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Old 03-04-2019, 07:22 AM   #1
OutOfTheCube
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Default What’s your scariest ‘near miss’?

A time when you almost died or narrowly avoided tragedy? When a difference in seconds or a change in plans saved your life?

Last summer I was with the family in BC at The Log Barn just outside Vernon. We were leaving, going to turn back out on to the highway — look the one way, clear. Look the other way (the side I’m turning in to, the close side), all clear. I start to pull out and have a car blast past me, missing by inches. When I looked the other way, someone had pulled in to the oncoming lane (the lane I was turning in to) to pass. Had I started to drive even one second earlier, my wife would’ve certainly been killed as the car would’ve hit her side at 110km/h. Likely my youngest too. Me and my oldest would’ve been seriously injured, at best. Sometimes I still think about that, how a matter of seconds was the difference between tragedy and life going as normal. Obviously I learned a lesson that day to triple check before pulling on to the highway — I don’t do a lot of highway driving and someone pulling out to pass hadn’t even occurred to me.

What’s your scariest ‘near miss’? Can be driving related or not.
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Old 03-04-2019, 07:31 AM   #2
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Weird to have this pop up as I almost got hit by a car crossing the street this am. Driver was turning at the intersection where I was crossing, I was watching him the whole way thinking he’d slow down or veer into the far lane (really early, no traffic), but he kept coming. I kind of just casually walked a bit faster, but he really only
Missed me by about a foot or so. He obviously didn’t notice me until he almost hit me.

I didn’t really think much of it, but really if I had been half a step behind i would have been jumping out of the way.

I’ve had other bigger misses. Just thought it was odd this popped up minutes later.
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Old 03-04-2019, 07:58 AM   #3
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A van stopped at an (I call them 'optional') crosswalk for me to pass, but thankfully out of the corner of my eye I noticed the Golf behind her was coming in hot. I jumped back enough to see that the girl was on her phone looking down as she hit the back of the van at speed.

By the time the accident was finished, the van's rear doors were in front of me and the driver of the van was losing her mind as she didn't see me jump back. She screamed bloody murder when I approached the window asking if everyone was alright

Could have been a bruised shin, or I'd have been under that van. Either way, that and a guy grabbing my jacket as I fell onto the freeway are the memories that give me a bit of a shiver when I remember how fickle life can be.
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Old 03-04-2019, 08:12 AM   #4
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I almost collided with a drunk driver once when we drove home from a concert. Her car got over the center line and onto our side of the road, luckily I was able to swerve to the right and she missed my car by a hair and spun into the ditch. That was a close one and we were extremely lucky that night. I was still shaking hard when the police arrived.

The only infuriating thing was that she was back on the road months later. Our laws against drunk drivers are simply not strict enough.
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Old 03-04-2019, 08:15 AM   #5
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Wow, scary to think back on. I've had a few.

Got something stuck in my throat coming home from a family holiday, I was about 10yo. My dad is a family doc and had hopped out of the car and was running to bang on someones house for a knife to do a tracheotomy when I finally coughed it out with a heimlich from Mom. Couldn't breath for about 1.5min.

Had a very similar one to OOTC. Was driving and turning left onto Memorial from 21st NW. Car was turning right off of Memorial and "hid" the car going straight, missed me by cm's as well. Would've been lights out. Few other near death experiences driving...360's on highways, hit someone who turned left in front of me on Crowchild & 24th St going 110kph, etc.
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Old 03-04-2019, 08:22 AM   #6
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I've had a few.



When I was about 15, I lived in Bonivista. I was crossing the road on my bike just by the Junior High School. I didn't do the look both ways, but just wheeled into the intersection. I still remember hearing the squealing brakes and I remember the car slamming into my bike, and me going over the car and smashing into the concrete behind the car.



I remember the family from the car swarming out and screaming at me in a language I didn't understand. I lay there gasping and then I got up and grabbed my bike and just started walking away. My right hand was hanging at a weird angle and everything sounded like it was underwater. I tried pushing my 10 speed but the front wheel was completely bent so I dropped the bike and walked home. I had a nasty gash on my head that needed stitches and broken my wrist.


