Share your near-death experiences

[JasonCSU]

Originally Posted by M_Six

3. I was sitting at a light on my crappy motorcycle outside Ft. Hood. There was a delivery van in the left turn lane on my left and other cars on my right. The light turned green and I hit the gas hard to beat out the cars on my right so I could move over to the right lane to make a turn in a half mile or so. I had moved about 10ft when the bike stalled. For a split second I was pissed at the POS bike I had, but then an 18-wheeler dump truck full of gravel ran through the red light from my left blaring his horn. Scared the shit out of me. If my beloved, wonderful, love-of-my-life bike hadn't stalled, I would have been a grill ornament on the truck.

It seems many of us have had close calls at intersections. I remember one instance in particular back when I was 16 or 17. I was driving my old Integra and taking my younger brother somewhere he needed to be. We were sitting at a red light of a large intersection, both roads being six lanes each. When our light changes green, we continue heading northbound and as we are halfway through the intersection, a westbound car comes flying through the intersection running their red light passing in front of us by about half a car length.

The other driver appeared completely oblivious to running the light. It's still scary to think we were a second or two away from hitting that car or worse, being hit by that car on the passenger side where my brother was sitting.

[RJ_]

My last day working at a steel mill, we were 5 stories up near some of the feed chutes into a submerged arc furnace full of molten iron. The furnace is a huge chamber full of carbon monoxide as a byproduct of melting the metal. Me and two other guys were standing about 5-10 feet from one of these chutes when there was a CO explosion. The equipment has explosion vents on it that release pressure so the furnace doesn't blow apart. This sent a huge fireball directly at us and we immediately retreated.

But we weren't out of the woods yet, because the entire floor was now full of concentrated CO and setting off alarms. We wore CO monitors on our hard hats to track daily exposure, and looking at each other's displays showed "999", which meant they were pegged beyond what they could read. We'd all been trained on this and knew that it's possible to immediately pass out if the levels are high enough, and now we had no way of knowing how high it was.

We ran outside to an overhanging platform 5 stories up to try and get some fresh air. Moments later the outdoor alarms are going off and our monitors are still saturated, so we have to run back inside and past the furnace to get to the stairs out of there. That whole time running was pretty frantic, trying to breathe shallow and hope nobody passed out while running through a smoky room.

Everyone was fine, but we had to turn in our monitors and none of us were allowed out in the plant the rest of the day.

[M_Six]

Originally Posted by RJ_

My last day working at a steel mill, we were 5 stories up near some of the feed chutes into a submerged arc furnace full of molten iron. The furnace is a huge chamber full of carbon monoxide as a byproduct of melting the metal. Me and two other guys were standing about 5-10 feet from one of these chutes when there was a CO explosion. The equipment has explosion vents on it that release pressure so the furnace doesn't blow apart. This sent a huge fireball directly at us and we immediately retreated.

But we weren't out of the woods yet, because the entire floor was now full of concentrated CO and setting off alarms. We wore CO monitors on our hard hats to track daily exposure, and looking at each other's displays showed "999", which meant they were pegged beyond what they could read. We'd all been trained on this and knew that it's possible to immediately pass out if the levels are high enough, and now we had no way of knowing how high it was.

We ran outside to an overhanging platform 5 stories up to try and get some fresh air. Moments later the outdoor alarms are going off and our monitors are still saturated, so we have to run back inside and past the furnace to get to the stairs out of there. That whole time running was pretty frantic, trying to breathe shallow and hope nobody passed out while running through a smoky room.

Everyone was fine, but we had to turn in our monitors and none of us were allowed out in the plant the rest of the day.

Ouch.

[sirdaft1]

Back when I was in college, I lived on the campus of San Diego State University and my only means of transportation was a Kawasaki ZX6R motorcycle (crotch rocket). I was brand new to riding and the week I bought it, there were terrible brush fires all throughout the SD county. The fires were so bad that the ash came down and looked like snow on the ground.

Inexperienced 21 year old me wanted to show my buddies what my new bike could do. So I pulled it out of the garage and onto the main road that they were watching from. I gave it full throttle and the bike quickly hit 50mph. Before I knew it, the bend in the road that looked far away came way quicker than I had expected. I scrambled and attempted to brake hard. The mix of inexperience and the ash covered ground made my rear wheel lock up and slide out from under me. Then it caught traction and the bike high sided me (slingshot me over the top of the bike vs letting me gracefully slide off the back). I hit the ground hard, slid 50 feet and ended up under a parked, lifted truck. When I came to, my head was pinned between the asphalt and the rear wheel of the truck. Thank God I wore my helmet and that lifted truck was parked.

The helmet without a doubt saved my life that day. Aside from some terrible road rash all over my arms and legs, I was left with a small piece of gravel that embedded itself into my pinkie finger that remains to this day.

