What is the closest you've come to meeting your maker?

Peter Mugridge · 7 Jun 2026

BeeBus said:
The other incident occurred a bit earlier, in around 1961. A family trip to Blackpool during the Illuminations saw my sister and me waiting for a tram near the tower. As the railcoach approached I spotted a little flame coming from the trolley base. The trolley cable was obviously damaged because the next thing I knew a shower of sparks shot in every direction. We didn't think and ran away across the promenade to safety giving no consideration to any traffic that might be passing. Somehow, we didn't come into contact with any of the many cars I'm sure were there. The strange thing about this experience is that I became very much involved with Blackpool tram engineering almost twenty years later.

Was that one of the "Coronation" cars by any chance...? They had a frequent issue with something technical* that eventually got replaced.

*I'm keeping it simple here as this isn't the thread for a long discussion on the electrical equipment.

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Dr Hoo · 7 Jun 2026

I was in a city centre where what was supposed to be ‘the world’s largest mobile crane’ (according to the newspaper report) was being de-rigged after lifting some equipment onto the top story of a tall building under construction. A hydraulic hose burst and apparently because of a faulty non-return valve the outriggers on one side collapsed instantly. The crane capsized towards me and the swinging pulley block hit a road-sweeper immediately in front of me and utterly crushed him against a wall. Fortunately the jib caught on the very corner of a building and thus didn’t fall on top of me.

The shock didn’t immediately kick in but waited until I tried to explain what had happened to a friend.

Bletchleyite · 7 Jun 2026

Also a potentially very serious cycling accident - turned right on a dual carriageway across the front of a car doing 65mph (he said, and I believe him as that's what I would have been doing there), hit on the rear wheel, thrown up in the air and landed on my right knee. Somehow didn't bang my head, though the bike was a write off. Male bravado meant I didn't go to hospital. It had a second go years later when the damage caused by it resulted in a DVT* and pulmonary embolism...

Also nearly put myself in a wheelchair by falling from the top of an obstacle on a Tough Mudder type thing and landing on my head with an almighty crack from my neck, but somehow got away with it. Never seen a marshall look so concerned. This one didn't require any treatment at all and has had little long term effect bar that I can turn my head further one way than the other. Indeed I actually did the obstacle again successfully the second time to a massive cheer from everyone who saw it!

* deep vein thrombosis, my leg didn't turn into a driving van trailer

BeeBus · 7 Jun 2026

nw1 said:
As a child, for some bizarre reason sticking my hand into a bedside lamp without a bulb and a live current. I got a tingle, nothing more thankfully.

Did that too - one where the switch was in the bulb holder!

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Peter Mugridge said:
Was that one of the "Coronation" cars by any chance...? They had a frequent issue with something technical* that eventually got replaced.

Whilst I wasn't really aware of the different tram types at that age, I'm pretty sure it wasn't, partly because the image of the initial little flame wouldn't fit right. I certainly couldn't be sure whether it was Brush or EE at this distance in time.

najaB · 7 Jun 2026

Bletchleyite said:
Also nearly put myself in a wheelchair by falling from the top of an obstacle on a Tough Mudder type thing and landing on my head with an almighty crack from my neck, but somehow got away with it.

Somewhat similar, when I was about 13 years old I was bodyboarding when a larger than normal wave broke badly and bodily dropped me headfirst into the sand. I was completely dazed and wasn't able to move my limbs for ten to fifteen seconds, which wasn't an ideal situation given that the waves were still breaking around me. I ended up with a broken collarbone out of it, which I think was lucky all things considered.

Dave61 · 7 Jun 2026

BeeBus said:
Did that too - one where the switch was in the bulb holder!

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 7 Jun 2026 ==

I remember getting a tingle off a live main socket once, dunno what the hell I was doing then!. I think it was a right of passage at one time, these days you would just plunge the house into darkness as the ELCB tripped followed by parents demanding what did you do.
I do have another good one but being XXX rated can't mention it here.

najaB · 7 Jun 2026

Dave61 said:
I remember getting a tingle off a live main socket once, dunno what the hell I was doing then!. I think it was a right of passage at one time, these days you would just plunge the house into darkness as the ELCB tripped followed by parents demanding what did you do.

US-style sockets make that incredibly easy to do as the blades of the plug aren't part-insulated like ours, and make contact with the conductors in the socket before the plug is fully inserted:

Image of a partially inserted US plug, showing the exposed blades.

I've shocked myself more times than I could count, the saving grace is that 120V doesn't sting as much as 240V does.

Falcon1200 · 7 Jun 2026

Dave61 said:
I remember getting a tingle off a live main socket once, dunno what the hell I was doing then!. I think it was a right of passage at one time

As a kid I also got an electric shock, in my case from touching a (non-hot) part of a one-bar fire. But we did indeed all do that sort of thing then!

