The Grim Reaper

Beetlebum

I had a really scary experience this morning and it's only hitting me now how serious it could've been.

I was walking to work this morning in a bit of a daze. I was last night so my head was kinda fuzzy. So I came to the light where I always cross and without even looking (or thinking ) I just proceeded to walk across the road. I got snapped right out of my daze when a man grabbed my arm and pulled me back just as a car flew past angrily beeping the horn. The man who pulled me back was pretty angry too and shouted at me that I could've got myself killed. I thanked him for grabbing me and hurried off to work, bit of a close call really....

So, whats the closest any of you guys have come to death...

Does your life really flash before your eyes...hmmm...I wonder...

muppetkiller

Drunk in San Francisco I got knocked down twice in the same night...:D
not even a scratch on me haha ..think the Grim Reaper was on Holidays that day..(thankfully)

Ruu_Old

Car crash when I was 5, I got away from the wreck with a busted lip. I was lucky.

Ruu

Ruu wrote:

Car crash when I was 5, I got away from the wreck with a busted lip. I was lucky.

Shouldn't have been driving TBH. Hah.

Few years ago I was down at the pier where I used to live. I was really young, say only 11. Was leaning over the pier when I suddenly fell. Tide was out and it was at least a 12 foot drop (if not more). I was just lucky enough to grab on to a rope on the way down. There was a boat directly under me and I had just missed it by an inch.

At the time I grabbed the rope I was falling head first, so had I not grabbed it I would've fallen head first into a boat. So I survived but had a heckuva rope burn all over both palms of my hands

Ruu_Old

Deleted User wrote:

Shouldn't have been driving TBH. Hah.

Few years ago I was down at the pier where I used to live. I was really young, say only 11. Was leaning over the pier when I suddenly fell. Tide was out and it was at least a 12 foot drop (if not more). I was just lucky enough to grab on to a rope on the way down. There was a boat directly under me and I had just missed it by an inch.

At the time I grabbed the rope I was falling head first, so had I not grabbed it I would've fallen head first into a boat. So I survived but had a heckuva rope burn all over both palms of my hands

Hey! I only had two cups of warm milk, I was fine!:)

Femelade

yesterday morning i was driving to work. very narrow windy road and the wind was very strond along with buckets of rain. the side of the road is falling apart so its like a big gutter full with watch all along the ditch. The wind pushed my car into this gutter and i tried to come out of it, but my car swung right over to the other side of the road just as i was passing a big jeep, nearly ran straight into him...pulled back in just in time, right into the bloody gutter..my heart was racing though, and i wasnt even going fast cos visability was terrible.

soma

Beetlebum wrote:

So, whats the closest any of you guys have come to death...

- Avoided a high speed head-on collision in NY by a matter of inches. My father just calmly said "this is it", as the other car flew towards us.

- I was approaching a late night car crash on foot from the front of the vehicle. (it's hard to explain why, but I was trying to determine the height of a drop the car was facing). As I got to the front bumper, the driver snapped awake and (instinctively I guess?) slammed his foot on the accelerator. Thankfully the rear wheels were suspended so they just spun harmlessly, but it was a bit of a shock..

- Got trapped in a serious house fire when I was about 7, the front door was locked and the fire was in the kitchen. Thankfully a neighbour smashed the front window which allowed me to escape.

swingking

When I was away in Portugal last year, I decided to go on a banana boat. I usually not the one to chicken out of these things.

During the ride, we got knocked off as you might imagine.

A wave hit the banana boat right against me and the rope of the boat got tangled around my neck.

I yelled for help as I was choking and after a narrow struggle, I eventually was set free by the lifeguard who cut the rope and saved me.

A few minutes more, I would have been drowned.

Plug

Nearly drowned when I was a baby, stupid pond.
Nearly hung my self out of a tree when i was 10. lucky to be alive with that one.

Pirbright

had complications from an operation in the summer. Developed a massive blood clot. I thought I'd torn my calf muscle the way it felt. Was going to take a few painkillers and put ice on it. Mum and Sister made me go to hospital. Quick scan of the leg showed a clot from my ankle to about an inch from the femoral atery in my groin. Doc told me if I hadn't of come in when I did I was 12 hours from losing the leg and probably 24 hours from the clot getting into the artery and causing a fatal heart attack, lung embelism or stroke.....