[M_Six]

I forgot about a close call when I was just a kid. I had been tromping through the woods behind our neighborhood and came across a huge bowl-shaped area full of scrub brush. There was some sort of dirt track around the outside edge. It was about a mile from one end to the other and maybe a 1/2 mile across. I was nearly at one end of the bowl. I started to walk across it through the brush and I kept hearing this distant "boom" and then what I thought were loud bees buzzing by over my head. I came up behind a boulder that towered over me and saw glass bottles along the top of the boulder. Then I heard another boom and one of the bottles exploded at the same time I heard another bee buzz by. That's when my 13-year-old mind put it all together and I realized I was downrange of someone's target practice. I took off my coat and started waving it over my head. The shooters finally saw me and started yelling at me to get out of there (like I needed them to tell me that). I ran as fast I could until I was well back into the woods and heading toward home. I've never forgotten the sound of a rifle bullet zinging by my head, though.

[M_Six]

Originally Posted by sirdaft1

Back when I was in college, I lived on the campus of San Diego State University and my only means of transportation was a Kawasaki ZX6R motorcycle (crotch rocket). I was brand new to riding and the week I bought it, there were terrible brush fires all throughout the SD county. The fires were so bad that the ash came down and looked like snow on the ground.

Inexperienced 21 year old me wanted to show my buddies what my new bike could do. So I pulled it out of the garage and onto the main road that they were watching from. I gave it full throttle and the bike quickly hit 50mph. Before I knew it, the bend in the road that looked far away came way quicker than I had expected. I scrambled and attempted to brake hard. The mix of inexperience and the ash covered ground made my rear wheel lock up and slide out from under me. Then it caught traction and the bike high sided me (slingshot me over the top of the bike vs letting me gracefully slide off the back). I hit the ground hard, slid 50 feet and ended up under a parked, lifted truck. When I came to, my head was pinned between the asphalt and the rear wheel of the truck. Thank God I wore my helmet and that lifted truck was parked.

The helmet without a doubt saved my life that day. Aside from some terrible road rash all over my arms and legs, I was left with a small piece of gravel that embedded itself into my pinkie finger that remains to this day.

A helmet saved my life twice in my riding days. Both low speed crashes, too. But both times my head slammed against a solid, immovable object. Also, blue jeans will not protect you from road rash. Not even a little bit. I remember ruminating about that while a doctor picked gravel out of my butt cheek.

[F30lolz]

When Lups sent me a private message that I opened.

[davis449]

Oh, I'm sure if I sit here long enough, I can come up with a bunch of "Almost Dead" stories. Here's one that stands out as it was recent (last couple of years).

Buddy of mine was at my house drinking (he wasn't drunk) one night. We needed to go back to his house to get something, I don't even remember what the hell it was. He lives way outside of the city. I'm dead sober (as always) so I drive. We head out there to get what he needed start heading back. We're in his Hyundai Genesis 3.8 R Spec. Now I-10 out there has a lot of these stupid short, sharp curve and then medium straightaway entrances out there where it's just two lane divided hwy. I head into the curve and as I'm coming out of it, aggressively get on the throttle to enter the highway. Nothing more than that car should be able to handle.

It all happened so fast...the ass end was out of control and my steering input and throttle management was doing nothing to prevent the 360's the car was heading into. We did a few of them down the highway and came to a stop in the left lane. After stopping I quickly look at him and made sure we made eye contact. I ask him if he's ok. He says yes. I frantically try to start the car as it was stalled. As I'm doing this I can see and 18 wheeler headlights rapidly approaching. I look at my buddy and say "We're gonna get hit, just relax everything in your body". He swerves just enough to only hit the front end of the car spinning us into the right lane.

After that, I quickly ask him if was ok to move. He says yes, so we both exit the vehicle and head for the shoulder. We waited a bit watching traffic avoid the car and when it was clear enough, I jumped behind the wheel, got it started and was able to move it to the shoulder. The 18 Wheeler that hit us was stopped about 1/4 mile up the road. Saw the driver get out, look at the front of his truck, jump back in, and drive away as fast as he could.

I sat in the back of the ambulance in disbelief that I almost killed both of us. It was all my fault. I just kept repeating that over and over to him (by that time, my GF had showed up with two other friends that were at the house). I couldn't imagine how this could've happened. I have had good track experience, I have great car control...or at least I thought so.

I blamed myself for two weeks until my buddy comes back with the paperwork from Hyundai. The car had experienced some sort of ESCL Failure and, "coincidentally", they had just been working on the steering with the recall issue the week previous. My buddy swears up and down that he watched me struggle with the steering wheel while the ass end was losing control and swears my hands weren't even moving it...

[Mr.SugarSkulls]

Plane hit massive turbulence coming back from the UK.

