Have you ever had a 'I can't believe I did that, I could've killed myself/someone' ?

[Mingewithafringe]

I just remembered something after reading the thread about bright headlights where a poster mentioned driving on country lanes.

In my early 20s, I was driving back from Reading to the Midlands, travelling alone, at about 11pm. Sat Nav was deciding to take me on a rural route, I naively carried on thinking some main road/motorway signs would pop up eventually. I had only 50 miles left on my tank (was going to stop off at an M1 service station for a break and get some then) and low phone battery.

After about 15 miles of driving down dark country lanes with no end or life in sight, I started crapping it that I was going to get lost in the middle of nowhere with no petrol and no phone, it was pitch black, high trees everywhere, scary, poor visibility and raining. I should have stayed calm and carried on, but I decided I wanted to go back to Reading, get petrol and start again.

So I slowed down, and STOPPED in the middle of a bendy country road and did a 5 point turn. My heart was in my mouth the whole time, hoping a car wouldn't come straight into me at high speed. I was so relieved to have not caused an accident , especially as literally 20 seconds later, a car came right up behind me and they had to brake because of how fast they were going.

I've never pulled a stunt like that again! (thank god also for smart phones and Google maps)

Any other stories people want to share?

Wow that was a risk @ImInStealthMode ! So nice that you're still friends though that's great

On holiday in my early 20s with a female friend. It was not your usual brits abroad type place and as 2 young women we were getting quite a lot of hassle when we ventured outside the hotel. We went on an organised trip (with loads of other tourists) and the man running it offered to escort us on a night out, so we could enjoy the bars etc without being hassled. We naively assumed that as he was linked to the travel company and seemed very respectable he was just looking out for us. He persuaded us to go with him and a friend in a taxi to a larger town nearby, then took us to a club where everyone seemed to know, and slightly fear, him. He and his friend then tried to separate us (each claiming that the other one of us had asked for some 'private time' with the other man). We both felt uneasy with this and claimed to need the loo, then ran off and got a taxi back to the hotel.

From what we heard around the hotel later, it sounds like he was actually some sort of minor local drug dealer. God knows what could have happened to us- I'm just glad we both listened to our 'run away' instincts.

I was driving by myself in France a couple of years ago and absent mindedly went onto the wrong side of a quiet road after being parked up to check directions. Another car came round a bend and had to swerve to avoid me! I screamed and pulled onto the correct side. This was after two weeks of non eventful driving, and years of watching my parents drive in France, so I thought I knew the drill, just goes to show you should never ever let your guard down! I felt sooooooo stupid and wanted to apologise to the other car for giving them such a fright but never got the chance :(

I was leaving my sisters house with my young daughter. Think she was about 2. My sister had a really heavy
composite door.

I just nudged the door shut enough to shut it but it just sort of bounced back.

I grabbed the handle about to wrench it shut, to make sure it shuts this time, when I just happened to check my daughter. She finhers were just above the hinge of the door. She already had her mouth open doing that silent cry where it takes them a while to actually make a noise.

If I'd banged it shut I'd probably broken her fingers. I'm still not sure how she got her fingers there. She had never done that before.

Now whenever I close a door. I always make sure the hinges are clear.

@IreneSmith

Driving in Highlands in November during bad bad weather (even for Highlands). Car got stuck on ice going up a spiral /curved shape ascent.

Problem was, to my left was a ditch, to my right and straight back of the car was a lethal drop (remember spiral/curved ascent).

No phone signal. Couldnt get out and walk without risk of either freezing to death, my car rolling off at some point, or another car crashing into it.

So I painstakingly got it unstuck and somehow did a 4 point turn without slipping to oblivion and went straight back down and back to the lodge.

I was stupid for taking the car out that day, more stupid for trying to drive up an ascent, it was sheer luck I didnt die.

I normally live in South East, so whenever we get ice and snow (since that incident), I find it a doddle in comparison.

The hairs on my neck stood up then. The same thing happened to me over 30 years ago (pre-mobile phones). As a fairly novice driver I had job interview at Blair Castle. I had grossly overestimated how long it would take to get there and was over an hour early so decided to drive around for a while.

I somehow ended up spiralling up a steep hill into ever thickening fog on a single track road with a steep bank on one side and a sheer drop on the other with no sign of anywhere to turn round.

With about 25 mins to the interview I realised I had no option but to very gingerly do what must have been at least a 9 point turn as I was so afraid I'd go over the edge in the almost zero visibility.

I made it (obviously), but didn't get the job.

I am glad I can't drive!
I have done so many silly and unsafe things when drunk in my early 20s.
Though these two occasions(not 20 not drunk) stick in my mind.

I worked in a Dog Kennels for years as a teenager.
A particular aggressive dog would come to board-always had a leash attached and we would clip another to it so we didn't need to actually get close enough to put it on.
The Boss always dealt with this dog-but after years I was told to do it.
All was fine and Boss was always within touching or shouting distance...Until one day I went to walk the dog not realising he had already been out and the whole group had moved on to the other field and set of kennel blocks.
So, I was alone in a huge field with this dog who had already been walked-He literally just stopped dead, so I did too, then he jumped up and rested his paws on me and just looked at me, inches away from my face! I froze!!!
Then he landed back onto all fours and set off walking again, I was terrified and still to this day think what could have happened.
When my eldest was only a few days old, I was holding him after feeding in the night and somehow lost my balance causing me to stumble and fall onto the bed, I just missed the wooden bottom rail of my bed with his head!!!! I still think about this now!!

