Post times you should have died ...but didn't.

Tacoma

Et incurventur ante non
Location
far enough away
oh man.

-- Climbing to the top of a small tree that was growing off the face of a crumbling old dam, which was about 70' high. When I pushed off the trunk to jump back onto the dam, the whole thing ripped off the damn, and was hanging by about one root.

-- 11yrs old, at the neighbors, playing hacky sack in the barn (it was 1984, still cool then). I hear some commotion in the tool room, my brother comes out pointing a revolver at me. I tell him not to point it at me, he says "why? it's not loaded", points about 6" to the left and fires a .38 slug close enough that I felt the wind. We all shat bricks.

-- riding with my dad in his '73 Ford, down a huge hill with a turn, bridge, and 20' drop into a stony creekbed. Lights go out. Lights went on, and we missed hitting the bridge by about 2".

-- Riding with my cousin's boyfriend in his CJ. Lady runs a stop sign at about 50mph, hits the passenger side, flips us onto the side and spins us around. I ended up facing the driver, about a foot higher. Entire pass. side of CJ smashed. I got a bruised ankle from the floor being smushed into it, and a wicked set of bruises on my chest and right shoulder from the seatbelt and rollbar.

-- Girlfriend pulled out in front of a speeding semi on the truck route she lived on. To this day I SWEAR divine intervention saved us. There is just no way we actually made it past that truck.

--Driving across the US on 80. Guy in a Cherokee didn't look to his left when he went to pass. I saw him, and moved to the shoulder, which unfortunately was only about 6" wide. So I dove into the median rather than flip the van trying to stay on the road. At 85mph, grass is slippery. I straightened it all out, and immediately hit a huge culvert hump. For some reason, it was exactly right at that speed to keep the 36" Swampers with rims, and the two axles that weren't secured from crushing me. Everything stayed put and I landed like a feather.

-- 1994, working at the StopNRob, numerous robberies and fights in the street. I should have been killed a couple times.

-- snowboarding at Brighton, ate my elbow, felt funny. Got to St. Mark's, MRI shows severely bruised spleen, liver, and 4 broken rips, 2 of which were broken in 2 places. Doctor said "You hit that any harder and you'd have ruptured your spleen, and bled out trying to start your truck. You're lucky." Guess so!


-- and nearly drowning, same way as Cody and Willyswanter (RIP!), at Jordanelle. I don't like water.

and that's really all I can think of offhand.
 

cannoncrawler

TWERNT THE MORMONS!!!!!!
Location
Idaho
Let's see
Very near to tumbling 100+ feet to my death while riding motorcycles at 17yrs of age.
come awn....thats funny now right?:rofl::rofl:
Many close calls riding bulls, hooves, horns, etc in unpleasant areas.

Nothing major.

Thanks for jogging the memory.........Getting knocked the Freek out on a bull and then having to go to the police station hours later cuz on the way to the arena I was driving crazy and I got turned in.:rofl:

getting my boot caught in the handlebars of my 3 wheeler while rolling down a large and steep hill. I would flip over the bike, then it would flip over me. (no helmet) we rolled about 8 times that day.

Pretty much any story involving a 3 wheeler could be in this thread!!!

flying over central Idaho with a farmer in his little plane and buzzing the mountain goats:rolleyes:

Calling out the sister in laws name in bed!!:-\:greg::rofl::ugh:;)
 

RockMonkey

Suddenly Enthusiastic
Wow, Some good stories in here. I can't think of any good ones myself, but my brother had a very close call. He decided to climb a power pole behind a church one night. He got to the top and tried to step back to enjoy the view. As he fell backwards off the pole he instinctively grabbed for any handhold. What he happened to grab was a high voltage line (something like 72,000 volts) going into a transformer. The power traveled through his arm, across his chest (stopping his heart), and blew most of his thigh off as it was arced to the ground bolt. He fell 35 feet and landed flat on his back in a pile of landscape bark. The doctor says the jolt of the landing restarted his heart. He spent several weeks in the U burn center where they had to take a skin graft off his good thigh to reconstruct the damaged one. I can still remember the smell of burning flesh during the car ride to the emergency room. :sick:
 

92XJeeper

Member
Location
Ogden
11:22
1:46
3:09
5:37
6:54
8:12

Those are all of the times I can think of at the moment. Wait, there was this time I ate a bunch of brownies laced with pot. I thought I was dead because time was moving really, really, really, really slow. :-\

Also, the typical stuff that happens when drunk. Almost shot by an idiot at the indoor gun range. She was aiming so high that the bullets were whizzing by my head and striking the message board behind the counter. Working with fighter jets...a few close calls there.
 

DevinB

I like traffic lights
Location
Down Or'm
I must be lucky, I've never had one close call. I've never fallen off anything higher than six feet, never almost drown, never electrocuted myself, I've never even broken a bone. And it's not because I was a sissy or sat inside and played D&D all day. I played sports, snow-skied all my life, cliff-jumped 60+ feet at Lake Powell... I've been in one car accident, totaled the Grand Cherokee I was driving but I didn't even get a scratch. :spork:
 

RWH

Let's Roll For Justice
Mines fairly tame, but we were installing a large trapezoid Glass insulated Unit in a cabin up sundance, bout 40 feet up on extension ladders, heat strengthened glass weighing bout 300lbs. 2 of us were on extension ladders walking the unit up holding Glass cups while a third was inside up in the hole with a rope coming down taking some of the weight and all the balance of the glass as we worked our way up. Went fine until we were at bout 35ft and the man inside had his cup fail and loose the balance of the glass, i was midstep and went to put my weight on the rung of the ladder when the weight of taking the balance and what weight he had been taking was placed on me, My foot rolled and i fell off of the ladder with the glass in hot pursuit.. I don't recall any glass hitting me and i landed on my feet unscathed. Was mostly upset that i had broken such an expensive peice of glass.
 

