To ask whether any seemingly innocuous decisions you have made may actually have saved your life or prevented injury

[Cheeseandlobster]

I once set my alarm wrong. I don't know why or how. But it went off 27 minutes after it should have done. I used to go running on the same route but when I got there the road was sealed off halfway by police. A car had pulled out on a bike and I could see debris strewn all over the road and pavement where I would have been and I am convinced I would have been caught up in it had I have set my alarm for the correct time.

Have any of you made an innocent decision or mistake that may have changed everything like this?

Not exactly, but it was my ex’s laziness and bad temper that stopped us being on the viewing platform of the World Trade Center first thing on 9/11. We wouldn’t have stood a chance if we had been up there.

Me and DH were a bit slack and never booked our tickets to get to Paris to see Eagles of Death Metal at the Bataclan in 2015.

To add, we did have the concert tickets just never got around to booking slights/eurostar.

I would have been on the Northern line at the time of the 7/7 London bombings if I’d caught the train 10 mins earlier into King’s Cross 🙁. Can’t say if I’d’ve been on the specific tube train/carriage, given how frequent the tubes are at rush hour but might well have been....As it was I got stuck outside King’s Cross with everyone thinking it was a power cut or electricity problem for quite some time.

Driving on a Scottish country road in December many years ago, heading home for Christmas late at night. Some instinct just made me slow right down as we approached a decline. The two cars in front of me didn't slow and both hit black ice and went off the road down the dip into trees (forest edge). One dead, one bad injuries, I found out later. I slid but managed to control and stop at the edge. (I phoned for help and did first aid but I will never forget what I saw in that first car that hit hardest).

As a teenager, some friends and I planned to go to a festival with some boys we knew and spend the weekend wherever it was. On the day, I just had the strongest urge to have the weekend to myself and chill instead.

My friends weren't delighted at my last minute change of heart but off they went.

Anyway, after the festival, they were involved in a crash with a lorry and a couple badly injured (luckily nobody died although one girl's injuries were to an extent life changing).

I have always felt convinced that had I been there, I would have died or been terribly injured.

Ooh great thread

Unfortunately not. I asked here for advice and didn't follow it. Ended up with pneumonia and spent a week in hospital. I shouldn't have gone to work that day.

Well actually saying that, today I chose to go to the asda by my work rather than by my home. When I got back, the road I would have taken to the other asda had a huge crash, lots of emergency vehicles and an air ambulance. Had I been earlier I might have been caught up in that.

My uncle was near the top of the escalator that caught fire at kings cross in 1987. Luckily he just hopped off and was one of the first out.

I was in the car with my mum driving when I was 17 years old. We were just coming up to a roundabout but the dashboard light for my door kept flashing saying it was still open (despite it definitely being shut). I opened and closed it repeatedly to try to get the light to stop and my mum slowed down slightly. We reached the roundabout and a drunk driver ploughed straight into us. The car was written off. The whole front end of the car was mangled just in front of my legs. Had we been going slightly faster he would have gone straight into my door/me. Still gives me chills thinking about it now.

I used to work in London. I arrived at Euston, after work to catch the train home. There were 2 trains on the platform. I was too tired to walk the length of the rear train, and risk having to stand up on the front train part of the way home. I decided to get on the rear train, where they were plenty of empty seats - it just meant waiting 15 minutes for the rear train to go.

The front train was in the Wembley train crash. Eventually, the railway staff or the police led us off the train to walk along the tracks, past the crash to Wembley station!

I usually changed at Kings Cross onto the Piccadilly line but for some reason decided to change onto the Victoria Line and then change at Finsbury Park. Could smell burning and there appeared to be a haze but got on the tube and off I went. If I had done my usual routine I would have walked into the fire and well who knows what my chances would have been.

A friend pulled me off the street as an ambulance was hurtling towards me. It broke the lights, I had the pedestrian light, and he grabbed me back. I thank my lucky stars/friend every time I am reminded.

I was getting the bus to work and it hit a car pulling out of a side road. The car driver died instantly. I spent ages beating myself up about buying a ticket when I boarded, if I hadn’t then maybe the car driver would have just gone about their day as normal. All the little seconds all of us passengers saved or caused the bus driver meant that we passed that road at the exact time they pulled out.

Yes, I might have been on one of the bombed trains on 7/7 if I'd left slightly later

On the way home from work on the markets. We pulled into a petrol station so I could get a drink and a snack. We resumed our journey and didn't get very far before we were stopped because there had been an accident. A head on collision, boy racer coming the other way had crashed into the car which had been directly behind us when we pulled off the road into the petrol station.
If we hadn't stopped then most likely that car would have hit us instead....

I was knocked over by a reversing car when I was 18 pretty much as soon as I got out the taxi for a night out. The way I fell, meant my head hit the floor. I always always had my hair down on nights out, for some reason that night I decided for the first time to wear my hair up, in the exact area of my head that would a smacked the ground

There was a TV programme with an accident investigator who, with examples, showed that beyond a certain point many incidents weren't accidents but foregone conclusions.

In every case he went through the time line and explained it. Fascinating programme.

I used to drive to uni sometimes if I had things to bring in etc, and my friend lived 15/20 mins walk from campus.
One day I'd driven in, and I offered her a lift home after lectures... not sure why as it wasn't a huge distance and it was a nice day, it wasn't something I often did and wasn't on my way - but she accepted, so I drove her round, dropped her off and went home.

Later discovered that a young man got stabbed on the exact route my friend would have taken, at the exact time she would have been passing. We were both a bit freaked out by that - it would have been horrible for her, but she might have been able to help him? Who knows.

@catmumof1

Me and DH were a bit slack and never booked our tickets to get to Paris to see Eagles of Death Metal at the Bataclan in 2015.

My passport had just expired and I couldn't be bothered to sort it out otherwise I'd have been there too. Saw them earlier that week at Newcastle Academy and had the option to go to Paris too.

Not me but my df, In the early 1990's he used to work a lot in warrington, usually 2 or three times a week. Df was a massive workaholic but one day he told my dm he wasnt feeling great so moved his meeting.

It was the second warrington bomb but neither he nor my dm knew about the first (in the days before mobile phones etc) and he would have been very very near it.

It is innocuous to an extent but the slightly odd thing is df never ever called in sick...ever. Even just before bypass surgery he was trying to work but that day he called in sick.

We went to Turkey many years ago and were offered a good deal on staying a few days longer. Some of our group did, but we decided we needed to be home for the cats. Do you remember that major earthquake just off the coast? That was where we would have been staying.

My parents went to the same hotel at the same time every year in Tunisia. They absolutely loved it. Then one year they just decided to go to Malta instead. It was the year of the mass beach shootings and they would have been on that exact beach. So scary to think about.

On holiday in the Dominican Republic - I was looking around a very small but high ceilinged cave, kind of shaped like a chimney, about 30 feet high. I had a look round, then turned to go and there was a big thud. It was a rock about twice the size of my head that had landed right where I was just standing.

When I was younger I point blank refused to go shopping in Manchester town centre with my nana, to the point of tears. She even promised me lunch where I used to love to go. Still refused. She was angry but we eventually went to the local market instead.

When we got back and put the tv in they were reporting the Woolworths fire. We'd very likely have been eating in the restaurant when it broke out - where most of the people who died were.