Dragan

- Had a dude attack me with a knife….he was a tad loony and definitely out for some blood. Only seeing him out of the corner of my eye meant I wasn't cut. I'm assuming he was trying to kill me as it was a 12 inch hunting knife.

- Nearly got crushed by a massive truck when I was about 14. The father was driving back home from Dublin and we were passing a articulated truck on the motorway…..it's wheel blew out and it came swerving across at us. The auld lad just hit the brake, dropped back behind it, switched lanes and hammer up past it on the other side. The only thing that stopped me being a smear on the motorway was the fact that my Da used to rally cars and is a fantastic driver.

- Fell off a 17 foot wall onto my head when I was kid. Apparently it should have broken my neck.

- Several other things I don't really want to go into.

- Went to see "The Missing" the first night it came out…..now that’s about as close as I have ever come to dying.

- Oh yeah, was born with no heart beat.....not sure if that counts though?

Johnny Bitte

Was walking to Heuston one sunny afternoon and just walked straight out acrooss a side street as the lights turn green, Half way across and only saw the two lanes of traffic baring down on me when one beeped its horn. ran and leaped to the other side just as the car passed.

Freaked me out but what I cant get over is the guy didnt even slow down, in fact he seemed to speed up??!?!?!?!

Weirded out for 3 days after

Terry

Lots of cars crashes, Gun held to my head twice when I was a teenger (one guy was a junkie and the other was a 'ra member), countless cycling accidents including one where I almost slid under an artic. I had an interest few years during my teens.

Overheal

I timed my Jaywalk across the road so that by begining to cross immediately behind an approaching van I would have enough time; else sit for a few cos of more traffic. Started to step behind it........

......it was trailing lawn equipment. very poorly arranged lawn equipment; and I was about 5 inches from getting my face hedge-trimmed.
Screw it anyway says I and continues walking afterward.

Then that one time I got so stoned of some crazy floridian stuff.....hoh, I thought a stroke may have been in order after my nerves became overstimulated with buzz.......

Car Mad

Was out with the father on the farm one day opening silage bales.Father had 2 down on the ground for me to open he was in the tractor waiting for them to be opened when I heard him shouting.I couldnt hear him over the noise of the tractor so I ran up to the door screaming what do you want and as i turned around i saw a big huge silage bale fall from about 15 foot in the air to where I was standing.If I didnt run to the tractor I would of been squashed. The strange thing is I never really take any notice if the father shouts something from the tractor I usually just stand there trying to make out what he is saying

I_and_I

When I was about 7 my family and I were living in New York, I was around out the front of my house (we lived on a very steep hill close to the foot of a semi-mountain), anyway I ran across the street to call to one of my friends when I heard all this shouting and screaming coming from behind me. I turned around (to the right) and all the old ladys that lived next door were screaming at me, at the time I had no clue why. I just turned and kept running up to my friends house when I heard a screeching noise and to my left a runaway jeep just zipped by me and screeched into the garden of my friends nextdoor neighbour. I was in shock for about 2 hours after, everyone on the street was out and all the old ladys were almost crying and telling me how lucky I was. I had my fill of ice-cream cake that night I can tell you. I don't think I will ever live on or near a hill in the future.

Zapho

Pirbright wrote:

had complications from an operation in the summer. Developed a massive blood clot. I thought I'd torn my calf muscle the way it felt. Was going to take a few painkillers and put ice on it. Mum and Sister made me go to hospital. Quick scan of the leg showed a clot from my ankle to about an inch from the femoral atery in my groin. Doc told me if I hadn't of come in when I did I was 12 hours from losing the leg and probably 24 hours from the clot getting into the artery and causing a fatal heart attack, lung embelism or stroke.....

F*ck me man, that was one huge clot, how the hell did you develope that? You were definately lucky with that one. Its very hard to tell by symtoms alone that you have clot.

As for me, got a shock from a old broken stereo when I was about 10 (never knew it was plugged in) it threw me across the room. Hurt like hell, but I guess I was slightly insulated from the ground by my shoes. I'm only glad it threw me and I didn't end up getting stuck to it

JC 2K3

Walking home from Metallica/Alice in Chains gig in the summer I got off the bus at my usual stop and proceeded to cross the road. It was a red man and it was dark, but I looked before I crossed and there were only a couple of cars stopped at the lights to turn right, nothing oncoming - or so I thought.