chicken77

throttle jockey
I was at work trying to change a battery post on a locomotive with an adjustable end wrench, I asked my partner if he had cut the power and he said yes, needless to say arc welding with 600 volts DC and an adjustable end wrench is not as cool as it sounds, the current entered my hand burning my thumb and first two fingers turning my finger nails orange and my fingers black, it then passed thru my chest and out my shoulder which was grounded to the locomotive body that I was thrown against leaving a small burn, lucky for me the electricity tossed me instead of holding me, I was seeing green spots from the flash for a week, and smelling burnt skin and finger nails for days!
 

waynehartwig

www.jeeperman.com
Location
Mead, WA
First time: my dad got me REAL drunk - I was 2 - and had to be rushed to the hospital.

Second time: When I stole my dad's truck and wrecked it :eek:

Third time: I was 17 and into weed, shrooms, acid, etc. OD'ed on the bus. Woke up several days later in the hospital. Friends say they took me to their house to keep it from my mom so she wouldn't flip. She found me there and called 911.

Fourth time: I was 20 and taking a guy to the coast to get his paycheck after a weekend of solid drinking. I was technically sober, so I think I fell asleep behidn the wheel and went off a 30' cliff on a canyon road (Lucas Valley RD in the Bay Area). Landed upside down. That one I _DID_ die from. My butt was saved becuase they were building homes down there; a guy saw me do it and called 911. I was dead at the scene when paramedics arrived. After a few bags of IV solution, they brought me back and transported me to Marine General. For 36 hours I was in a coma with bad head and chest injuries, fully prepped for open heart/brain surgery with staff waiting. I landed upside down and literally ripped the seatbelt with my chest and pushed my head through the holes on the steering wheel into the dash. My passenger was ejected (or jumped? no seat belt on) mid flight and was treated and released. Appologized to my mother for her loss. I literally walked out of the hospital a week later with a crushed thoracick spine and broken ribs from the seat belt (and numerous stitches/cuts of course) and 70 lbs lighter (I lost a crap load of weight and strength in that week). I went to recover the car and they wanted like $2500 to get it out (recovery costs), so I signed it over. Went to the scene to see the damage and was told by a guy I was tresspassing, to stop scavenging. After proving to him that was me (scars, etc), he let me be. A week later I get the cops at my door arresting me and transporting me to Marine County to stand trial for drunk driving and other charges from the accident.

Drunk driving - plead not guilty. I had test results from the hospital that morning that showed my BAC was under .01 - dismissed

Wreckless driving - plead not guilty. No proof. There were no skid marks, or etc. only the guy that saved my ass saying I was driving 'a little too fast', which is heresay - dismissed.

'failed to show proof of insurance to a police officer when asked to do so' (word for word how it was written on the ticket) - plead not guilty. I told the judge "your honor, I was legally dead when he asked and as such I did not hear the question. Here is my bloody insurance card and registration from the glove box" - dismissed.

This last one did it for me on all sorts of levels. After the OD I already quit drugs and it was a long time before I started back in on the alcohol (after more time I probably would have started drugs again, who knows). I had already started back to school (college) about a year before the accident and completed afterwards.

The running joke is "so thats why you are how you are". Yes, yes it is...My short term memory is shiat. I have constant migrane headaches. Lately I have a pins and needle/fiery sensation through my upper back and neck and I'm starting to find it hard to stand up straight. I'm already 3" shorter than I was before the accident, even if I am standing up straight.

Fifth time: In 2002 I was driving home from a friends house after a BBQ and was hit head on from a drunk 17 year old in a 99 Intrepid (I was in a 99 Stratus, same color!) traveling at 70 mph+ without his headlights on. My light turned green, and I went. Next thing I know all I can see is white and I could smell battery acid. Instantly my thoughts were "who the f' just hit me!". It knocked me about 40' back to almost where I started from (same position to the intersection, but off to the right of the island). I suffered a broken wrist and was treated and released. The guy that hit me wasn't wearing a seatbelt and actually lived! He was pinned to the passenger door from the engine and had to be cut out. Me they just had to force the driver door open.
 

Floppy Hat

mbryson's hairdresser
Location
Lehi, Ut.
March 26, 1991 -- I was walking home from junior high after my friend's brother failed to pick us up. We were about a 1/4 mile from home when said brother showed up to give us a ride. My friend jumped on the hood of his primer grey Ford Pinto. I did the same (it wasn't the first time we had gone home this way).

As we took a turn to head towards my house I lost my grip. As I slid towards the front of the car eveything slowed down and although only a couple seconds passed by it seemed like forever. I can still see the whole thing play out in my mind. Anyway, I fell off the front of the car and am run over by the front drivers' side tire of the Pinto and pinned under the now stopped car.

My friend ran to get help. I freaked out. I could hear the driver fumbling around looking for a bottle jack and unsuccessfully trying to jack the car up to get me out. When help arrived they used air bags to lift the car up and they pulled me out. I was then life-flighted to the hospital. I had an 8 inch gash down the side of my head, a broken pelvis, and a severly bruised chest. The doctor's main concern was that the chest trauma would cause my aorta to burst, obvioulsy it didn't. I left the hospital 6 days later on a pair of crutches and with about 130 stiches in my head.

It is a wonder any of us make it to be adults.
 
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