Puffing Devil · 7 Jun 2026

Came back to my hometown after six months, walked out of the station and reached the main road, which I needed to cross to get into the town centre. I looked right, all clear, and then confidently walked straight into almost being hit by a car coming from the left.

Turns out they’d reversed the one-way system.

Nearly got taken out by urban planning.

75A · 7 Jun 2026

September 1986, I was an up and coming Racing Driver.
At Spa in Belgium I was testing a Formula 3 car, and a mix of cold tyres, damp track and naivety caused me to roll my car multiple times leaving me in a Coma for 8 days with a fractured Skull, Collar Bone, Arm, Ribs etc.
Career ended and 40 years of Medical Issues.
Don't remember anything.

Pit_buzzer · 8 Jun 2026

Young me was walking along park place in Leeds about 40 years ago, it was a really windy day and suddenly there was a flash of black past my eye and a loud bang. A roof tile from 5 floors up had missed me by inches and sliced open the red car at the side of me like a tin opener before shattering on the floor at the side of me. I stopped, thought "oh" and carried on with my life

najaB · 8 Jun 2026

Pit_buzzer said:
Young me was walking along park place in Leeds about 40 years ago, it was a really windy day and suddenly there was a flash of black past my eye and a loud bang. A roof tile from 5 floors up had missed me by inches and sliced open the red car at the side of me like a tin opener before shattering on the floor at the side of me. I stopped, thought "oh" and carried on with my life

Oh, now that you mention that, something somewhat similar happened to myself and a workmate about a year ago - we popped out at lunchtime to do some errands and as we were walking a chunk of finest Scottish sandstone (I'd guess maybe 3 or 4kg) fell from three floors up and smashed on the ground about three metres in front of us. I don't know if it was large enough that it would've been enough to kill either of us, but it definitely would have done some damage.

AlterEgo · 8 Jun 2026

najaB said:
Oh, now that you mention that, something somewhat similar happened to myself and a workmate about a year ago - we popped out at lunchtime to do some errands and as we were walking a chunk of finest Scottish sandstone (I'd guess maybe 3 or 4kg) fell from three floors up and smashed on the ground about three metres in front of us. I don't know if it was large enough that it would've been enough to kill either of us, but it definitely would have done some damage.

A 3 or 4 kg weight from three floors up could certainly kill you. Narrow escape there.

Cowley · 8 Jun 2026

I’ve had a few of my nine lives used up, including nearly falling out of very high tree at about 12 years old. I was hanging over a pavement completely terrified until I somehow managed to get myself to safely.

Nearly getting hit by a train in the dark with some friends when I was about 15. Apologies to the driver if they were anywhere near Topsham that night in 1988. It was stupid walking that way.

Get into difficulties swimming across the Dordogne River about six years ago. I’ve always been a good swimmer but I got caught up in weeds that I didn’t see until I was right in the middle of them and I started to lose breath and therefore strength. I should have rolled onto my back and floated downstream, but the mind does strange things to you in a situation like that. I believe it’s called panic…

The couple of times one of the kids has ended up in danger while under my supervision are the things that really make me shudder though. No harm done thankfully, but things like that live rent free in my head!

Uncle Buck · 8 Jun 2026

Similar to many, it was a close shave in a car. I was driving northbound up the A82 past Loch Lomond- a rotten road, of an unacceptably poor standard, which often causes risky overtaking. As I rounded the final bend into Crianlarich, there was a car- an ageing white Polo- there,
meaning on the wrong side of the road, in my lane, driving towards me, about fifteen feet away from my car. I swerved into the verge and it got into the southbound lane and carried on. A split second, and I mean a split second, later and it would have hit me at God knows what miles per hour. I can still picture the woman driving it- black hair, about my age. The oddest thing is that I just murmured, very quietly, a single word expletive, restarted the engine and pulled straight back onto the road. My trusty Vauxhall was unscathed. I did not scream, shout or honk my horn. I drove into Crianlarich and parked in the little car park there and only then actually felt the shock. It’s appalling how selfish people can be. I will never drive up that road again, unless it is improved.

Falcon1200 said:
Driving home on the M8 in Glasgow over the Kingston Bridge crossing the Clyde. Lanes converge here, right in front of me a lorry changed lanes from left to right, striking a car which spun round and ended up in the far right lane facing the wrong way. By sheer good fortune this happened to be a (very rare) quiet moment on the motorway and neither I, not any other vehicle, was caught up in the crash.

This too is always a rather scary road to drive and you are lucky to have been all right.

johntea · 9 Jun 2026

I decided to visit a 'coffee shop' in Amsterdam, after a few 'sips' of my 'coffee' I felt nothing until a few minutes later when my vision just turned into a dizzy blur and next thing I collapsed and passed out in the middle of Amsterdam!

