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 just remembered another one
I was about 13 and me and a friend went to the local royal show/carnival
We were about to leave and decided on one last ride on one called the Spin Dragon. We go on, ride started, it was odd, not like other times we had ridden, there was creaking, the bars felt loose, like i could slip out of seat loose, was just different.
Ride stops, we leave, get home half hour later.
My mates dad rings her hysterical, asking us where we are, are we ok. Turned out that in the next few rides of the spin dragon, bolts broke and the whole seating area crashed off into the line of people.
We had a mate whos brother saved his GF by shoving her behind a bin, she would have been impaled by the ride
Luckily no deaths just injuries but we missed it by minutes

Same day, another ride called the zipper, we waited 45 min in line cos they were fixing bols that fell off during the ride. We still went on lol

7/7 bombings. I was early for work and got on the train in front of the one that blew up at Edgware Road. There was a problem on the circle/district line that morning before the bombs went off.

A cousin used to work in the twin towers (banker), amazing office very high up.
Go very, very drunk one night (not that unusual), but slept in the following morning (very unusual). Only one of his team to survive 9/11, but it killed him in the long run (alcohol abuse).

Ok, my 7/7 story, and this is 100% genuine.
I was working in central London, First job out of uni and we had training that day so we’re due in slightly earlier than normal. I got onto the Piccadilly line platform at Holloway Road, was waiting for the tube and suddenly thought ‘dammit I forgot to get a metro‘ so back up the stairs I went. I got back down and there were power failures or surges or something, I can’t remember exactly, but basically the tubes were temporarily suspended. I huffed and puffed as this was going to make me late. Managed to get on a bus to Kings Cross and in the mean time phoned my manager. Still couldn’t get a Piccadilly line train there (From recollection this was before the bombs went off but maybe not, like I say it all seems a bit of a blur tbh) managed to get in a Victoria line one, thinking I could change at Green Park. Got to Victoria and the alarms/tannoy were blaring, EVACUATE , EVACUATE, LEAVE THE STATION IMMEDIATELY. Cue hundreds of worried/ confused/slightly pissed commuters filing out. I didn’t know the area but managed to find a bus taking me vaguely towards my destination. Randomly there was a police officer on the bus who I sat behind, and we started hearing worrying things coming across the radio. All of a Sudden the bus stops ‘Everyone off, no buses are going in or out of zone 1’ Eventually got to work at one of the South Kensington Museums (just to out myself even more!) and had to bash on the doors because they were basically locked down (luckily I knew the security guards and they let me in) By the time I got there I was several hours late, and I could see on people had been worried about me my manager screeched ‘you were going to kings cross!! We couldn’t get in touch with you!’ So yeah, they made me a cup of tea and I saw the news and couldn’t believe it. I don’t think I would have been on a bombed train as such, but in the tunnel for sure. Sorry that was rather long! May have to name change now too...

I skipped the gym one night, meaning a slightly different route home. Heard a bit of shouting on the way back but thought nothing of it.

Next day on the news, two stabbed outside my gym, attacker running down my usual deserted alleyway shortcut to the gym, at the exact time I heard the shouting.

Place marking! Fascinating thread

@EdwardCullensBiteOnTheSide

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.

My friend was murdered there. I'm glad your parents went elsewhere.

Mine are no where near some of these. I was due to go to London on 7/7 and would have been on the tube line at the same time. I had a last minute appointment to have my wisdom teeth out and decided to take it even though we had already paid for tickets etc. To this day I haven't been on the tube.

I was at a T junction waiting to pull out and the only vehicle on the main road was a lorry. I had this weird instinct kick in - Ive never felt anything like it - and I somehow knew I needed to be in front of the lorry. So I put my foot down and pulled out. It wasnt dangerous, but a bit more assertive than I usually am. I looked in my mirror just as one of the lorrys tyres blew. He stopped safely and no one was hurt but Ive never felt anything like it.

I had put off getting glasses until it reached the point where I couldn't see the ground clearly when standing up. For no particular reason one day I decided it was time to get some ("no particular reason" in that it could have been that day, a month earlier or a month later).

The day after getting my new glasses and being able to see clearly for the first time in 12 years I was taking a pork joint out of the oven. The crackling exploded in my face, leaving me with several blisters. A huge blob of fat landed in the centre of the lens my right eye and destroyed my new glasses.

I didn't care - if it had happened 48 hours earlier it would have gone in my eye rather than on the spectacles, and could quite possibly have blinded me.

Not me but a friend years ago. She was buying sweets at a stand as she always did first thing. She then saw me across the street and ran over to see me. Then a bus crashed into the stand! And it wasn't even me. I have a doppelganger that so many people have seen including my DS and his girlfriend! Spooky!

I think the number of 7/7 stories just demonstrates the sheer volume of people passing through central London at that time of the morning. Once after they re-opened the London Bridge refurb I looked up and down and freaked out a bit 'I'm in an anthill!' It's so odd at the moment with all the trains and tubes half full. I keep thinking I've gone to work on a Sunday by mistake...

to the poster with the tragic umbilical cord story.

Other times, people do get definite vibes about doing or not doing something. These are times when I wonder if part of our beings have an awareness of different points on the time dimension.

