40+ Times People Barely Escaped Death

Ever come within seconds of something that should have killed you? One small choice, one weird coincidence, and suddenly you’re still breathing while everything around you falls apart. These Redditors shared moments where luck, timing, or plain instinct kept them alive. From crushed cars to missed flights and near-misses on the road, these stories will make your heart race.

Seven Seconds from Being Crushed

At 19 I was parked in the back of a pickup during a thunderstorm, reading. Out of the corner of my eye something moved, so I climbed into the cab. The huge grain bin beside me started sliding and tipped over just as I gunned the engine in reverse. The bin slammed down and spilled its load, burying the spot where my bumper had been three inches earlier. If I had stayed out a few more seconds, I wouldn’t be writing this.

If We Had Sat Shotgun

When I was a kid my mom asked if my brother and I wanted to ride up front and we both said no. On the way to gymnastics a massive truck plowed into the back of our car and shoved us into a parked vehicle. My mom broke her leg and my brother needed stitches, but the passenger seat was completely wrecked. If either of us had been in shotgun that day, we probably wouldn’t have made it.

McDonald’s Instead of the Finish Line

I lived less than a mile from the Boston Marathon finish and my friends and I planned to walk down to watch. At the last minute we decided to go to McDonald’s instead. Minutes later the bombs went off at the finish line. We quite literally dodged an explosion by choosing fries over a front-row spot.

Six Inches Between Two Trains

I grew up near railroad tracks and one day at 15 my friends and I were walking them when a train came up on the left. The engineer screamed and pointed behind us because another train was barreling toward us on our track. I had about a second to move, so I fell into the tiny gap between the two trains and lay there as they thundered past. I was probably six inches from death on either side.

Risky Ramp

U/failed_doctor: "When I was about 7 or 8, I was hanging out with my brother and his friends right outside my house. We set up a small ramp on the opposite side of a steep driveway. I mean steep. So I, being the kid who wanted to prove himself, decided to go first and try out the ramp. Little did I know, some [person] moved it back a bit, so I wouldn't land on the grass. I tried to do some sort of front flip, but didn't get enough air, and instead of landing on the grass, I landed on the concrete, head first. I landed at an angle where I would most likely break a few vertebrae in neck, but obviously, I didn't. After I got up, unhurt, I ran into my house crying for no reason. I guess I was just happy to be alive."

Green Light

U/Girlfriend_For_Hire: "I was standing at the crossing and it had just turned green; I was about to step into the road when a van sped through the red light across where I was about to walk. If I had stepped out as soon as it went green, I wouldn't be here right now. I always made it a habit to check cars were actually stopping before crossing the road, since a green man isn't really a guarantee of a safe crossing."

Nightmare Job

U/aotus_trivirgatus: "Roughly 8 years ago, I applied for an opening at Theranos at a job fair. I asked tons of questions about their technology, both in person and in followup emails. I didn’t get a followup interview. Thank goodness."

Half-Second

U/kooger2439: "I remember waiting at a subway station while blasting music using earphones. The train was taking forever so I leaned over the platform to see if it was coming or not. Turns out I was looking at the wrong direction, and as soon as I pulled my head back, the train nearly missed me by half a second. It still hasn't registered with me that I almost died a pretty gruesome closed casket death......"

Too Close

U/bbergman1: "I was about 11 and my dad wanted me to come along with him to pick up some furniture about 30 minutes away. I made a huge stink about it...He finally got fed up and stormed out and told me to STAY PUT...About an hour later, he comes home in a police car, pretty shaken up, and just reached over and hugged me...Turns out that he was driving down the highway and traffic got busy ahead, and this semi truck in the lane over tried to stop too late and jack-knifed. When it was coming to a stop from swerving all over the road, it fell over on the passenger side of the car, right where I would have been if I had gone along with him...he was lucky HE made it out alive. He never made another big deal about me coming along if I really said I didn’t want to go."

Saved By the Pager

U/CategoryTurbulent114: "Years ago I was going to be a groomsman for a good friend, and we were taking him to a bachelors party on a Friday night. At the last minute I got paged from work and had to go in. I was off but on call and HAD to go. I called Big John and told him what happened and apologized. I worked 3pm-11pm and went home and went to bed. About 6am there was banging at my door that woke me. At the door was John’s little sister crying her eyes out. John and the other guys had a terrible auto accident in the way home and there were no survivors. I still think about it now and then. I’m a non-drinker so I would have been the DD so I assume there would have been no accident if I was driving."