I was wearing headphones, slightly tipsy, it was dark and my eyesight isn't amazing and I didn't see the motorbike coming. It was mere centimetres from me. I could feel the force of it going past me. Extremely scary....

Jello

When I was about 3 I leaned over a third or fourth floor balcony in Spain to look at the pool below and fell forward.... luckily my dad grabbed me by the leg before I was a gonner.

Another incident when I was younger my skateboard rolled under a big truck and I went to get it back... I was right beneath the truck bending down to pick up the board when it started to pull off, I barely made it out.

I feel so stupid looking back on them

Giblet

Had the bucket of a JCB fall on me and pin me down across my chest, 2 lads had to lift it off me.

walked out in front of a car when I thought the light had changed. Someone grabbed me.

Capt'n Midnight

Got a nose full of ammonia, couldn't breath for about a minute, like being winded. Worst part was I couldn't call out to anyone nearby.

faceman

I was camping with some friends in kenya. Woke up about 7am with this loud crash. Got out of tent and an elephant had been stripping the bark of the tree we were camped under. Fortunatley the tree missed us by about 2 foot.

Rhyme

Beetlebum wrote:

I just proceeded to walk across the road. I got snapped right out of my daze when a man grabbed my arm and pulled me back just as a car flew past angrily beeping the horn.

Same here on Baggot Street except it was me doing the grabbing and a blind guy doing the walking.

Nearly fell off a cliff when i was about 10, saved by a hanging branch and a friend.

cournioni

I saw the grim reaper out in the fields one day, cutting the fields with his scythe... Looked a bit pissed off tbh.

Max_Damage

Nearly lost my leg on the PTO shaft on a tractor. Luckly I was wearing cheap light material trousers at the time, and so it ripped the leg of the trousers of me, and luckly not my leg itself.

Mossy Monk

Beetlebum wrote:

So, whats the closest any of you guys have come to death...

knocked down by a van, week and a bit in intensive care further 2 and a half in regular hospital, couple of months off school at home

Alter-Ego

Sledge hammer dropped off a scaffolding missed my head my inches.

Walking across O' Connell street without looking wasn't my brightest idea either!

admiralofthefleet

i almost gave my very young cousin an early meeting with the reaper. years ago on holiday i spun him around beside the swimming pool and let go to throw him in. my hands were wet so i didnt have a good grip of him...let him go and he flew into the water and smashed his nose off the side, 1 or 2 inches closer to the side and he would have smashed his chin off the side and broke his neck, such was the force i threw him

bluto63

When I was a kid, don't know what age, I was playing in a river. The current was strong and it pulled me away to the opposite, stronger side. I managed to grab a rope and pull myself back onto the bank. When I got out I looked down and saw that there was nowhere I could've gotten out to save myself if I didn't grab the rope. Probably would've drowned

Odysseus

Made a bad exit during a parachute jump once. The result was I ended up with my right leg caught in the lines, my foot was over my head. I proceeded with the cut-away drill and nothing happened. I still had a messed up chute about the size of a ball over my head. I was spinning towards the ground trying to figure out what happened. When I pulled the cut-away pad it had deflected off my leg, so it hadn't being pulled correctly. Realising this I gave it another pull, and managed to deploy at about 700ft. My reserve deployed with such force my ribs were brusied for weeks, I had a bit of a hard landing but was still about to walk away from it.

Takeshi_Kovacs

Odysseus wrote:

Made a bad exit during a parachute jump once. The result was I ended up with my right leg caught in the lines, my foot was over my head. I proceeded with the cut-away drill and nothing happened. I still had a messed up chute about the size of a ball over my head. I was spinning towards the ground trying to figure out what happened. When I pulled the cut-away pad it had deflected off my leg, so it hadn't being pulled correctly. Realising this I gave it another pull, and managed to deploy at about 700ft. My reserve deployed with such force my ribs were brusied for weeks, I had a bit of a hard landing but was still about to walk away from it.

Scary stuff.. at least you had the self awareness to sort yourself out..