The worst one was when I was in junior high in gym class, and I wanted to impress this girl. So I decided to to a superman vault using a spring board. I hit it, yelled her name. (Yes I still remember her name to this day) Promptly over rotated and landed on my head and neck. And I laid there and stared up at the lights and realized two things. I couldn't breath. I couldn't feel anything, my vision was pinprick. I remember completely panicking, but because I couldn't breath I couldn't talk. I remember all of the stupid kids gathered around staring at me including her.



The gym teacher was kneeling over me holding my head and telling me to relax and breath. But I couldn't feel anything or get air into my lungs. Then I could feel her hands on my heads, and then suddenly I got that first gasp of beautiful air, and the feeling came back into my feet and hands.



I still had to go to the hospital and got to miss a week of school with a concussion, and there's no ice cream for stupidity and showing off.


Oh and that girl, yeah, I maybe talked to her a couple of times over the next 5 years.
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Old 03-04-2019, 08:22 AM   #7
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Most of us have seen those 'funny' videos of forklifts hitting those typical 'orange racks' and then the whole warehouse falls down.

I was one of those forklift drivers. Thankfully, my video never made it online.

I was carrying a liquid load in it's tank, on a wet floor. I took the corner too fast, and the liquid shifted in the tank, then started rocking back and forth. Before I could correct it, I was sliding across the wet floor.

I hit load-first, corner first into the bottom tier of the racking, collapsing it and destroying the two bottom layers of racking (of 4). All 4 pallets of stuff on the shelves shattered, collapsing down onto the ground and around my forklift.


I had seen the videos too, and was just waiting for the entire 20 section set of racking to come down on my head and kill me...but nothing moved after the 4 pallets finished collapsing and settled.

I carefully got off my forklift, found my boss, told him what happened, and told him I was going home (I was still shaking so much I could barely stand).


So far as I know, before I left the company 2 years later, the accident investigator was never able to determine why the entire set of racking didn't collapse, which should have taken the rest of the racking with it (that racking is notoriously fragile).


The only damage was to the section I hit, which was unusable until replaced as everything had been warped out of shape, and the 4 pallets of goods that broke in the fall.

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Old 03-04-2019, 08:32 AM   #8
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Last summer, fishing off the Otisco Lake causeway. There's a narrow channel for boats to travel through, with buoy markers to guide boats all the way through.
This idiot on a kayak decides to turn left the instant she gets through the cut, before the buoy lines - I'm in mid cast. There's 4 oz of lead heading right for the back of her head. I was able to react quickly enough and splash it right next to her, with the bait landing in her lap. It would have shattered her skull.

I hate kayakers.
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Old 03-04-2019, 08:49 AM   #9
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Coming back from Bragg Creek along the single highway by Redwood Meadows. There is semi truck in the turning lane coming the other direction wanting to turn left across the highway. I'm bootin' along and he's sitting there and all of a sudden he starts turning left across my path. It's far too late for me to stop so instead my only choice is to go over into the ongoing lane - where there is a second semi coming my direction.

So I'm flying towards basically two semis hoping there's enough room for me to squeeze between the one turning left and the one coming head on. Thankfully the other trucker I think realized what was happening and moved over as much as he could - and I just squeezed through.

I certainly had thoughts of "well this is probably it" running through my head.
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Old 03-04-2019, 08:49 AM   #10
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I've had a few. Only ones that I remember involved motor vehicles.

When I was a young boy we were driving on the highway on the way to Calgary and an apparent drunk driver was all over the road coming from the opposite direction. My dad successfully steered the vehicle into the ditch and back out again. I was in the rear driver side passenger seat and I remember seeing that truck up close. It was only a couple feet from hitting us.

I was almost hit by a bus when I was in junior high. Got off the bus and was talking with a friend. Said our farewells and I spun around to run off and I stopped short with another school bus whizzing by, mere inches from my nose!

My entire family almost got whipped out by an inattentive driver. We were crossing the street and a vehicle in the closest lane stopped for us because they had the red light and we had the cross signal. Another car started squealing it's tires in a stop attempt and swerved around that car that was stopped for us and kept going. If I wasn't paying attention before the car's tires started screeching we would have been in it's way.
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Old 03-04-2019, 08:52 AM   #11
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I had just gotten my drivers licence and I was on my way to work. I was on two-lane road, 50km/h, completely distracted because I was 16 and invincible, probably pissing around with the radio that I didn't notice the cars in front of me stopped at a crosswalk. I slammed on the breaks, but I couldn't stop in time and was forced into the on-coming lanes to avoid hitting the car in front of me. As I passed, I saw that in front of that car in the crosswalk was a Mom with a couple toddlers. So many things could have happened, I could have plowed into that car and sent them into the Mom & kids, or it could have been a second or two later when they carried on through the crosswalk in the oncoming lanes. I had to pull over after that to cry and try to calm down.