Surprise Visitor

U/quirkytorch: "When I was like, 16 there was some guy going around, breaking into houses. My mom was spending the night with her boyfriend, so I was home alone. It’s ~6 am, and I woke up for some reason. I can’t see anything without my glasses, so I’m just mindlessly staring out my open window, when some guy just starts climbing in!!! I screamed at him the first thing I thought of 'AH! W-- ARE YOU DOING??' And he drops back down and runs away. By the time I get my glasses on he’s long gone. I’m pretty sure it was just the surprise that I was awake that made him run, but I like to think I made him stop and wonder, What was I doing? I am always so thankful I just happened to wake up. They caught him a few months later."

Till Death

"My girlfriend forced me to get married. I told her we spent only one year together, but she keeps insisting. Fast forward to the wedding day. Her father came near me laughing, saying, 'She’s going to ruin your life'. I didn’t understand until the wedding night...My blood froze when I saw the wound on her back, and suddenly it started bleeding. She blacked out. I immediately took her to the ER. Suddenly her dad came and dropped the bombshell: 'Didn’t she tell you this before marriage? Did she?' My jaw literally dropped when my FIL said that she had a fight with her mother after she caught her sleeping with her ex, and while fighting, she fell down from the stairs and got injured. After listening to this, I contacted my attorney and divorced her."

Not Today Girls

U/AprilMaria: "I was going over to my home village and all ‘the girls’ (my friends) wanted to come with me for the drive but I had things to do so I told them I hadn’t time to wait for them and they could come with me next time. About half way there a man who...got the sun in his eyes and thought he was driving from trough road to trough road not trough a crossroads and drove straight trough and I crashed into the side of him. His car was much bigger and newer than mine and my car was totaled. I was fine but had to kick my way out of the car because the quarter panel and all the metal around the wheel arch...If the girls had been with me most of them would have been killed..."

24-7

U/Sunnydoglover: "I used to work 3rd shift at a gas station. It was '24' hours but we still shut down for about 30 mins around 2am to close out the register for the previous day. I’d also mop the floors the so I didn’t have to worry about people slipping on them while we were open. Well during one of those times I had a guy come up and try the doors, he signaled me to come to him but since the floors were wet I just shouted 'we’re closed' and pointed to the paper sign I’d posted to the door. He went to the gas station across the street and robbed them at gunpoint shot once...Still freaks me out when I think about it."

Car Trouble

U/77Columbus: "Not me but my godfather. He worked in the second tower that was hit on 9/11. Luckily he had car trouble that morning and had to take his car into the shop."

Sneaky Snake

U/rlm236: "I was a dumb 7 or 8 year old kid on vacation in Mexico with family, I wandered away from our group for a walk by myself in the paths around our bungalow. I was walking down one pretty jungley path and saw a gardener up ahead. As I neared him he glanced up at me and then his face changed and he froze. He quickly jumped up and motioned for me to back away. I did so and then immediately a huge side winding snake all black came out of the bushes to my left. It went right over where I was going to step next. For a moment we were both silent and just listening. When I finally looked at him he seemed relieved and in broken English he said ‘most poisonous snake here Mexico’. I thanked him like a million times and ran away to my dad."

Playing a Dangerous Game

"I grew up close to a set of railroad tracks. When I was 15 me and a couple of friends...were all walking down the tracks and there was a train approaching us...directly to our left...As the engine is approaching us one of the operators was...screaming at the top of his lungs and pointing behind us...there is another train on our track barreling at us at full speed. At this point I have a train coming directly at me at 70 mph, a train going in the opposite direction on the track directly to my left at 70 mph...and I have about 1 second to get out of the way. So I sort of did a half jump to the left and lied down in the small space between the two trains. I would say I was about 6 inches from either train."

Knife's Edge

U/Saintblack: "I was working customer service when I was younger and went up to a behemoth of a man. Asked if he needed help, he said no and I went on to the next person. I got called over to the camera feed a few hours later after they were trying to find out who had stolen some merchandise and stashed it in the bathroom. Dude had a huge knife behind his back when I was helping him, and had just used it to cut off a prepaid phone from a lock. In the footage it looked like he was ready to [kill] me if I knew something. Luckily that job sucked and he could have taken the shelf for all I cared."