So so so many times whilst a teen - getting in cars with young lads who drove like nutters - and rattling around in the back without any seatbelts. You think you're indestructible when you're young and so much comes down to luck and timing.

Last week, first night of this winter driving in the dark so not used to driving in the dark lately, drove home, at a junction, shop lights around and headlights coming towards me, just did a stupid thing and was quite rightly hooted at, no collision but not far off, all my fault. Will be driving home in the dark within the next week, must, must, take care.

When I had my first son via emergency section, I was absolutely exhausted and jn pain. I also couldn’t feed properly so was using a little syringe to get the colostrum into him.
I had asked for pain relief from the midwife and she left me with a syringe of oramorph. I was so sleep deprived that I almost fed it to the baby when my partner noticed and took the syringe away immediately. It would have killed him!
With hindsight now 7 years on, she should never have left without me taking it in front of her. It terrifies me what nearly happened to my baby.

Was in an anxiety driven daze, and walked into the road. A car screeched to a halt, and beeped at me. Was sure to hit me, but it turned out to be an unmarked cop car, and they sectioned me!
Still feel stupid about it now, because I argued it was not on purpose but they insisted it was.

@Shortpoet

I was walking gone one night through quiet roads. Felt a bit wheezy so took my inhaler, but the cap had come off inside my bag and a tiny bit a foil from a sweet wrapper was inside the airway which I didn’t realise and I breathed it in. Started choking. Genuinely thought I was going to die in the street and there was no one around to ask for help, but fortunately managed to cough it up! It was terrifying.

Ever since I read a man had died after squirting a foreign object into his mouth when using his inhaler, I have done a squirt before putting it in my mouth just in case.

We had a small extension at the back of our house, just a covered over coal shed really that had been converted into a loo and a utility room cupboard.

It was slightly lower than the main part of the house and one day I had the washing machine going, went out and realised there was inch deep water across the whole extension. I thought it was the washing machine and knew it needed to be switched off. I just went into autopilot and stepped into the water to reach the off button.

As soon as I had hit the button, I realised how stupid it was to stand in water next to malfunctioning electrical equipment. Thankfully, it turned out to be nothing to do with the washer. The ballcock in the loo had jammed and the water was pouring out of a overflow in the cistern and nowhere near the electrics in the washing machine.

So many terrifying stories, I've been open mouthed at some of these!

Just thought of another after reading a pp

While on holiday in Egypt with another female friend (both of us in our mid twenties), we went on a quad biking excursion in a remote Egyptian desert.

A local had tagged along, he seemed to be good friends with the organiser.
So we drove around in our group for quite a few hours, by the time we needed to head back it was dusk and visibility was really bad, particularly as you have to wear sunglasses because of the sand spray.
The organiser rounded us all up to drive back to the base, but he absolutely floored it and left us all trailing behind. The other tourists didn't seem to be bothered and also floored it, leaving just me and my friend on a our quads languishing a good 200 metres behind everyone, we were both nervous drivers and there was sand flying up all over the place which was slowing us down more.

All of a sudden, I felt my bike being bumped aggressively from behind - it was the local guy - he kept trying to ram into me continuously as if to derail me, I shouted at him to stop it, my friend was near me and saw what was going on and was screaming too in the hope of getting someone's attention. He kept doing it and was clearly trying to get me to stop or fall off. I just thought god I've got to stay focused here and I literally just floored it for what felt like forever (as did my friend), we soon saw some lights and with relief, saw that we were approaching the base. When we parked up, we were absolutely hysterical, literally hyper ventilating that we could've ended up assaulted or dead in the middle of an Egyptian desert and that we'd never be found.

What was worse is that the local didn't scarper, he just parked up at the base with the rest of us and acted like nothing had happened. We were going crazy at the organiser asking him who this guy was and telling him that he just tried to ram us off in the middle of the desert, we were also angry about why he felt the need to put his foot down and leave vulnerable tourists at the back! Conveniently his English wasn't good anymore, he completely dismissed us, pretended he didn't know what we were saying and told us to board the bus to go back to the hotel.

We reported it to the hotel and Tui, but nothing came from it, and I definitely wasn't going to step foot inside a police station there.
Vowed never to go back to Egypt again after that

Fucking hell, pretty much everything I did between aged 18 and 25.

Used to race my motorbike around London at 2am, getting my knee down around corners wearing peddle pushers, a flimsy leather jacket and helmet. Overtook trucks on blind corners, into oncoming traffic etc.

Went into anaphylactic shock in the jungles of Chiang Mai, hours from anywhere.

Got held up at gunpoint in Cape Town.

Walked around some incredibly unsafe cities on my own in Asia without realising just how risky it was.

I'm terrified for my boys, if they're even half as stupid as I was. I'm still here due to dumb luck and it terrifies me that they'll have all these split decisions to make as they grow, and the wrong one might see them hurt or killed.

Doing 80 on a clear motorway at night on a stretch with no street lights and saw something dark up ahead underneath the flyover. As I got closer I realised it was a broken down car that for some reason had no lights on. Had I not been driving a hot hatch with good handling I may not have been able to swerve around it like I did.