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?

I was in Thailand a week before the Boxing Day tsunami - but only in Bangkok. Friend wanted to stay on and go to the islands but, inexplicably (considering they're beautiful and I've never been), I didn't want to so i headed back to Singapore to catch my flight back to UK.

I was flying over the tsunami as it happened - had no idea but experienced the most horrendous turbulence. Only when I landed and was bombarded with texts did I find out what had happened.

29th November 2019 - Fishmonger Hall / London Bridge stabbings.

That morning, me, mum, dad and my step mum all went to the London Museum to see The Clash exhibition.

The plan afterwards was to travel together to London Bridge station. I had bought dad and my step mum tickets to go up the Shard at 2pm for my step mum's birthday. Mum and I would say goodbye at London Bridge station and then head over London Bridge to get some lunch.

However, for some unknown, reason I asked mum if she'd like to go to The Breakfast Club in Islington for lunch instead.

Off my dad and my step mum went to London Bridge. They arrived a little before 2pm and were allowed in.

Mum and I arrived in Islington, sat down to lunch and news reports stated coming in about the stabbing on the north side of London Bridge.
If we had stuck to our original plan, mum and I would have very likely been on London Bridge, near Fishmonger's Hall at the time of the attack.

My dad and step mum watched the events from the safety of the top of the Shard. They weren't allowed out again until 6.30pm.. just enough time for them to make it to the O2 to see Liam Gallagher in concert!

@NoSquirrels

Like a few others here, I missed a tube at Whitechapel the day of the 7/7 bombings - doors were closing as I got to the platform. The next tube arrived, we got on, the lines went dead & it waited on the platform. Aldgate is the next station up. Station was evacuated but we had no idea why and as I walked back to my flat ambulances started racing up the Whitechapel Road. Someone at my workplace lost their life that day, really brought it home.

No, aldgate east is the next station along from whitechapel. If you were about to get on the train at whitechapel, you would not have been about to get on the circle line train that was bombed at aldgate, as that line does not run through whitechapel.

So sorry to hear about your colleague.

I was supposed to go on a trip to Costa Rica jungle with my geography class when I was in sixth form. We'd spent months fund raising for it. I decided not to go a couple of weeks before we were supposed to leave as I had a competitive sports event coming up and changed my mind about missing it. About a week after the trip had departed I had a totally out of the blue health issue that left me hospitalised with sepsis and in need of an urgent operation. If I'd been on the trek through the jungle as I was supposed to have been I would have died, no doubt.

I went to work early on 7/7 as l wanted to leave early. Normally would have been at aldgate station when bomb went off.
Didn't get to leave early as we were locked in our offices most off day.

Trip to Brighton for sons graduation we decided to go a day early as its a long way travelled through Shoreham the time that the following day the air disaster happened, we probably would have been on the rad when it happened if we had stuck to our original plan.

Yes, Antihop - you’re right. Aldgate East, then Liverpool St. Hammersmith & City line runs alongside the Circle line there between Aldgate & Liverpool St. I definitely wouldn’t have been on the train that was bombed, just probably one of the people trapped in the tunnels when the power went out - all that area was damaged. It was such a strange day, we had no idea what was going on & initially started walking up the Whitechapel Road towards Aldgate & trying to get a bus until all the emergency services started screeching past. Then my parents called in a complete panic because they were listening to the news.

Not me but someone I worked with.

She's British Asian but was in India wearing a sari so looked local.

She was in the Bank queueing. An American woman pushed in front of her, normally she would have (in her own words) given the woman a gob full but it was hot and she couldn't be bothered.

Then a bomb went off.

She was stuck in what was left of the building but fine.

Mine. I sometimes get a 'gut feeling', literally a feeling in my guts.

I was with an ex camping, we'd broken up but had gone away for the weekend to se if we should try again. He was cooking at the front of the small tent, I had the urge to be out of there and went tot he toilet.

I came back to no tent just some flames and he had burned his hands. He was wearing a wool jumper that probably saved him from more damage.

He had a few days in hospital. I don't know what would have happened had I been in the tent because it was small (2 man) and when the tent caught fire he dived to the back.

It’s a bit ‘woo’ and final destination but some of these stories make you think that if it’s not your time, then it’s not your time.

My great grandad was in world war 2, one week he was due to be somewhere and his regiment would be going by boat. He broke his ankle and couldn't go. The boat got blown up. He didn't intentionally break his ankle but everyone on that boat died that day and if he hadn't he wouldn't have ever had my dad, I wouldn't be here now and nor would my children.

Sort of but not my own life saved.

My son died the day before he was born - very badly tangled in a very long umbilical cord, at term.
18 months later, with an induction agreed for a week earlier gestation than my sons delivery, my baby turned and was sideways rather than head down. The consultant suggested we try the manual turning. I refused and demanded a section. I fought very hard for a section and for it to be carried out the day that had always been planned. My DD arrival safe and well through 'the sunroof'. Her cord was around her neck and with a true knot. It was made very clear by the staff that day that anything other than a section would have led to more unbearable tragedy.