Win Some Lose Some

U/ElkShot5082: "My great grandad was on a POW ship headed to coal mines outside Hiroshima, when American bombers sunk the ship. Lost his brother and a lot of other POWs below decks but got picked up by a US ship instead of going to Hiroshima."

Long Way Down

U/thescourge: "I once walked into the trees to take a leak during the night while camping. Looking back at the campfire I decided to go a little further into the trees as I had a shy bladder at the time. Luckily, after a few steps my laziness overcame my shyness and I decided to just do it. After I finished I turned around, went back to my tent and slept... The next morning I got up and went once more to the trees to relieve myself. What I saw very nearly made me pee in my pants right on the spot: the edge of a cliff (roughly 400feet high) was about 3 or 4 steps beyond where I had decided, randomly, to stop to pee the night before."

On Thin Ice

U/jg23101: "Was snowboarding in Breckinridge when I lost control on some ice and smoked a tree... I broke my femur in half and the surgeon said if it would’ve broke a centimeter to the left it would’ve ruptured my femoral artery and I probably would’ve bled to death internally before ski patrol got to me."

Slip and Slide

U/LackingUtility: "I was driving with my wife in town one snowy evening and we had pulled up to a stop light. I happened to glance up at the rear view mirror and saw a city bus heading towards us…and rotating sideways. I hit the gas and pulled ahead into the intersection and left into the turning lane, and less than a second later, the bus went sliding through right where our car was. It came to a stop on the other side of the intersection and fortunately didn’t hit anything, but one second or two feet difference and we would’ve had some nice spinal injuries."

Stick Your Neck Out

U/rabiddutchman: "Got a pretty severe concussion and broke my neck when I was 15. A doctor friend of the family had an opportunity to look at the x-rays once I was out of the hospital, and he told me I had been about a millimeter away from being paralyzed from the neck down."

Close Collision

U/scubabbl: "I was riding the STP (Seattle to Portland) bike ride. I was riding down a two lane road with no shoulder when the person in front of me stopped quickly without signaling. I ran into the back of him and fell into the road. The logging truck coming down the road hit the breaks and luckly turned his wheel. He skidded to a stop halfway in the other lane. I saw him coming and sat up as fast as I could. When I didn't get hit, I relaxed and sat back against his front wheel. Had he not turned when he hit the brakes, his front wheel would have gone right over me."

Gas Leak

U/fallopianfree: "While sleeping in the back of an old school bus we were driving to an Ulimate frisbee tournament in. We stopped for gas - some of us went to the restroom. I woke up on the floor of the restroom having passed out from breathing carbon monoxide that was leaking into the back of our bus. If we hadn't made that stop a few of us probably wouldn't have woken up again."

Big Nope

U/YodasChick-O-Stick: "I applied for a job cleaning hazardous materials from demolition sites. I’ve always wanted to work in demolition, and it sounded like something I could do. Instead of calling me for an interview, they sent a generic email inviting me to an info session. My last job started with a group interview and didn’t go well. I went to the info session and the instructor explains what the company is, the history of asbestos, yadda yadda...But then he gets to the actual job description. You were required to strip n----, shower with other people (both genders), work n---- wearing nothing but a hazmat suit, there was a high risk of cancer later in life, it basically sounded like a Chernobyl cleanup crew. And it was all for barely over minimum wage. I noped outta there as soon as they were handing out the paperwork and contracts."

Inch By Inch

"I dodged a literal bullet in university. Two guys got in a fight outside my window, gun went off, bullet zipped through our living room about an inch away from my head. Landlord installed plexiglass windows after that."

Lucky Dad

U/blueycw83: "My dad missed his plane in America once. Turns out he narrowly missed being a victim of one of the 9/11 hijacked flights that day just for sleeping in."

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend

U/Sumpm: "Female coworker hooked me up with her hot friend, who liked me for some reason but was too scared to say so. We talked on the phone quite a bit for a few days, had a hangout time at her place one evening...then her ex found out she was starting to see someone and begged her to go back with him. She did, and I didn’t really care, because it was all so new. Found out a short time later, that they’d broken up because she found out he was cheating on her, and she retaliated by trying to run him over, as he ran into his apartment to get away from her. She’d crashed through his living room, gotten out, tried to fight him, got arrested/jailed, etc. This all happened mere weeks before she’d set her sights on me."