I very much doubt it. I'm not at all a nervous flyer, and used to commute internationally by plane for ten years, including until I was 36 weeks pregnant, in small planes via a small coastal airport which was notorious for bumpy and eventful take offs and landing, BUT almost every time I go up an airplane steps, I have a sense of foreboding, and think, 'I'm relying on human technology and efficiency, and there's a chance this is my last flight.'

@Phineyj

I think the number of 7/7 stories just demonstrates the sheer volume of people passing through central London at that time of the morning. Once after they re-opened the London Bridge refurb I looked up and down and freaked out a bit 'I'm in an anthill!' It's so odd at the moment with all the trains and tubes half full. I keep thinking I've gone to work on a Sunday by mistake...

to the poster with the tragic umbilical cord story.

Yes absolutely. I, like millions of others, live in London and were travelling on the tube that day into work.

My friend was badly injured though and I lost a colleague. It was a horrendous time and I find people trying to capitalise on it for a bit of drama really distasteful.

Ok, this is slightly different. (No lives saved or injuries prevented, but it still gives me goosebumps)

My FiL had been admitted to hospital, but was due to be discharged the following day. I suggested to DH that we should go and visit him. DH being a d!ckhead (not really; only when he annoys me), said "Why? He'll be home tomorrow. I'll go at the weekend."

I just thought DH was being a d!ckhead, and selfish, and not thinking what it must be like to be in hospital, and called him out on it. He got annoyed with me, and repeated he'd see him at the weekend; he was busy. (He's always "busy") I don't know why but I got REALLY angry with him that he couldn't even be bothered to go and see his Dad. Basically I guilt-tripped him into visiting.
When we got there FiL had had a funny turn, fallen out of his chair and cut his forehead which was bleeding a lot. But we all had a lovely chat while the nurse was trying to fix him up. Lots of smiles and laughs. Then FiL was taken off to have a scan to see what had happened. And basically never came back again.
He "crashed" in the x-ray dept, and was put on life support for a week before he died.
I don't know why I got SO cross with DH, but I am forever grateful that I did, so that he got to have those final few moments with him with love and laughter.

A few years ago now I went to leave my house, I had my back turned towards the street to lock the door and i just felt uneasy. Looked back to see a man staring so i went back in and locked the door. Thought to myself I was an idiot, I'm on a busy road and its light outside. Moments later police were screaming at everyone to evacuate their houses. He had attacked a woman in her garden,cutting her head off. Always think of that woman, minding her business planting her flowers. Very sad.

@Kaiserin we went through the the A27 Shoreham airshow traffic on the day (but thankfully before disaster struck) on our way somewhere else.

I remember us sat in the car just crawling through the traffic and looking down at the one way queue in that was at a standstill. At the time I remember feeling so bad that they were all stuck in that queue - there was no way out but through it.

I was probably more stressed about how they wouldn’t be able to get out for a wee to be honest!

But then when you think about what happened and know that the people in the traffic could literally not move out of the way... It’s awful.

Fucking hell @CoronaBollox he cut her head off???!

awsomer Sadly true. The news later that evening showed a video of him attempting to get in to a garden before this. Where a child was playing on I think a swing, or trampoline something like that. Was shocking.

Bloody hell coronabollox.

My parents visited Bali in 2005 and went to Kuta for dinner on their last night. They flew the next afternoon to Singapore where we lived and when we switched on the news at night, it was to the news of the bombing in Kuta. They recognised the place shown on TV because they'd been right at that spot the previous night.

I had a huge random spot on my chest and my seatbelt kept rubbing against it as I drove to the shop. It was so irritating that I thought that, just for once, on the way home I wouldn't bother wearing a seatbelt. As I started to drive off after doing my shopping, I had second thoughts and stopped and put the seatbelt on. I'm glad I was cautious because as I drove home down a country lane, someone pulled out without looking but luckily I had enough time to brake and the crash wasn't too bad. Not only was I wearing the seatbelt, but putting it on had delayed me by a couple of seconds.

As a teenager I biked to school. When I set off from home, instinct made me check my breaks before I approached the downwards slope that led to the main road. They snapped and I crashed into a hedge. However, god knows how I would have stopped if I had waited until the slope!

I wonder about the stories the other way. People who were 10 minutes earlier leaving home than usual, pleased they would be on time for work for once and ended up on the 7/7 train carriage.

I still remember reading a news report about the Shoreham air crash where a chauffeur had let a car out in front of him (with a man and his young son if I remember right). The chauffeur died, while the man and his son survived. I think about that quite often - the sheer randomness of it.

My story is from when I was a child, crossing the road outside school with my Mum. The lollipop lady had stopped traffic and we were all crossing the road as normal. I happened to be walking a bit behind my Mum that day. A car pulled out from the queue and accelerated around on the wrong side of the road, completely ignoring all the kids/parents crossing the road. I distinctly remember my Mum pulling up mid-step as the car whooshed past less than half a foot in front of her. If I'd been running ahead instead of behind her that day I would certainly have been hit.

Ah, found it:

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/aug/26/shoreham-plane-crash-maurice-abrahams-michael-sturgess-a27