Have you ever just barely escaped tragedy by the skin of your teeth? Ever been inches from a big mistake and managed to avert catastrophe at the last second? These people have. Here are some true stories of real life times when people dodged bullets and just barely avoided big trouble.
Staying Put
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, basically being an annoying little male adolescent turd, saying how I wanted to stay at home and play, I'd be really good, it was boring, etc.
He finally got fed up and stormed out and told me to STAY PUT and he'd back soon. About an hour later, he comes home in a police car, pretty shaken up, and just reached over and hugged me hard.
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. The car was totaled (obviously), with the entire passenger side crushed down flat. Actually, 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. Story credit: Reddit / bbergman1
Gremlin Guardian Angel
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 - I can change a tire in 5 minutes, 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. Story credit: Reddit / MarkHirsbrunner
Cross That Bridge When You Come To It
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. Story credit: Reddit / Dazzling-Role-1686
The Bat Man
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. Story credit: Reddit / YoureInMyWaySir
McMuffins Save the Day
I went to Boston U and lived less than a mile from the finish line of the Boston Marathon. In 2013, my friends and I had decided that we were going to walk down to the finish line to see the end of the race.
We decided to go to McDonalds instead. Quite literally dodged a bomb. Story credit: Reddit / RAWdangers
Asking Questions Keeps You Safe
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. Story credit: Reddit / aotus_trivirgatus
Very Near Miss
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. Story credit: Reddit / jg23101
Better To Not Get Involved
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 (nothing risqué, just getting to know each other), 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.
After reading about what happened--via the internet, after searching for her hame (this was prior to Google)--I was so glad he'd begged her to go back with him.
I eventually asked my coworker why she'd thought it was a good idea to set us up after all that, and she just shrugged and said, "she thought you were cute, so I was trying to help." Story credit: Reddit / Sumpm
Shipping Out
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). Story credit: Reddit / Randomest_Redditor
Forklift From Heaven
I was in a car accident (a woman hit me) because an old woman in front of me in a store spent 2-3 minutes fishing pennies out of her handbag to pay for her purchase. I would have never been hit if I had been at the spot where the accident happened 2-3 earlier.
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 someone got on the car or someone in the car moved. I assumed they sent for a wrecker or equipment to pull the car to safety.
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. That is when I began, although I am not religious, to believe in angels. Story credit: Reddit / EdwardWarren
What Was I Doing?!
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'm up for like 1 minute at this point. 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! WTF 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.
I don't sleep with my windows open anymore. Story credit: Reddit / quirkytorch
Brief Safety Window
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 (don’t know if it was to scare the cashier or if he was a bad shot) but it hit the cigarettes. Still freaks me out when I think about it. Story credit: Reddit / Sunnydoglover
Thankssss
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 was so big that when it came out of the bushes it made this huge rustling noise. It went right over where I was going to step next. We both watched it slither across the path into the next set of bushes. 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.
I still think about how that man saved me to this day! And I also wonder what kind of snake that was and what other monster creatures he’s must’ve had to deal with in his gardening work. Story credit: Reddit / rlm236
On Call
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 was really mad and upset about it.
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. On the other hand, maybe everyone were destined to die that night, and I would have died too. Story credit: Reddit / CategoryTurbulent114
Always Wear a Helmet
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 Story credit: Reddit / SwipeRight4Wholesome
Who Watches the Watchmen?
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. Story credit: Reddit / tbd_asap
Escaping Quarantine
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. Story credit: Reddit / Ok_Comparison_8304
Not Calling Shotgun
A very long while ago when I was real young (maybe 6-8) my mom was taking me and my older (8-10) brother to gymnastics. We were allowed to sit in the front as long as we didn't distract our mom driving.
My mom asked us if we wanted to sit in the front and we both decided not to for some reason, which was weird because we usually fight to sit passenger.
Were on our way there and right as we start heading down one of the main roads a very large truck swerves into our lane hitting the back of our car, and we are thrown foreword into a parked car on the side of the road.
My moms leg was broken and my brother needed stitches in his lip that he bit through, and I was fine (just some car related trauma I still have).
The passenger seat though, was decimated. The chair was in a ball, the engine on top of it with a large hole in the dash and tons of broken glass in the seat, if my brother or I sat in shotgun that day we would be six feet deep right now. Story credit: Reddit / Planet_Honey
Biker Boy Rescue
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. Story credit: Reddit / OtherAcctIsFdUp
Risking My Neck
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. Story credit: Reddit / rabiddutchman
Ford Dodging a Bullet
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. Story credit: Reddit / A_Upset_Frenchie
Nope Nope Nope Nope
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 yadda. But then he gets to the actual job description.
You were required to strip naked, shower with other people (both genders), work naked 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. Story credit: Reddit / YodasChick-O-Stick
Gut Feeling
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 when we want to go somewhere for a casual hang out.
That was the original plan for our hangout, but for some unknown reason I had a weird gut feeling which didn't warrant any worry or anxiety (just one of those impulse thoughts) but I still suggested we watch the movie first.
It wasn't a big deal which we did first so my friends agreed and we went to the movies (if I remember right we watched Fantasy Island).
During the movie, we all got a phone call from our supervisor from work coincidentally at the same time. 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.
Some may say we wouldn't have to answer the phone but we usually don't get work related calls on our days off so receiving a call from our supervisor meant something important happened that requires our attention/possibly go into work.
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 (an accountability thing since it was in our area).
The mall was relatively small compared to the other malls in our area so if we went there first, there's a high chance we would've gotten caught up in it.