The Seconds Count

U/scaredytaxx: "In 2018, I was living in South Carolina and driving to Myrtle Beach to run some errands. I stopped to get Starbucks on the way. As I was leaving the drive thru, the cashier dropped my straw and then handed me a different one. Took probably about 5 seconds and I wouldn’t have thought anything of it, except for about 10 minutes later I missed getting hit head-on by a wrong-way driver by just a few seconds. So glad for that straw drop!"

Deadly Sting

U/ex_oh: "Yellow jacket stings me a few times, then within a couple minutes I was wheezing and my hand looks like a blown up medical glove. Told my mom, a nurse, who immediately had me chew up benadryl, take my albuterol, and threw me in the car and sped to the ER. Despite all that, I passed out from low blood pressure. This was nothing different than a normal asthma attack other than getting dizzy and pin point vision. Then I fell asleep, and woke up in the ER. My mom told me she was instructed to wait upon arrival, so she walked in through the ambulance entrance and flagged down a passing doctor to get epinephrine. My lips were blue by this time. It is humbling to think even a few minutes of delay would have killed me."

Bridge of Chance

U/pjleonhardt: "My friend was on her way home from work one day, on the highway in rush hour traffic. She was driving right past my work, and decided to call and see if I needed a ride. I took her up on her offer and a few minutes later she was picking me up in front of my office. As we were on our way back to my apartment, we drove on a bridge next to the I35W bridge that had collapsed minutes before. Had she not picked me up, she very likely would have been on or very close to the bridge when it fell."

Brave Brother

"My mother used to be in a motorcycle club. Her boyfriend got her into it. The one night that my little brother decided to ride the boyfriend’s motorcycle instead of hers- my mother crashed her motorcycle in a way that should have killed almost anyone. She survived after flat-lining 5 times. My little brother was also able to walk straight to where her body had been launched. They couldn’t find her because it was night time, and she had gone over 50 yards. He went right up to her and they were able to save her."

Gremlin Guardian Angel

U/MarkHirsbrunner: "There were a few days where all my appliances were breaking down. First the clothes washer, then the air conditioner, then the dishwasher. Then one morning, before leaving for work, the refrigerator stopped cooling. I was in a terrible mood on my commute to work, and then I had a flat tire in the middle of rush hour traffic. I pulled over to the shoulder. Normally I would have got out immediately and started changing it...it wouldn’t have even made me late, but everything breaking in the days leading up to this flat had me defeated. I rested my head on the steering wheel a few seconds and said out loud “why me” when, almost as an answer, I was hit from behind. Traffic has slowed because of my pulling over, and an ambulance driver transporting a patient between hospitals decided to go around the traffic by driving in the breakdown lane. Damage to my vehicle was minor, but if it had been any other day I would have been taking my jack and spare out at that moment and been crushed between my car and the ambulance. Everything worked out great. I got a 5 figure settlement from the ambulance company as they were clearly at fault hitting a car in the breakdown lane (it was a non-emergency transportation of a patient.). And when I got home that day, all the appliances were miraculously working again."

Perfect Storm

U/A_Upset_Frenchie: "When my grandfather came home for relief time for his birthday during Vietnam war in 1970, his wife (my grandmother) bought him a brand new 1969 Ford F-100 pickup. Being the young crazy man he was, he took it out for a spin the next day during a thunderstorm and hydroplaned and smashed it into a telephone pole, totaled the truck and he had injured himself pretty good. Come to find out, if he hadn’t gotten into that wreck, he would have loss his life in the war, because his group of fellow soldiers he was with when he entered service we’re all killed in a ambush before he came back to fight."

Hidden Dangers

U/Hail_S8n: "In Iraq we had a new driver and he slowed down alot for a puddle for some reason, and there was an IED in it. Ended up going off under the engine block instead of the cab. Saved all of us."