I came back round after what felt like hours (in reality only about 20 minutes!) and somehow managed to wobble back to the train station and my hotel room

Felt like I would never come back round (although I don't think anyone has ever died from such a thing researching after the event!), was certainly the first and last time I tried a 'coffee'

Although it did feel like I had come back round in some sort of apocalypse as this was 15th March 2020 where Amsterdam got ordered to shut pretty much everything down at 6pm and I landed back in the UK the next day to turn on my TV to see Boris Johnson telling people to stay at home!

scarby · 9 Jun 2026

As a toddler I was playing, being chased by my father, and got to the top of the stairs, grinned, and flung myself into the air and down the stairs with a bang. Thankfully no serious damage was done that I know of.

Some years later my father fell out of the loft - it was of the type with a regular door where you walk in forwards from the ladder, so also easy to take one too many steps back and crash out - and survived, though badly bruised and very shaken. I sometimes wonder, as he could have easily been killed that day, or survived paralysed, how my life would have gone if that had happened, as then I would have been brought up solely by mother, who didn't even go out to work. One can say with as much certainty as possible that my path would have been totally different as a result.

Cross City · 9 Jun 2026

Can't say I've ever been particularly close to death. I had a stress induced mental and physical breakdown which hospitalised me a year before Covid but I wasn't gravely ill.

I have properly come close to likely killing somebody though. Not long after I passed my driving test I was driving up the M1 near Meadowhall and changed lanes without checking my blind spot and came within less than an inch of knocking a motorcyclist off his bike who was going 70+ in the outside lane. Fortunately we avoided each other somehow and that was that.

I think about that daily, no joke, and its made me a better driver for it. I'm so paranoid about blind spot checking now even through my car has blind spot mirrors and with a light that turns on if somebody is there. I still turn around physically to look.

Tracked · 9 Jun 2026

Nothing major, a couple of high speed overtakes that came into my path, both narrow misses even with me slowing down, certainly were going fast enough to cause some serious damage in a head-on collision.

A near miss when cycling a few years back, high speed overtake of me, not leaving very much space despite it being available.

Being driven through the mountains in Southern France (Verdun Gorges, and somewhere around there) in the early 90's. Not much room for overtaking on some of the roads, no road barriers between me and my parents' car and a steep drop down a steep hill. With regular burnt out wrecks already at the bottom. French drivers in battered Renault 5's coming the other way at speed ...

A French Motorway/Dual-Carriageway, sometime in the early 90's, another holiday with the parents. Driving along and there was a car on our side of the road, spinning front end over end across it and off to the side. Probably within 10 cars' length, I think it had been going in the other direction, but I don't think it actually hit any of the cars in front of us.

In the 6th form, was on a work experience placement, the last Friday there. I was going on a family holiday literally the next day. Had a cup of tea on the Friday morning and promptly fainted, came to but in a lot of pain. An afternoon in the local hospital and it was my appendix, this is about 30 years ago so I can't remember if it had burst or was in danger of, but it was probably better to happen before setting off on holiday. We were going to France (also, we'd have arrived there on the ferry late Saturday evening and driven through the night, which wouldn't have been a good time for it to happen then), again ... wonder why I don't go to France on Holiday

PeterC · 9 Jun 2026

I was booked in for keyhole surgery on my knee. A couple of days before I had a heart attack and the consultant decided that I needed an immediate tripple bypass. Afterwards he told me that if the clinic had put me under for the know op I would never have come round

Falcon1200 · 9 Jun 2026

scarby said:
Some years later my father fell out of the loft - it was of the type with a regular door where you walk in forwards from the ladder, so also easy to take one too many steps back and crash out - and survived, though badly bruised and very shaken.

Last year I fell down an entire flight of stairs and ended up with nothing worse than a cut on my head and a massive bruise in the buttock region; How I did not break any bones, or do anything worse, I have no idea. Unlike the tragic case of the Big Big Train singer David Longdon;

David Longdon: Prog rock singer died after falling down stairs

The Big Big Train singer, 56, suffered "unsurvivable" head injuries, an inquest hears.

www.bbc.co.uk

A prog rock singer died after he fell down the stairs at his home, an inquest has heard.
David Longdon, who joined Big Big Train in 2009, was taken to hospital on 19 November last year after being found by his partner at home in Nottingham.
The 56-year-old died at the Queen's Medical Centre the following day.

Howardh · 9 Jun 2026

I got run over on Blackpool prom. Right over a car going 30 (maybe a little slower - just near the speed camera). Escaped with just severe bruising and a ton of embarrassment. Oh, perfectly sober too, had just arrived and eaten some chips! Must have had some live left from my previous life as a cat!!!

Brightonboy · 9 Jun 2026

Mine was when I was in the forces...