It still makes me sick to my stomach to think about 20 years later. It was a hell of a wake up call.
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Old 03-04-2019, 09:00 AM   #12
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Driving home from University from Ontario to Calgary for the summer with two friends. We were driving straight through from Michigan to Winnipeg. In the middle of the night my friend was driving somewhere in Wisconsin, and he fell asleep at the wheel. We were all asleep at that point. We awoke to the sound of the car hitting gravel on the shoulder, and we luckily stopped the car and took a break.

I had an undetected blood clot in my leg that spread to my lungs causing a pulmonary embolism. The doctors said I dodged a bullet there, and it was treated just in time.

After the Flood in 2013 I was helping my dad clean-up flood damage at the ranch. I was using a pressure-washer to clean out the stable, wearing just shorts and sandals. I set the wand down, and somehow it got triggered and started flailing around - the stream cut a gash across my leg like a sword, blood gushing out every time my heart beat. My dad gave me first aid, and I seemed ok for a day or two. Then, my leg got very sore and swollen, and the emergency doctors were worried I had flesh eating disease. There was talk of amputating my leg, but first they tried antibiotics to see what would happen. Turns out my leg was not infected, but my leg was swollen just from the trauma of the pressure wound. I was able to go home a few days later on crutches.
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Old 03-04-2019, 09:03 AM   #13
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Once when I was little at the Riley park outdoor pool, I attempted to swim under a family floating on a big inflatable alligator. Made it about half way then started to run out of breath. Panicking, I stood up and knocked the family off their raft and it scared the crap out of me. That’s the first close call I can remember.

My actual real closest call was when I was around 9. My parents were separated and every other weekend or so my little brother and I would hang out with our dad. One of the things we did most often was go see a movie at Westbrook where Aussie Ruies and Jubilations is now, then dad would give us a couple bucks worth of quarters to spend at the arcade in the mall while he went and got groceries.

There was a guy who approached us while we were playing Golden Axe and asked us for some help with some boxes in his car or look for a dog or something along those lines. We were too into the game and blew him off but it shudders to make me think what would’ve happened if one or both of us went along.
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Old 03-04-2019, 09:15 AM   #14
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i have had two, both with big trucks.


Last year I was driving to a funeral. Wife was driving as i was preparing to read the eulogy. Five minutes north of Viking we noticed a trucker hauling hay bails swerving towards us. Wife moves over so tires are touching the ditch. guy missed us by inches. He ended hitting the opposite ditch a few minutes down the road. Apparently he fell asleep. No one ended up getting hurt.

20 years ago i had a trailer jack knife in front of me on highway 9 just southwest of Drumheller. We were only doing about 30km/h. I remember closing my eyes expecting the worst. Came to a full stop and opened my eyes. The truck driver downshifted and ended up rear ending a guy in a Chevette. The truck driver came running out to see if i was okay before he checked on Chevette driver. They were driving slow so no one got hurt. Chevette wasn't in great shape though
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Old 03-04-2019, 09:23 AM   #15
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I was in a bus going up the side of a mountain in China. Bus had a problem, driver pull over to check, forgot to pull the e-brake, and rolled off the side. Bus was held up by 2 tiny trees somehow and I didn't tumble to my death.

Some people jumped off (including my aunt and uncle) and watched in horror as the bus disappeared from the side of the road.
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Old 03-04-2019, 09:30 AM   #16
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Mine are all army related:

Over seas I was going poopoo at the side of the road during a road move. I was mid-poop and heard rounds hitting the leaves in the tree above me. I evacuated my bowels gave a very quick wipe and ran back to the relative safety of the tracks.


Another time I was showering (we had one shower that was outside, run by a tracks) and as I was mid soap artillery rounds started coming in. The water stop, the tack drove away and I was left to run to my stand too position across the compound in a towel, JB's with rifle. The compound was around 50 ft, but I could hear shrapnel hitting and feel rounds landing.