Faking Fiend

"My girlfriend’s insistence on becoming pregnant had placed me in a challenging position. After she was hospitalized for two weeks due to her pregnancy, I was barred from visiting her. The hospital staff’s curious glances made me uneasy until a nurse approached me with a grave accusation. 'What kind of monster are you?' the nurse confronted me...Perplexed, I inquired, 'Why? What has happened?' With a heavy sigh, the nurse responded, 'You are unaware? Your wife… she’s…' The nurse hesitated momentarily, then gathered herself to deliver the unsettling truth. 'Your wife… she’s been pretending to be pregnant,' she revealed, her voice filled with sympathy and disbelief. The words hit me like a ton of bricks, leaving me speechless and bewildered. The realization that my girlfriend had manipulated and deceived me shattered the trust I had placed in her, leaving me to grapple with the consequences of her deceit."

In Plain Sight

U/tbd_asap: "I dated a cop for about 6 months. He wasn’t a jerk and we had insane chemistry. In my mind I was already planning our wedding but (unfortunately?) I eventually discovered he wasn’t as monogamous as he lead on. I was absolutely gutted but I ended things immediately. Fast forward 12 years and I find out he was indicted and convicted for several serious crimes. Clearly I knew nothing about the guy. I shake my head in disbelief whenever I think about the irony of my heartbreak and how things could have turned out."

Always Look Twice

U/harpyranchers: "When I was in my early twenties, I used to be delivery driver for a vending company and drove a big jacked up Ford F350. On a busy afternoon, at a somewhat busy intersection I pulled up to turn right. I was looking over my left shoulder, waiting for a break int the traffic and was about to gun it. I hesitated for some reason and turned to look in front of me. I waited and saw three small children appear to my left. The truck was so high...there was no way I could have seen them, and I was too busy looking to my left to see them approach. I was a pretty aggressive driver in those days and had a demanding schedule. On any other day I probably would have flattened them and might not have even known it."

Safety First

U/SwipeRight4Wholesome: "When my dad was younger, he used to sell motorcycles for a living, and rode them frequently as well, never wearing a helmet. One day, he decides to wear a helmet for whatever reason. That day, a car t-bones him, he goes flying from his motorcycle and skids across the road. His helmet got sanded down from the impact and subsequent skid on the road. Despite having major back, shoulder, and hip problems to this day, without that helmet, he probably would have ended up as a red smear on the road."

Highway Gamble

U/C137_Rick_Sanchez: "Back when I used to ride a motorcycle a lot I had a few close calls with other vehicles on the road, but by far the scariest one was when a semi truck decided to randomly change lanes in heavy traffic in the middle of the...city. Had nowhere to go but up over the curb onto the sidewalk. And I could see the [guy's] face in his side view mirror, so I know...good and well he could see me too, he just didn't give [care]. Luckily I managed to jump the curb onto at about 30 mph without losing control."

Cutting Deep

U/windynights: "When I was 20 I'd taken a job...to make some money for a year and was assigned a job in the large motors department grinding and sanding parts. One day the high power sander went crazy and the disk exploded, one fragment cutting deeply into my thigh (I still have the scar). I got medical attention and reported the malfunctioning sander to the foreman. Apparently, nothing was done. I reported to work the next day and my work booth was all cordoned off and the floor heavily covered in sawdust. The older guy who was on the next shift had used the same sander and the exploding disk had cut through his stomach. He survived but never returned to work. I felt incredibly lucky."

Moose Stare

U/desmund: "Camping way out in Algonquin park, I was setting up my gear inside the tent while my buddy was out in the canoe using his reverse osmosis water filter...I hear some rustling behind the tent figure he is making his way back, I exit the tent and find myself staring down a giant moose (is there any other kind?), 3 feet on front of me I froze in fear, the moose started snorting... That's when I noticed a moose calf behind what I realized was mommy moose. I got my wits and started walking backwards very slowly...and the moose (meese?) decided to head on there way...turns out we had picked a camping spot adjacent to the moose grazing ground."

Bun in the Oven

U/thehouen: "I was born 2 months early, as my mom had to start chemotherapy. Right after I’m born, I get incredibly high fever. The medical staff can’t figure out why, they’re completely stumped… After a two days of trying to solve the puzzle, they notice that one of the nurses had turned the incubator up too high. They were cooking me."

Last Man Standing

U/Dazzling-Role-1686: "I was once the last person to cross a bridge before it fell...looked in my rear view to see what the noise was to see open air where there shouldve been road… And some white faced people who were just about to cross as well."

Voltage Escape

U/firemogle: "My Sr project in college was a full electric race car and I was dumbly working bare handed with both hands when a wrench slipped and luckily my left hand slipped away from the spot. Would have had a 300V DC across the heart if my hand didn't move. Although I did have all the hair burnt off my right arm."

