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Original poster

I nearly walked in front of a bus

100 replies

Speakandspell · 09/12/2023 06:44

I was walking into town for a night out with friends last week. Came to a road that’s got bus lanes and was about to walk out without looking but did check at final moment and there was a bus right there - I came within a second of walking in front of it and it would have probably killed me.

I can’t stop thinking about it- how bloody stupid I was - I just wasn’t paying attention and it’s really frightened me.

Obviously it’s given me such a fright that I will be much more careful in future but I can’t stop running what could have been in my head and feeling sick about it.

How do I get past this? Anyone had this happen before. I feel so freaked out by it.

OP posts:
rainbowunicorn · 09/12/2023 08:35

This reply has been deleted

Message deleted by MNHQ. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.

Why the need to be an arsehole to the OP?

Mummadeze · 09/12/2023 08:37

I ran into the side of a moving bus when I was drunk and got flung in the air and landed back on the pavement. My friend was horrified but being drunk it didn’t even really hurt. It was a narrow escape though.

SausageAndEggSandwich · 09/12/2023 08:42

sparepantsandtoothbrush · 09/12/2023 08:07

Woke up and decided to turn on bitch mode this morning did you?

OP, was there a reason you didn't look in the first place? I only ask as I've seen near misses more than once and most of them have been people walking along looking at their phones. I used to do it but don't any more after noticing it happening.

Show quote history

My near miss stepping into the road was when I was distracted by my phone. I don't look at it any more when I'm crossing the road. Learned my lesson.

I can still feel the jolt hearing a loud horn and seeing a flat bed truck whizz past literally at the end of my nose. Couldn't have been any closer without touching me.

theDudesmummy · 09/12/2023 08:42

I did a long drive in the early hours of the morning (a flight was delayed and we got in at 1am, and I had a 3 hour drive home). I had DS aged about 11 with me. I should have stayed in a hotel near the airport but decided to do the drive. I very nearly fell asleep at the wheel, caught myself drifting across the road. Nowhere to buy coffee. Made it home though, by about 4am. The next evening it was on the news that there had been a crash on the same road, around 5am. Two people killed. It made me shiver.

WillowTit · 09/12/2023 08:44

currently when i am driving there are so many people wearing dark clothing just walking out in front of the traffic, it is a nightmare
it is bad enough when they cross the road in the daylight hours, just in front of me, but in the dark it is frightening

Winniespooh · 09/12/2023 08:45

I once nearly hit a boy who ran out in front of the car I was driving. Heavily pregnant at the time, I got out the car bollocked him, got back in the car and cried for about 10 minutes till a passing woman knocked to ask if I was ok.

I also once pulled a woman back from nearly walking in front of a bus. She looked at me like I was something on the bottom of her shoe so that was nice.

Anselma · 09/12/2023 08:46

My most frightening near miss happened 20 years ago when driving on motorway at 70 mph behind a huge articulated lorry.

I noticed smoke coming from one of the back wheels so braked to increase distance as as much as I dared with heavy traffic behind me.
Suddenly the wheel came off and headed straight towards me, then it bounced and went over my car into the cars behind.
The lorry was swerving about but I managed to get past and kept driving till I could get off the motorway then phoned the police.

Found out later there had been a pileup involving both sides of the motorway as the wheel was bouncing at such speed causing fatalities and injuries.

fibeee · 09/12/2023 08:53

Sorry this happened OP!

I’ve no advice only solidarity. I had a similar “what if?” experience over 15 years ago where after a long tiring day I accidentally left the handbrake off my car. It rolled when I got out and I came inches from getting trapped between it and a wall.

I still get flashbacks and sometimes feel sick when I think about it. When I park in the same place now I am extra careful.

decionsdecisions62 · 09/12/2023 08:57

It wasn't your time. Now you know dying by bus isn't the way you will go. Maybe it was a wake up call for you? Do you need to make some life changes?

MrsMarzetti · 09/12/2023 08:58

It will stay with you but just take deep breaths. I was visiting London, had been living overseas at the time, they drive on the right so i looked the wrong way for being in the U.K, thankfully a stranger grabbed ne before the bus hit me. Many years ago when trains had windows in the door that slid down, i stick my head out to get some fresh air only to see a train travelling at speed in the opposite direction just a few feet from my head, i nearly had a heart attack and still now it makes me ill thinking about it.

decionsdecisions62 · 09/12/2023 08:59

@sorrynotathome you need to take a long hard look at yourself for posting that comment!

Purpledaisies4 · 09/12/2023 08:59

My husband is a bus driver & you won't believe the amount of people that just walk out into a road without looking or step off the pavement & then look. Just last week another driver he knows had someone walk out in front of him & they went straight through the windscreen of a double decker bus, fortunately for the person the bus was only going slowly & they somehow didn't have a mark on them but the bus was a mess & had to be taken out of service till its fixed. It not only scares the person who was nearly hit but also the driver as they also re-live the event.