I usually leave work at 4pm. I was running 10 minutes late. When I got to the main road home it was closed. There has been an accident 10 minutes earlier. A bad one. I may have been in it had I left on time .....

My DH interviewed for a job in the World Trade Center a year before 9/11. I can't remember why he didn't take it, but the second plane hit that exact spot on the South Tower and everyone who was at work that day died. Another woman I used to work with was late to work that day to her job in the North Tower, so survived.

@makingmammaries

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.

Goose bumps!

I was driving back home in the dark, on an unlit country road that's well known to me. I was about to take a left fork in the road that normally I wouldn't need to slow to less than 40mph for. There were two vehicles waiting to pull out and all I could see were their lights. Something didn't feel quite right, nothing I can put my finger on.. I slowed right down to around 20mph to take the fork to find that each of the drivers had got out of their vehicles and were standing on my side of the road looking at their cars. Clearly one had bumped into the other so they were checking the damage but if I hadn't have slowed down I would have ploughed right in to them. I think of that incident every single time I come to that junction.

I had a Saturday job in Warrington when the bombs went off. I had to take a late lunch so was still in the shop at the time. If I had gone earlier I may well have been walking past either of the bins where the bombs were.

I was in a train crash in America in 1993 (after doing camp America summer when I was a student). There were around 150 on board and 47 died. When we boarded the train we sat in the carriage that subsequently the majority of people didn’t get out of. No idea why but we decided to move one carriage back. Everyone in our carriage and every carriage behind us survived.

I was remarkably lucky.

I was supposed to be in Bloomsbury on 7/7 for training which was deferred to the following week. When I actually got there I had to walk past the shell of the bus that had been bombed as the police hadn't moved it, chilling. A relative was working round the corner and told me the bang had shaken the entire building.
Also my FIL was involved in the Wealdstone crash in the 1950s. That day he had arrived early and went to the front of the train, instead of his usual seat. It saved his life as everyone in his usual carriage died or were severely injured when the other train ploughed into the back of his train.

I went through Kings Cross as the 7/7 bombers got onto the tube and followed the same path as the bus bomber as the line we both planned to take wasn't open. I was dithering at the bus stop not entirely clear which bus would get me to my office in the city and took a different random bus to him. We may well have been at the same bus stop.

As soon as I got into the office and heard tube lines were down I knew it was a bombing.

November 2011 my df & dsis we're heading home from somewhere ( I can't remember, where they had been). They were only about 40 minutes away from home but, for some reason decided to stop for something to eat. Just as they were about to get back on to the motorway the sky went black and then loads of sirens came flying past them. They had missed the the huge 34 car pile up, which killed 7 people.

Trip to Brighton for sons graduation we decided to go a day early as its a long way travelled through Shoreham the time that the following day the air disaster happened, we probably would have been on the rad when it happened if we had stuck to our original plan

We bought a motorhome the day before that crash. We were determined to try it out that weekend, and were going to go to a site near Arundel.

However, the next morning was very hot, and the site at Arundel doesn't have much shade, so we decided to go to a site in the Ashdown Forest instead, which is in the opposite direction, which is surrounded by trees and has shady areas.

We'd been at the site for a few hours when some people arrived. They were very late, because they'd been held up by the air crash. They'd only been about 20 or 30 cars behind the ones that got hit.

The crash had happened about 20 minutes after we left home.

It takes us about 20 minutes to get to Shoreham.

newtb Are you thinking of seconds from disaster? They used to all be on YouTube.

As an aussie in rural sa, literally 1000 people in our town, the numbers here who just missed or knows someone who did regarding 7/7 bombings is bloody scary, especially considering MN is a small sample in grand scheme and all that

At my Grandads funeral they told a story from his RAF days during WW2, he had been asked to fly in someone else's place as they weren't well but at the last minute they changed their mind and went so my Gradad didn't- that plane crashed with no survivors- if he had gone I wouldn't be here today!

This is a weird one, and I always feel a bit sad to remember it.

When I was at uni, I was supposed to go on a road trip with my two room mates, one I was very close with (Lou) and one I wasnt as close with but was driving (Clare) ((not real names)).

Anyway the morning we were meant to leave, I just felt sick in my stomach with anxiety, like my whole body was telling me to stay in bed. I remember initially Pushing Passed the feeling and telling myself I was stupid, but I could feel my lips and finger tips almost buzzing with panic. Anyway, I assumed I was having a panic attack due to my OCD, and I cancelled and went back to bed.

Lou and a Clare were in a car crash. Lou was in hospital for a long time with a fractured pelvis, and Clare died instantly.