Awakening Fear

U/Razzail: "I couldnt eat for 3 months. Lots of puking, ivs and no answers. Woke up to my mom checking my vitals and shot out of bed scared, gasping. She Said I'd been asleep for 2 days and hadn't moved. I had my appendix removed before it exploded and now have even more stomach problems and less answers. I still shoot out of bed when someone wakes me up because I'm scared I'm gonna die."

Money Saver

U/Dude_Bro_88: "Sold my townhouse. About a 2 weeks after the closing date I got an email from the condo board saying that all residents of those townhouse condos need to pay the board $10,000 for roof repairs and other various expenditures."

Fifty-Fifty

U/mjheptahai: "Two years ago, I had breathing problems. Turned out that my childhood heart problem does this in every 15 years and my heart needed a small procedure done. The chances of this going wrong and for me to die was half. I'm alive as you can see. There are much more dangerous things that happen but when someone puts a number over the chances of you living is just scary and that's when you start start believing that 'YOLO'."

Narrowly Escaped

U/Xiaozhu: "In March 2020, I was backpacking in South America. Not my first time and I had been on the road for about two months already. I was following what was not yet a pandemic because...North and South America wasn’t affected much yet. My Santiago-Toronto return ticket was for March 17. A week before, my husband who was already back in Canada suggested extending my trip since things were apparently better in South America. It was hard to reach Air Canada so we were taking turns calling to change the date on my ticket. And then the atmosphere suddenly changed in Santiago. It was very weird, it went from ‘meh, we’re fine’ to ‘we’re in trouble too’. The last few days in Santiago were crazy and I was one of the lucky few with a return ticket right before flight cancellation and border closures."

Infection Struggles

U/kaydj89: "Right before my 22nd birthday, I got really sick. Started off as a bad cold with laryngitis, so I went to the student health center. Got some antibiotics, went on my way, kept getting worse. I finally dragged myself to urgent care, and was diagnosed with a double ear infection (with one ruptured ear drum), sinus infection, throat infection, and a chest infection/fluid in my lungs. They loaded me up with steroid shots and a regimen of intense medicine, and I got better, albeit slowly. It was the first time I realized that without modern medicine, young and healthy people could die pretty easily. Without those medications, who knows if I'd have survived that in ye olden days?"

Crevasse Crisis

U/AlLnAtuRalX: "Well, I was skiing a few years ago, off pist, and I got into a crevasse. Luckily, there was a path back up, so I'm like, Okay, I'll just hike back up, skiis on my back, like I've done many times. Not realizing I near on a patch of ice, I took a ski off. I proceeded to skid down and finally stop on top of an enormous cliff with no snow at the bottom. Luckily, I always ski in groups, and I radio'd some of the people in my group, and they called a rescue team. In a few hours and lots of careful movements, I was finally free and ready to begin another trail. I was much more careful off-pist since then."

Running a Red

U/stevebobeeve: "I was pulling into an intersection with no turn lane, but the van next to me stopped suddenly so I put my foot over the break right when some i---- sped through a very red light and I very narrowly avoided hitting them. At the speed they were going it would have been a bad crash for sure. And not to mention would have clogged a very important thoroughfare into the airport with the clean up, and destroyed my favorite work van. But I guess they lived to annoy even more people today."

Savior Ship

U/ Randomest_Redditor: "My Sailor Great Grandfather shipped out of Pearl Harbor on I believe sometime between December 3rd and 6th 1941... Just a day or few before the attack that left 2400 people dead (2000 of which were Sailors)."

Keep it Together

U/fromtia: "Perforated appendix. Still have my colon and all of my intestines and that was in the balance apparently."

The Bullet Dodged Me

U/ PhaetonSiX: "I didn’t actually dodge a bullet. The bullet dodged all of my internal oragans. Doctors told me if it hit me anywhere else in the chest I would have died."

Perfect Timing

U/EdwardWarren: "I was in a car accident...A woman’s car with her 2 kids in the back seat was side swiped by a trunk and knocked up onto a bridge railing. She was trapped in the car. Police and fire fighters didn’t want to get on the car to try to get her and the kids out because the car was teetering and would have fallen 50-100 feet into a ravine if...the car moved. I expected to see the car drop off the bridge at any minute. Then, almost magically, a large industrial fork lift appeared. Some airmen were moving heavy equipment from their base to another. The forklift lifted the car off the railing. I always thought that that woman and her kids could have been dead if that forklift hadn’t shown up. The airmen could have been delayed at their base or have left 5 minutes earlier."