GrannyAchingsShepherdsHut · 09/12/2023 09:00

I did this. I was on the way to work and almost there and the road was closed off - no one could get in and was going to be shut for hours. Everyone waiting to get to work was out of their cars milling about on the junction trying to find out if we were being sent home or not, probably 50 people. I stepped backwards talking to someone and stepped off the pavement. My work friend just reacted in a split second, grabbed me and yanked, he pulled me just out of the path of a transit van. I was embarrassed and frightened in equal measure!

QueSyrahSyrah · 09/12/2023 09:03

Hi OP, I did something very similar once; walked between two parked cars to cross a road, stopped to look back for my partner and then went to carry on as a car came racing out of nowhere. A very very near miss.

I won't sugarcoat it, I thought about it for a long time and was super cautious crossing roads for even longer, but eventually it did fade away into history.

3luckystars · 09/12/2023 09:04

I was out for a walk one night with earphones on and did something very similar, I didn’t hear a thing and realised I had walked off the path onto a bus lane without even looking behind me. A bus passed by a few seconds later and it frightened the life out of me.

The only thing that fixes a big shock or near miss, is time.
Time between you and the event. Be nice to yourself today and the longer time that passes, the more you will be able to put it behind you. All the best.

Nightskystarsmoon · 09/12/2023 09:05

Not quite what you had OP but a similar scary feeling. DH and I with the kids coming back from a family hol on the Motorway. A car had broken down in the middle lane and I noticed it and screamed move to DH who swerved at the last min. I immediately phoned the police to alert them. I remember looking back and thinking someone is going to hit them. We nearly hit it.

Also driving along motorway and a big strip of metal fell off a truck in front of me and bounced and hit the ground before my car I drove over it but managed to not crash. We were on a bend at about 40mph before 70mph speeds, god knows what would have happened if it happened later when speeds were back up to 70.

Shame about the first comment. Just why?

Flamango · 09/12/2023 09:08

Thing is, your brain took over at the last second and checked. You knew you had to check, and you did. So you were never going to actually step into the path of that bus because your brain was always going to take over and do it for you if you were playing silly buggers. As indeed it did.

A miss is as good as a mile. It didn’t happen, it was never going to happen and you’re fine.

LouMorris · 09/12/2023 09:09

I’ve done this a few times, one sticks in my mind but literally the only impact is that I do a double take now before I cross that road.

This is life and we all have these split second moments where outcomes could be different, the memory will fade and feel less emotional I’m sure.

Callipygion · 09/12/2023 09:12

CatOnTheCludgy · 09/12/2023 07:38

I've had that too. A tram in Prague. Guess who looked the wrong way to check for traffic. Local woman pulled me back by my coat as the tram went thundering past. I was really shook up.
I think I've looked both ways crossing every road ever since. That was over 20 years ago now.

I check both ways on every road too after a car came the wrong way down a one-way street. It wasn’t as close a call as all your reports but it shook me up all the same!

Funkyslippers · 09/12/2023 09:13

Just turn it into a positive. You didn't get hit and no doubt you'll be more cautious in future x

allgood3 · 09/12/2023 09:14

I had a near miss earlier this year. I was walking along a cliff top behind my husband. I was taking the in the beautiful view of countryside to my right, when I turned my head back I was about to step off the cliff . The edge obviously wasn't a straight line and had been coming in towards me while I gazed in the other other direction. It really shook me up because 2 more seconds walking and I would have dropped onto rocks and the sea. I felt so silly for being in such a risky situation when I've kept myself safe for 50 years. I also kept wondering what would have happened to my husband. Would he have turned round and I'd disappeared or would he have heard me scream? Would he have been suspected of my murder, we were completely alone on a cliff?

schnubbins · 09/12/2023 09:15

I was 20 years old walking to work past a building site when the chain from a huge crane fell off while in full swung and landed right in front of my feet .It only missed me by a few inches . Often think about it nearly forty years later.

Cadenza12 · 09/12/2023 09:20

I guess that I was about 9 when I jumped off a moving bus having seen a teen do it before. Needless to say I ended up in hospital and still have the scars to prove it. You will get over it, but it's no bad thing to have a reminder of our fragility now and then.

Morewineplease10 · 09/12/2023 09:21

We all have these near miss moments. I've had several.

It's horrible and it does shake you and make you appreciate how fragile life is and how randomly everything can change.

lljkk · 09/12/2023 09:25

I do that once in awhile, OP. I nearly pulled in front of a car last week & would have been broadsided if I did. Life is full of constant almost disasters. You'll lose sanity if you focus on them. Eyes not just ears !

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