Closest one i ever had was on a windy day heading up Carrauntuohil with a few others. We were at one section with a bit of scrambling, and i was at the top helping the rest of the gang up. All of a sudden a very strong gust of wind knocked me back and i was actually leaning over the cliff face before i got my balance and grabbed hold of few rocks. At the time, i didn't think much of it, it was only when i walked up to the others and saw how shocked they were that i didn't fall off, that i realised that, that was 'a close one'.

Also had the back loader of a tractor roll over me as it was reversing. Luckily the ground was very soft, and the loader just pressed me into the soft earth. The driver just saw me before it reversed over my head thank God.

Duff

Was driving around a mountain road during the summer, was quite misty near the top was doing no more than 10 mp/h around a resonable bend when the car went into a skid and went right over the edge, skidded about 5 ft down the side only to be stopped by a boulder, only for the boulder I would have continued to slide a further 10 ft then there was a 75ft drop!! Needless to say I now love rocks

FranchisePlayer

One time i went to the doctor before i knew about my condition and I told doctors about my symptoms being ill and they said there was nothing wrong with me even though my haemoglobin was 8.4(should have been 16) they were about to send me home before my mum said why is heamoglobin so low.

1 hour later I had to have a blood transfusion.if I hadn't got treatment that night i would have gone to sleep and hemmeroged and died.pfft doctors:rolleyes:

Tar.Aldarion

Same as yourself OP, but I was just storming off upset over a girl and didn't care about the traffic. Some other girl saved me.

AdMMM

I have three memories in particular that stand out. The first was when I was about 7. I was cycling down a rocky path when the bike slipped into a ditch and I fell over, the rear of the bike came swinging around and hit me in the back of the head, knocking my unconcious. Thankfully I was wearing a helmet at the time but if I wasn't....

Then a few years a go I was walking a long the rocks on the strand when the tide was out. Suddenly I found myself slipping and my instincts kicked in and I lunged from rock to rock without even thinking. If I had slipped and hit off a jagged rock, it could have been bad to say the least as I was alone and I only had about 10 minutes to get to the other side before the tide came in again!

Finally, last year I was on the pontoon at the rowing club, I was injured so I wasn't going out, but was there to watch the lads launch. I was standing talking to a few friends while the crew were carrying the boat down. They started to swing the boat around so it would face the other way and as they were turning, I saw a look of shock on one of my friends face and instantly ducked. The bow of the boat glanced the top of my head. Had I been hit I would have been knocked out and sent flying into the river!

Admittedly, my brushes with death haven't been as severe as some of the stories I've read above!

tuxy

Takeshi_Kovacs wrote:

Scary stuff.. at least you had the self awareness to sort yourself out..

Closest one i ever had was on a windy day heading up Carrauntuohil with a few others. We were at one section with a bit of scrambling, and i was at the top helping the rest of the gang up. All of a sudden a very strong gust of wind knocked me back and i was actually leaning over the cliff face before i got my balance and grabbed hold of few rocks. At the time, i didn't think much of it, it was only when i walked up to the others and saw how shocked they were that i didn't fall off, that i realised that, that was 'a close one'.

Also had the back loader of a tractor roll over me as it was reversing. Luckily the ground was very soft, and the loader just pressed me into the soft earth. The driver just saw me before it reversed over my head thank God.

Hi Takeshi_Kovacs, could you please remove the animated sig. It makes pages with your posts on them annoying to read.
Thanks

Terry

tuxy wrote:

Hi Takeshi_Kovacs, could you please remove the animated sig. It makes pages with your posts on them annoying to read.
Thanks

I sent him a PM earlier about that. He doesn't seem to be online at the moment.

Haven't a Clue

I don't remember much, but apparently I'd a life-saving operation when I was two. According to me familia anyway...

But nothing that I remember has been life-threatening. Worst thing to happen to me was stepping on a broken glass on a beach when I was about 8. The ones in Letterkenny just cut me foot open without giving me any anasthaetic at all. Incompetent shower of bastards.

trout

8 years ago ... morning rush hour, turning right at the main junction in fairview.

there was a good gap between the lanes, so i was tooling along to get to the head of the queue, when a chap in a red nissan van decided to make a right turn ... i don't know how i misjudged the gap so badly but his wing mirror caught my wing mirror, and wrenched the handlebars out of my grip, slamming the bike to the ground and sent me headfirst into the bus lane, where i skidded on my head and shoulders for about 10 yards, into the back of a bus pulling into the bus stop.