Oxygen masks dropped, lights were out, people screaming/praying- literally feeling the plane nose dive in a free fall-

I sat calmly in my seat, wrote down "I love you mom, grandma, brother, bowser" on my arm hoping that if my body was still intact after impact - the message could be passed along. And almost as if on cue- I hear "WERE OK! WERE OK!" From where the flight attendants sat.

Anddddd...back in the air a few days later.

[Kong Sheng Han]

I caught it on tape..

My mom was watching in horror in the stands lol.

[Mr.SugarSkulls]

Originally Posted by Kong Sheng Han

I caught it on tape..

My mom was watching in horror in the stands lol.

That's near death???

Homie, hold this L.

[larryn]

Stupid things people do, and I am not immune. This one ends with pretty bad injury to me.

I was in my 18' boat taking my wife and 2 daughters out to a small island in Boston Harbor, that I used to go to as a kid. There is a small beach and a rock outcrop on one side. As the tide moves rapidly, you cannot beach the boat and have to tie it off to the beach, the cliff and drop the anchor.

I already dropped them off on the beach, tied to a huge piece of driftwood and set the achor off the stern. I only needed the line to the cliff.. I take the line and swin to shore, clib the outcropping and tie off. The boat's all set.

I used to jump off of that cliff as a kid, and I yell "Hey, watch this", and do a cannonball off of the 30' cliff into 10" of water. (apparently, over the years, the sand filled it in) I knocked myself out immediately and woke later feeling electricity coursing through my body. Like an idiot, I said I was fine and faked my way through the day, including doing tubing later on. Incredibly painful.

I woke the next day to a completely black and blue body, neck to toes and went to the hospital for films. The MRI showed that I fractureed C4&C5 in my neck and complely destroyed the discs so that they were crushing my spinal column. A couple surgeries later, some cadaver bone a bunch of screws and a titanium plate, add 6 months of a really crappy and painful collar, aand another year of PT, and I am fine.

When I told them how I did it and that I was actually tubing off the back of the boat, the said that I should be dead or a quad.

I have a few more, like catching myself on fire, but that's the worst.

[M_Six]

Originally Posted by Mr.SugarSkulls

Plane hit massive turbulence coming back from the UK.

Oxygen masks dropped, lights were out, people screaming/praying- literally feeling the plane nose dive in a free fall-

I sat calmly in my seat, wrote down "I love you mom, grandma, brother, bowser" on my arm hoping that if my body was still intact after impact - the message could be passed along. And almost as if on cue- I hear "WERE OK! WERE OK!" From where the flight attendants sat.

Anddddd...back in the air a few days later.

Flying commercial never bothered me until I started flying up front in helicopters in the Air Cavalry. Once you understand how things are in the cockpit, sitting in the back of a plane is like sitting in the back of a car with a driver you don't quite trust. You're not the one in control or even in a position to take control. You have no idea WTF is going on, and that lack of control or knowledge is bothersome. Now when the plane is going through turbulence, I sit back there with white knuckles wondering what the hell is going on up front.

[M_Six]

Originally Posted by larryn

Stupid things people do, and I am not immune. This one ends with pretty bad injury to me.

I was in my 18' boat taking my wife and 2 daughters out to a small island in Boston Harbor, that I used to go to as a kid. There is a small beach and a rock outcrop on one side. As the tide moves rapidly, you cannot beach the boat and have to tie it off to the beach, the cliff and drop the anchor.

I already dropped them off on the beach, tied to a huge piece of driftwood and set the achor off the stern. I only needed the line to the cliff.. I take the line and swin to shore, clib the outcropping and tie off. The boat's all set.

I used to jump off of that cliff as a kid, and I yell "Hey, watch this", and do a cannonball off of the 30' cliff into 10" of water. (apparently, over the years, the sand filled it in) I knocked myself out immediately and woke later feeling electricity coursing through my body. Like an idiot, I said I was fine and faked my way through the day, including doing tubing later on. Incredibly painful.

I woke the next day to a completely black and blue body, neck to toes and went to the hospital for films. The MRI showed that I fractureed C4&C5 in my neck and complely destroyed the discs so that they were crushing my spinal column. A couple surgeries later, some cadaver bone a bunch of screws and a titanium plate, add 6 months of a really crappy and painful collar, aand another year of PT, and I am fine.

When I told them how I did it and that I was actually tubing off the back of the boat, the said that I should be dead or a quad.

I have a few more, like catching myself on fire, but that's the worst.

Ouch x 2. "Hey! Watch this!!" are usually last words. Glad you survived.

Just out of curiosity because I used to take my Dad's boat into Boston Harbor, where was the island? And did you ever hit Hull Gut when the tide was changing? Now there's a rough navigation lesson in a small boat.

[M_Six]

Originally Posted by Kong Sheng Han

I caught it on tape..