There were others, but those two really stand out for me.
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Old 03-04-2019, 09:37 AM   #17
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In high school me and 2 buddies heading back to school from McDonalds to get ready for football game. My friend is driving a Datsun king cab, I think, I am in passenger seat. We come up to intersection in left lane where we have stop sign. Other friends from the team come up in the right lane in a pickup and start to turn right. My friend proceeds to go straight and we get nailed by a semi hauling a crane. The semi hits us front right wheel, and according to our friends spins us in a 360 2 or 3 times. No injuries, slight bump on the head, friend in the seat behind the main seats slight shoulder injury. Funniest thing is after we stopped spinning and realized what I happened, I looked down at my hand and there was this red liquid on it. So Im freaking out, ok who's bleeding. Looked at it closely and then licked it, it was ketchup from the cheeseburgers that were catapulted out the windows.
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Old 03-04-2019, 09:51 AM   #18
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Last year on my birthday, my son wanted to go out on a 4x4 trip to Waiporous.

Just me and him father son kinda trip.

It had been a few years since I had been out that way so my son loaded a map onto his phone and off we went.

Looking back on it I should have known better and we did everything wrong...

1. No set route / map
2. Went by ourselves
3. No supplies
4. etc.....

On the return leg there were a bunch of steep hills that, unknown to us, had bypasses.

We didn't know that and went for it anyway as we thought it was the only way out.

Well on the third hill we ended up at a pretty steep angle halfway up one of those hills.

Brakes locked just sitting there waiting to flip over backwards and tumble down the hill.

The $1000.00 I spend on the brakes for this jeep after I bought it was a godsend as we sat there for what seemed like an eternity on the side of this hill.

Slowly, and I ,mean slowly, I was able to release the brakes enough to roll back down the hill about 200 feet or so to what we hoped was a bypass.

It was.

Once we got around the hill and before the next one, I sent my son for a walk to see if the side route was another bypass.

It was.

While he was off looking I think I had my first actual panic attack.

I can handle doing stupid stuff on my own and getting hurt, but the thought of bringing harm to my son was overwhelming.

My legs started to shake, got the sweats, you name it...

We determined that all the side route were bypasses for the remaining hills so we made it out without incident.

Once we got home I had a very stiff drink and started crying...

Didn't sleep well for the next few days either.

Even now thinking about it gives me the willies...

Next time, I will definitely plan better.
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Old 03-04-2019, 10:15 AM   #19
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Mine all seem to be centred around water.



When I was a young child, before I knew how to swim, I was playing in the outdoor pool at a hotel, just doing cannonballs into the shallow end of the pool. For whatever reason, I must have shifted over a bit to where the drop off was and I cannonballed in and quickly realized that I didn't float and the water level was probably a foot or so over my head. I panicked and started jumping up and down in the water and eventually my brother realized I was in trouble and rescued me.


In high school, I was out boating with some friends. I was sitting in the back of the boat and somebody didn't tie the tow line on properly. When the slack was taken up, this rope started unravelling and smacked me right between the eyes, sending half of my glasses into the lake.


Lastly, a rafting trip on the Kicking Horse. The river was really high that year, so we weren't able to do the last section. Instead, we ended up repeating a fairly fast moving section before the take-out area. As we're getting close to the exciting part, people are not paddling like they need to and our boat turns sideways, and we get flipped into the water. The boat is on top of me, and I am really thinking that I am going to drown here, until I find the edge of the boat and am able to pull myself out from underneath and find the surface. I can feel the rocks scrape me as I am going over and all I care about is not hitting a big one. We were all really freaked out after that. It was hard to explain to other people what it was like, except that it was probably similar to what your clothes feel like in the washing machine. Anyway, went rafting again a few years later. Not exciting anymore. That experience kind of ruined the thrill of rafting. I kind of wonder if other people get that way.
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Old 03-04-2019, 10:46 AM   #20
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Last summer, fishing off the Otisco Lake causeway. There's a narrow channel for boats to travel through, with buoy markers to guide boats all the way through.
This idiot on a kayak decides to turn left the instant she gets through the cut, before the buoy lines - I'm in mid cast. There's 4 oz of lead heading right for the back of her head. I was able to react quickly enough and splash it right next to her, with the bait landing in her lap. It would have shattered her skull.

I hate kayakers.
Damn. I always knew fishermen had it out for us.
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