i hit the kerb with an almighty bang and came to a halt, looking up at the bus. i blacked out, and came to maybe 30 seconds later.

it felt like my helmet had been removed, so i started looking for it in a daze, thinking that i should get back on the bike and go to work... it slowly dawned on me that i was still wearing the helmet ... it had split in two from the impact with the kerb... my poor bike looked like a pile of random spare parts ... i walked away with bruises.

still don't know how i got it so wrong, and still walked away from the crash.

haven't sat on a bike since.

simu

When I was a kid, a bull jumped out from a field onto the road just in front of our moving car. Thst could have been nasty had there been a collision.

slipss

Odysseus wrote:

Made a bad exit during a parachute jump once. The result was I ended up with my right leg caught in the lines, my foot was over my head. I proceeded with the cut-away drill and nothing happened. I still had a messed up chute about the size of a ball over my head. I was spinning towards the ground trying to figure out what happened. When I pulled the cut-away pad it had deflected off my leg, so it hadn't being pulled correctly. Realising this I gave it another pull, and managed to deploy at about 700ft. My reserve deployed with such force my ribs were brusied for weeks, I had a bit of a hard landing but was still about to walk away from it.

could have been worse, ye could have been this dude.
http://my.break.com/media/view.aspx?ContentID=224503

slipss

When I was 9 someone dared me to climb to the top of the pilon near my house. So being an idiot i did it. I had my hand on the top beam when my foot sliped. Fell straight down and hit the metal netting on it about 15 foot from the ground, that bent back on impact and I spun off that and onto the ground. All that happened to me was a few bruises and a row of scrathes along my back from the metal spikes on the edge of the netting. I was able to play football a couple of days later.

Dreamer 7

I was on my first date with my fiance and he took me on a lovely walk around Howth head, we spotted a private beach way down below and decided to try to get down there. I was in front and i started to run and couldnt stop myself. Went arse over tit and felt his hand almost catch me before i fell. Rolled over 4 times and grabbed some long grass. He dragged me back up and I was mortified but when i saw the sheer 200 ft drop to the sea i nearly died all over again!
The next day we were leaving Johnny Foxes and he ra back to egt something from the bar and went under the wheels of one of the moving tour buses!!!1
So we did literally fall for each other

tallus

Had an accident on a mototcycle just over 8 years back, done serious damage to one of my legs, I still set off airport metal detectors because of an Intramedullary nail in my left femur. The scary thing however, was two days after the accident, I was in the Mater hospital in Dub, had an operation on the afternoon after the accident, and the day after the op I was sent for an X-ray. They found a blood clot by accident on the same leg that had been damaged. Had it moved to my lung/heart/or brain I'd have been dead. I need not tell you guys it scared teh ****ing bejesus out of me. I still think about it to this day. I didn't help really that nurses were saying stuff to me like "if you have trouble breathing or experience chest pains press the alarm button".
I still think about it daily over 8 years later. *shudder*

littlebug

No major accidents like some of you have had but a few near motoring misses, this one affecting me the most...

I turned at a junction and found myself driving behind a car with a surfboard strapped to the top. Something about it made me feel very uncomfortable and I thought to myself "I don't want that coming in on top of us" so I slowed awayyyy down almost to a stop til I was a good distance behind it, the traffic behind all having to slow down too. My friend in the passenger seat looked at me and started to say "what are.." and just then the surf board came off the top of the car in front, didn't just fall but caught the wind and surfed in mid air for a moment before floating down and tumbling to a stop just in front of my car. If I hadn't slowed down to the extent that I did it would certainly have hit us. Drove home in near silence with visions of surf board coming in the windscreen pointy end first. It still makes me shudder....

brown*eyed*girl

Still get goosebumps when I think about this, I also get embarassed that I could've been so stupid, but anyway I was getting some renovation work done last year & there was an old light hanging above a mirror in an alcove. It never worked so I decided to get a scissors & cut it off :eek: . Luckily I couldn't find the scissors. When my uncle called later to finish off some painting I asked him could he pull out the light & he looked at me astonished & said its more than likely live. When I told him what I was gonna do he said if I had've found a scissors I would be dead now. Still can't believe how stupid I was but I'm damn glad I didn't find a scissors that day.