my olds one broke so brought these crappy ones out the attic). I pulled them away from my head so I could turn to shout at my arguing kids, and the straighteners exploded just heard and saw this bang, I think the plates had overheated - if they'd been next to my face I'd have been injured. No idea what happened to make them do this but they went straight in the bin. And i didn't feel so bad about shouting at my kids

Funny you should ask. I nearly got taken out by a huge articulated lorry today. It was coming towards me and swerved into my lane. Came 1m over the central line. Thank fuck there was a lay-by on my side. Saved my life. I was quite shaken up for a while thinking of the what if.

Years ago I was shopping in Sainsburys in the student area (supposedly the busiest one in the UK).
I noticed people running away, some ducking down as if hiding and a few people started throwing tinned items. I thought little of it(it being a student area and this kind of crazy behaviour wasn't unheard of - there was once an organised flash mob food fight). I picked up my basket and left the aisle I was on. Next thing I know this policewoman rugby tackles me to the floor. If she hadn't I would have been hit in the head by a flying meat cleaver. I didn't know it at the time but a man walked in to the shop, went behind the butchers counter and raided all the sharp objects he could find. He then went on a rampage. He injured a few people but luckily no one died. My friend who worked customer services nearly had her hand chopped off when he marched up to the desk and started hacking it with the cleaver. Even now 20 plus years later I can't look at one without shaking.

Floozy I know that Sainsbury's! I remember the day it happened. My dh (friend back then) was one of the people pelting the guy with cans. Small fucking world

Not me but my dad was driving on the motorway one night travelling to visit my uncle who then lived up north. He was driving on the middle lane and saw a headlight that looked odd on the fast Lane. Around 30 seconds later, a car drove past my dads car on the fast Lane but was on the opposite direction. If my dad had been on the fast Lane, it would have been an head on collision. This was probably about 25 years ago or more so before mobile phones or internet so not sure what happened afterwards but that car must have driven like that for miles. How he ended up on the wrong side of the motorway and not realise the mistake still gibes my dad goosebumps.

I have had a 3 and a half. First one was we went round to friends of my parents, I had been stubborn about learning to swim, but was missing out on my siblings playing, so took of my rubber bands and jumped in. All I could remember was a scene from Tom and Jerry, when Tom was drowing and he waved his hands to show he was in trouble.

Second one, was when I was on my bike, I would take a short cut through a petrol station it shaved off maybe 5 seconds, but because it was so late (1am) it was closed, so not a problem, I swerved in as a car was coming out, hit into the car, car drove away.

Third one, I was late for work and driving, I was probably going too fast, I rounded a corner and there was a traffic jam right infront of me,. I nearly shat myself, haven't sped once after that.

The half one, was I have a vague memory of climbing over a blacony and falling off it but my Dad grabbing me, both parents say this never happened, but what they think it might be is on holiday once, they were staying in a hotel,on the 5th floor had the balcony door open and I had crawled out and thats when they discovered I could fit through the bars on the balcony. But I never got more than my head out