Life Saving Call

U/tallenlo: "In 1969 I was Viet Nam, posted as a mechanic with an assault helicopter company. I was at the time a technical inspector. My job was to verify that scheduled maintenance tasks on helicopters were properly done before the ship went on its’s next mission. One evening I was called from my tent to the flightline do make that check and sign off on the work and while I was on top of the ship, a Viet Cong rocket flew overhead. It hit the tent I had just left, killing my roommate."

Final Flight

U/Ok_Dog_4059: "I had plans to go flying with my boss and family friend but got distracted installing an alarm in my car and forgot. Later that day as I got home from driving around a bit with my brother I was informed the boss / family friend had crashed his plane and died."

Up To Bat

U/YoureInMyWaySir: "I was bullied pretty badly in middle school by this one kid. Before I could finish 7th grade, my parents and I moved to another state. On my last day in middle school, the kid who bullied me was unusually nice to me. Found out after my last day in middle school in that town that my bully beat a teacher with a metal baseball bat. Apparently he was gunning for me, and got frustrated that I didn’t show up and decided to just take it out on a teacher. Last I heard, he went to Juvie for that."

Engine Failure

U/viadelaurencio: "I was on a plane that lost an engine. We landed safely, but when I saw fire shooting out of the side of the plane I really thought I was going to die. I was sitting next to my 12 year old brother and my parents were way up front. It was the most terrifying thing that’s ever happened to me. Other than a brief panic attack the next day (when we re-boarded a new flight,) I never really wanted to dwell on it."

One in a Million

U/Patches67: "When I was fifteen years old I was suffering from dizzy spells and constant tiredness. They figured I had some kind of anemia. I had a blood test done on me and they found an abnormally highly white blood cell count. This usually meant one of two death sentences. Leukemia or sickle cell anemia. Turns out I had a one in a million third option. Genetically I have much denser bones than a normal person. The doctor was suspicious of this when it took such an abnormally long time to get a bone marrow sample. Usually it’s done in five minutes, it took him nearly twenty to jam the needle into my sternum. Denser bones meant accounted for higher white blood cell count. I was, and remain to do date over thirty years later, perfectly healthy."

Sixth Sense

U/SplavacadoMania: "I was hanging out with two friends from work over a weekend. It’s common for us to go to the mall first then watch a movie...That was the original plan for our hangout, but for some unknown reason I had a weird gut feeling...I still suggested we watch the movie first. During the movie, we all got a phone call from our supervisor from work...We’re in the military so if we get a call from a higher up, it’s for the best to answer the phone even if it’s on a weekend. We stepped out the theater to pick up our phones and was told that the mall we intended to go to first had an active shooter so the call was to make sure we were safe...The mall was relatively small...there’s a high chance we would’ve gotten caught up in it."

Stuck the Landing

U/Paydayson: "My dad was a truck driver in the oilfield in Canada...on weekends he would bring me and my younger brother on some of his jobs. We were on location and...my little brother opened the passenger door and my little arms closed it. Jobs done, we start our trek home going about 35 km/hr and the door flies open and I get sucked out of truck. I remember doing about 10 back flips as I tumbled out. Hitting the ground on my back a few times and rolling my way to a stop. I stood up before the truck was even stopped in absolute shock. Next thing I see my dad looking for me and he burst into tears. Luckily the rig was in a farmers field. So when we were leaving I landed on softer dirt. Not a single scratch on me."

Politeness Pays

U/4ourfeathers: "I was driving my brother to his first ever Packer game in a rental car. I was going about 80 and got pegged by an Oshkosh trooper about 40 miles from Green Bay. I was very polite and apologetic...He took my license and ran it. Turns out my license was suspended due to a ticket from 4 years earlier (paid the ticket but not the IL reinstatement fee) and I had no idea. The cop said to me outside the car ‘I don’t want to ruin your brother’s birthday so I’m gonna go back to my car and if you drive off, well, there’s nothing I can do I guess.’ I still got $400 in tickets, but did not end up with a messy towing situation. I shook his hand and thanked him. The Packers beat the Titans 55-7 that day and it was something my brother will never forget."