To summarize my friends and I avoided getting caught in the middle of an active shooter because of a gut feeling I had. Story credit: Reddit / SplavacadoMania
The Nick of Time
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. Story credit: Reddit / Dude_Bro_88
Saving The Girls
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 recently bought land in the area who was from another county and didn't know the road 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 etc was up outside my door, my engine was under me and the various fluids of the car were messing around the road.
If the girls had been with me most of them would have been killed because a few of them would never put a seatbelt on for you and at least 1 of them would probably have been smoking. Story credit: Reddit / AprilMaria
Last Minute Escape
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 I know Wuhan pretty well and I have close relatives in Europe. 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". I called my husband and told him I had to be on the March 17 plane because suddenly, I had to go home, else...
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. Glad I didn't change my ticket. Story credit: Reddit / Xiaozhu
Sleeping In
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. Story credit: Reddit / blueycw83
Lucky Straw
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! Story credit: Reddit / scaredytaxx
Wrong Place, Right Time
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. Story credit: Reddit / tallenlo
Bus Bullet
I almost walked in front of a bus once. I wasnt paying attention and was about to step out right in front of a speeding bus and a complete stranger pulled me back by my collar and saved my life. I dodged a bus, which is kind of like a slower, larger, bullet. Story credit: Reddit / wallabeejones
Car Escape
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. Story credit: Reddit / 77Columbus
Incubator Issues
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. Story credit: Reddit / thehouen
Crosswalk Blindspot
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 saw a whisp of hair above my hood.
I waited and saw three small children appear to my left.
The truck was so high, while they were in the crosswalk, 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.
This single event completely changed the way I drive and I think about it often. Some 20 years later it still gives me chills. Story credit: Reddit / harpyranchers
Big Boned
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. Story credit: Reddit / Patches67
Pee Break
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. Thankfully I was still in the pee bottle and the rest got scared out of me. Story credit: Reddit / l33tb3rt
Sometimes The Bullet Dodges You
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. Story credit: Reddit / PhaetonSiX
Always Be Polite to Cops
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, explaining that we were very excited because it was my brothers first ever Packer game and it was his 15th birthday. 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.
We made it to the game in plenty of time and I drove the speed limit the entire rest of the trip. The Packers beat the Titans 55-7 that day and it was something my brother will never forget. Story credit: Reddit / 4ourfeathers
Literal Bullet Dodger
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. Story credit: Reddit / [deleted]
Death by Grain Feed
19 y.o me working road construction with a travelling crew. Bunked down, reading a book for the evening during a thunderstorm in the back of my pickup (had a topper and mattress for the truck bed).
Out of the corner of my eye, I think I see something move. Several times this happens, so I get out and get into the cab. Sure enough, the wind picks up, and this GIANT drop feed grain bin that I was parked next to starts to move/slide on its concrete pad.
Start the engine, throw it in reverse, and am gunning out of the spot as the bin starts to tip…while thousands of pounds of grain storage is quickly filling the windshield.
The vehicle bogged down, and I got stuck in a mud hole as the grain bin crashed down…3 inches from my front bumper, laying exactly where I had been parked 7 seconds earlier. Story credit: Reddit / leppell
Stand By Me
I grew up close to a set of railroad tracks. There were 3 tracks that ran parallel to each other. When I was 15 me and a couple of friends used to walk the tracks to get back and forth to each other’s houses.
One day we were all walking down the tracks and there was a train approaching us on the track directly to our left (we were on the outside track the train approaching was on the middle track).
As the engine is approaching us one of the operators was literally hanging out the window screaming at the top of his lungs and pointing behind us.
We could not here what he was yelling because when you’re right next to a freight train going 70mph that’s all you can hear. Well we look behind us and there is another train on our track barreling at us at full speed. It was probably 30-40 yards from us at that point.
Me being the furthest from the right and having both my friends in the way I never would have made if I had tried to jump in the same direction.
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 my two friends who are directly to my right leaping for their lives to the right off the track and I have about 1 second to get out of the way.
Leaping to the right is no sure thing. 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. I have never been so scared or shaken in my entire life. Story credit: Reddit / [deleted]
Appendix Issues Are No Joke
Perforated appendix. Still have my colon and all of my intestines and that was in the balance apparently. Story credit: Reddit / fromtia
Come Fly With Me
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. Story credit: Reddit / Ok_Dog_4059
Road Rage
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 idiot 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. Story credit: Reddit / stevebobeeve
Soft Landing
My dad was a truck driver in the oilfield in Canada. He worked a lot of long hours and every single day. So on weekends he would bring me and my younger brother on some of his jobs. We were on location and my little brother (3 yrs) and me (10 yrs) were waiting for him playing in cab of truck.
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. First time I ever seen him cry. I’m 33 now and he still won’t talk to me about it. Luckily the rig was in a farmers field.
So when we were leaving I landed on softer dirt. Not a single scratch on me. Dad thought he ran over me with trailer. Don’t think we ever went to work with dad again. I work for the company now. Story credit: Reddit / Paydayson
Wise Driver
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. Story credit: Reddit / Hail_S8n
Snot a Big Deal
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. Story credit: Reddit / Deadthrow742
Snow Laughing Matter
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. Story credit: Reddit / LackingUtility
Cliffhanger
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 sleep of the truly exhausted.
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.
Because we had been travelling on foot for about 2 hours after dark the previous night I'd had no idea we were camped beside a tree-covered cliff-line and the 'responsible adult' in charge was too stupid to think it important information. Story credit: Reddit / thescourge
Dodging a Literal Nuke
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. Story credit: Reddit / ElkShot5082
Party Killer
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. Story credit: Reddit / missymaypen