The nearest you have come to death

When I was about 7, going home from a friends house during the summer holidays, another neighbour's alsatian brushed against me..I looked at him, he looked at me..I forced myself not to run home until I was sure the dog was at a distance away from me. The next summer, the neighbour's idiot son let the dog out of his cage when I went into their garden to get a ball, and the fooker took a chunk outa my ass....six months later the same dog mauled a woman who had to spend 6 months in hospital afterwards. I remain convinced to this day that the dog could have badly mauled me in the alleyway of my friend's house.


Iwas passing an unsecured building site and a chunk of masonry fell down, missing me by about 3 feet. I remember at the time thinking bummer, if I was hit, I could have sued; but then again I could have also suffered life altering injures, or worse...

Took a bad hit playing a match when I was 19. I was soloing through on goal & the keeper came out & planted me with a shoulder to the chest. I fell awkwardly & ended up swallowing my tongue. It took about 2 mins for anyone to come near me but thankfully one of the other team was a nurse. He broke my teeth getting my jaw unlocked but he saved my life. I still see him from time to time & will always be in his debt.

A few of my teammates were aware of what was happening but a mixture of shock & a lack of first aid training they could do nothing. I came seriously close to death that night, the guy who saved me said I was maybe another minute from suffocating. I've had unfortunate accidents & incidents in my life but that was the scariest because I can't remember it. I can remember bearing down on goal & hesitating as the keeper came charging at me. I woke up thinking the keeper had broken my teeth & knocked me unconscious but was only told the real story a day or 2 later. Very lucky to come away from that with a few busted choppers.

WhiteWalls wrote: »

Had a bad scare on the road this evening, totally my own fault but basically it involved an articulated lorry and me speeding. Just got me thinking, It's not a nice feeling. What was your biggest fright you have got or incident which could have been so much worse?

Very similar to this.... Oncoming truck and too much speed. I basically crossed the road going around a bend, and then managed to swerve back just in time. It's strange... I do actually remember the sensation of time slowing down and having the time to think that it was all over, and what a **** way to go!

Three times come to my mind:

1st) When I just turned 18, myself and some mates stupidly got into a car after drinking. We decided it would be fun to drink under the windmills which were not far from our town. Just needed a bad dirt track to get to them but totally doable.
So off we go into the night, quite drunk but we all smartly put our belts on. Going though a bend on this dirt track at about 60/65kph the cars back tire hit some mud which then sent the car into a slalom motion.
Correcting the car only made things worse and before we know it we are heading head first into a wall. Smash into the wall which then flips the car over and smashes side first into an electricity pole.
Car then righted itself hanging half way over the wall and underneath us was the river. We were lucky to be alive, the roof on my side of the car had deformed into a needle shape pointing straight to my head with only a few mm's of space between my head and the roof.
Would have been killed instantly.

2nd) Car crash again but not as bad. Was driving from Frankfurt to Brussels a few years ago. I was absolutely knackered from the long drive.
I needed to be in Brussels by a certain time but I knew I wouldn't make it. So I decided to find the next lay-by and get an hours kip at least.
All I remember after that was waking up while the car bounces off the central divider and then heading for the other side of the road.
Manage to react in time not to hit anything else, if a truck was coming I would have been a goner.

3rd) Circa 2009 we had a dog. It was the summer where we had quite a good bit of heat so we decided to go to the Sally Gap for some peace and get a tan. On the way up there is a waterfall, quite a sharp fall one.
Anyway, we stop next to it and let the dog out for it's business and we wanted to take some photos.
The dog jumps past the fence and starts heading towards the quickly moving current.
I knew it would fall off the waterfall so I rushed to go and get it which I luckily managed to do. However, when I was handing my misses the dog I slipped on a rock and started falling towards the edge of the cliff.
Panic is seriously taking over now as I'm within a few meters of falling to my death.
I don't know how, but I managed to grab onto one of the rocks. With the water pushing me I couldn't see much but I was able to pull myself back up and jump back onto dry ground.
My guardian angel has been working very hard with me over the years.

I just remembered one, I was walking past a pub on Talbot street in Dublin when I heard a massive crash behind me, turned around and about 15 feet behind me a huge pane of glass had fallen from the upstairs window of the pub. If that had hit me there's a good chance it could have killed me or seriously injured me at least.