Creepy Vibes

U/missymaypen: "When I was 14 I went to my best friends house for her birthday party. A 30 year old guy that worked for their parents asked her to tell me that he wanted to take me out on a date. I said I had a boyfriend. He seemed nice but he started following us everywhere and just standing back staring at us (they had a huge farm). I got nervous and called mom to come get me. Months later we saw his wanted poster at our grocery store. He was a serial killer. Mom didn’t believe me until it was on AMW that night and they interviewed my friends foster parents. Then she freaked."

Nothing to Sneeze At

U/Deadthrow742: "A few years ago I had pneumonia, but my whole family insisted that it was just post nasal drip, (Which runs in the family) after a week or two I woke up in the middle of the night when I couldn’t feel my arm. After I got to the ER the doctor said that it was the worst he’d ever seen and he was surprised I wasn’t dead. I had 3 lbs of mucus cut out of my lungs and another two weeks in the hospital siphoning out the rest. For three months afterwards I could barely walk half a mile without starting to pass out and I still can’t run for more than 200-300 yards without collapsing."

Quarantine Close Call

U/Ok_Comparison_8304: "In November 2019, while working in China, I asked my employer when we would be taking Spring festival / winter break in 2020, so I could book a flight ticket. Bizarrely, none of my coworkers wanted to give me an exact date claiming they didn’t know when the term ended. I was an English teacher. At a private boarding school. In Wuhan. For some reason, they didn’t want to say, it was like nobody wanted to take responsibility for me. So I decided to ignore their stupidity and just picked a date to book a ticket. Went to Tokyo, hung out with a friend. Wuhan gets locked down."

Bathroom Break

U/l33tb3rt: "I was motoring down interstate 80 in Wyoming at about 1am, and had to pee while waiting for a wreck up the road to clear. A semi was in front of me, and I was the last car in line. I pull over onto the shoulder, grab my pee bottle, and start to go. Then SCREEEEEEEEEECH! WHAM! another semi slams straight into the back of semi I was behind. Easily crunched 20 feet of a 53′ trailer. I’m going to assume that if I didnt pull over, I would have been deaded in that accident."

Shocking Curiosity

U/vardhan: "Once (about 12-13 yoa) while taking a bath, I had an urge to see what would happen if I insert a metal pin into the geyser switch which had a small opening. The electric shock I got jolted me (I was literally shaking for 2-3 secs from the current) and I cried out. My mom was in the house and she came running asking what happened, and I just broke into a song to make it feel like I was singing! Was ill with some undiagnosed fever for about 3 months when young. My body temperature varied between 104 F to 92 F. I still don't know what it was, except that it could have been some viral infection. And I hear from people that I was unconscious for quite some time during this."

Looking Back at It All

What makes this thread hit so hard is how tiny choices change everything. One person sits in the backseat, another stops for McDonalds, someone else answers a pager and skips a night out - and that small move becomes the difference between life and a headline. These are not action-movie rescues, just seconds, instincts, dumb luck and the occasional stranger who pulls you back. Read them and you feel lucky, shaken, and oddly grateful all at once.

Small Seconds, Big Consequences

A dropped straw, a delayed step, a last-minute decision to stay home - the stories here are built on tiny windows of time. Those seconds are boring until they are not. The obvious lesson is simple: small decisions matter. No drama, just the math of fate adding up.

Why These Stories Stick With Us

They feel personal. Surviving a near miss often leaves a person rearranged - more careful, sometimes haunted, sometimes oddly calm. Many of the posts carry a leftover shock, a tiny survivor guilt, and a new appreciation for routine things we used to take for granted. That emotional aftertaste is what makes these tales linger.

Keep Your Guard Up, Not Paranoid

These stories are cautionary, not terrifying. Little habits add up: glance both ways, wear protection when needed, pay attention at crossings, and listen to that odd gut feeling. Do that enough and you tilt chance in your favor without living in fear. Practical, boring, effective.

A Final Thought

These posts are reminders that life is fragile and weirdly lucky. If a near miss left you shaken, tell someone about it - friends, family, or a professional - talking helps, plain and simple. And if you find yourself reading these and feeling grateful, maybe pass that feeling on. Share the stories, learn the small lessons, and try not to take anything for granted.