My mom was watching in horror in the stands lol.

Very nice recovery, well done. But seriously, barely fart worthy. Hardly near death.

Your Mom on the other hand...

[Mr.SugarSkulls]

Originally Posted by M_Six

Flying commercial never bothered me until I started flying up front in helicopters in the Air Cavalry. Once you understand how things are in the cockpit, sitting in the back of a plane is like sitting in the back of a car with a driver you don't quite trust. You're not the one in control or even in a position to take control. You have no idea WTF is going on, and that lack of control or knowledge is bothersome. Now when the plane is going through turbulence, I sit back there with white knuckles wondering what the hell is going on up front.

I totally get you. Prior to that experience, turbulence never bothered me but it would make me uneasy.

I just found it weird how it kept getting worse and worse- and they first mentioned in a panic-like manner over the speakers "everybody back to your seats immediately" (something I had never heard like that before)

I'm assuming you're a pilot or have some experience. Not sure if you've heard it (or heard from others) but I will NEVER forget the sound of free falling in a commercial plane. It's deafening. I was too scared to even panic. I kept looking over at this kid (maybe 2/3?) and his dad, who the dad was surprisingly in tears, while the kid was so calm, unaware of what danger we were in. And I sat there thinking "this is it, any second and he doesn't even know". total out of body experience.

But I can definitely agree with you, after this happened, that trust I used to have with flying - is definitely broken. Any little turbulence now gets me on edge as if I've had a fear of flying all my life (which I haven't)

[larryn]

Originally Posted by M_Six

Ouch x 2. "Hey! Watch this!!" are usually last words. Glad you survived.

Just out of curiosity because I used to take my Dad's boat into Boston Harbor, where was the island? And did you ever hit Hull Gut when the tide was changing? Now there's a rough navigation lesson in a small boat.

Button Island, at World's End.

Pulled some big stripers out of Hull Gut, one a 50lb 4oz...

[M_Six]

Originally Posted by Mr.SugarSkulls

I totally get you. Prior to that experience, turbulence never bothered me but it would make me uneasy.

I just found it weird how it kept getting worse and worse- and they first mentioned in a panic-like manner over the speakers "everybody back to your seats immediately" (something I had never heard like that before)

I'm assuming you're a pilot or have some experience. Not sure if you've heard it (or heard from others) but I will NEVER forget the sound of free falling in a commercial plane. It's deafening. I was too scared to even panic. I kept looking over at this kid (maybe 2/3?) and his dad, who the dad was surprisingly in tears, while the kid was so calm, unaware of what danger we were in. And I sat there thinking "this is it, any second and he doesn't even know". total out of body experience.

But I can definitely agree with you, after this happened, that trust I used to have with flying - is definitely broken. Any little turbulence now gets me on edge as if I've had a fear of flying all my life (which I haven't)

Not a pilot, but left seat aeroscout with many hours of stick time. Once you're in control, it's hard to sit in the back.

[M_Six]

Originally Posted by larryn

Button Island, at World's End.

Pulled some big stripers out of Hull Gut, one a 50lb 4oz...

Holy crap, that's not a fish, it's a whale.

Love World's End. I have some pics somewhere I need to post. I spent the summer between junior and senior years in HS cruising Nantasket Beach. Those were the days.

A buddy of mine and I once hit into a school of stripers off the North River a little further south. We were in his boat just barely off the beach. 40 stripers between us in an hour. The damn reels would be whining as soon as the bait hit the water. And the flounders we'd haul in. God, I miss a great flounder sammich.

[Kong Sheng Han]

Originally Posted by M_Six

Very nice recovery, well done. But seriously, barely fart worthy. Hardly near death.

Your Mom on the other hand...

I was trolling. Scary, but not near death lol.

But yeah, my mom was freaking out apparently. She'd never seen something like it.

[larryn]

Originally Posted by M_Six

Holy crap, that's not a fish, it's a whale.

Love World's End. I have some pics somewhere I need to post. I spent the summer between junior and senior years in HS cruising Nantasket Beach. Those were the days.

A buddy of mine and I once hit into a school of stripers off the North River a little further south. We were in his boat just barely off the beach. 40 stripers between us in an hour. The damn reels would be whining as soon as the bait hit the water. And the flounders we'd haul in. God, I miss a great flounder sammich.

Man, I love fresh fried flounder filets. Nothing better. There's nothing like that out here in Seattle, and I'm no big fan of Salmon/Steelhead. Closest is Halibut, but that's not really the same.

[M_Six]

Originally Posted by Kong Sheng Han

I was trolling. Scary, but not near death lol.

But yeah, my mom was freaking out apparently. She'd never seen something like it.

I can see where Mom would be freaked. You must have been like, "Crap, I done f**ked up."

Did the tires survive?