Waiting at a helipad for an incoming Chinook, we took shelter from inclement weather beside a (very well secured) ISO container knowing that as the a/c approached we would need to move to the other, more exposed, side of the helipad. Notified by radio that the a/c was approaching, we moved out only to immediately discover that the a/c was very, very, very close to the pad. I have no recollection of the next few seconds or how I travelled but the next thing I knew I was the far side of the helipad pressed tight against a steel bar fence - with the 2 handles of the heavy wooden trolley I had been pushing pressed against the fence either side of me. Reflecting afterwards, if I had hit the fence with my head (or been blown over the fence head first against the adjacent ISO container), or if the trolley handles or wheels had struck me anywhere vulnerable I would likely have been a goner.

The downwash from a Chinook can be a 100mph wind and has previously caused fatalities through a lack of care or awareness. Something I knew very well from several years of working with them already but complacency and not paying attention to safety gave me a close shave that day. I was lucky to get away with a few bruises.

Cheshire Rover · 10 Jun 2026

Riding a motorcycle in Cyprus on holiday. Full gear on thankfully. Came around a large sweeping corner on a good road and suddenly got a 'tank slapper'. Mentally deciding whether to run off the road to the left or lay the bike down and take the consequences when it straightened up. In all it was probably 10 seconds but it seemed like an eternity.
It was 30 years until I got on a motorcycle again.

Galvanize · 10 Jun 2026

A taxi journey to work last year with a Driver in no fit state to work, he was really struggling to keep his eyes open and kept nodding off. Turning onto the main road, he drove in the dead centre of the road, and on seeing the Headlights of a car coming towards him, quickly swerved to the left. He also nearly ran through several Red Lights, and almost hit one or two traffic Islands.

Genuinely felt like my last hour had come. Really concerned for my safety there!

najaB · 10 Jun 2026

Galvanize said:
A taxi journey to work last year with a Driver in no fit state to work, he was really struggling to keep his eyes open and kept nodding off. Turning onto the main road, he drove in the dead centre of the road, and on seeing the Headlights of a car coming towards him, quickly swerved to the left. He also nearly ran through several Red Lights, and almost hit one or two traffic Islands.

Reading this thread has increasingly made me realise how lucky I have been. I was in Texas a couple of years ago for a work event. Got an Uber to head to the airport and we were going down a main road at something like 50mph when someone pulled out of a side road without looking. Fortunately the driver was able to brake hard and swerve into the next lane, had it been wet or if there was a vehicle in the other lane there was no way we would have avoided a pretty heavy collision*. The driver who pulled out in front of us just continued merrily on their way, I'm convinced that they still have no idea how close they came to causing a huge crash.

*Even if the collision hadn't been serious enough to be fatal, I'm sure I would've died of a heart attack from the medical bills (even with insurance)!

Sealink · 10 Jun 2026

Years and years ago I was under anaesthetic for a tooth procedure, and years later for an appendectomy.

On both occasions I had an epileptic seizure while under. Another time I had an asthma attack and I remember a needle being stuck into my chest.

This was over 20 years ago, thankfully I am epilepsy and asthma free these days.
Oh and as a teenager I wanted to see what happened if I touched a knife to the toaster elements. And did something will pills which was out of an abundance of my own stubborness.

dgl · 10 Jun 2026

Replacing a socket at my Grans (a dodgy mobile charger had gone bang in it and there was a spare) and not realising that socket (which was where a door to the kitchen had been boarded up and replaced with a hatch) was connected to the kitchen ring and therefore a separate fuse box. Touched the live and could feel that there was electricity still present.
Turned the correct fuse box off and all is well. The two fuse box situation being a boon when doing a full electrical accessory replacement when we were selling the place as it meant I always had power somewhere if necessary.

This one is not something that happened t9 me but to my sister.
Driving to pick me up from work a few years ago she had a seizure at the wheel. Luckily she had turned off the "main" road and in to the road my work is at the end of, as such at the time of the seizure she was overtaking a parked car very slowly and as such the car managed to stop itself, so the car didn't crash in to anything luckily.
If the seizure had happened a minute or two earlier then she would have been coming down a very steep hill and as such wouldn't have stopped, probably hitting a tree or another car.
Naturally her driving days ended after that and she hasn't had a long enough time seizure free to get her licence back (about two weeks is all she's managed recently).

Islineclear3_1 · 11 Jun 2026

Having an epileptic seizure in the swimming pool when i was 12 and my whole (short) life flashing by before the lights went out...

Ploughman · 11 Jun 2026

Just to lighten it up a bit.

Working at RAF Leeming in the TA doing runway repairs.
I was allocating Plant Operators to machines.
Rather than have the same old faces on the same old machines I thought I would mix it up a bit.
So instead of having Julie as our star Class 2 tipper driver, she was better than most full time HGV 1 drivers.
I said Julie you are on the Sweeper (Tractor with a brush on the front.)
Why?
I replied already half out the door, Sweeping it's Women's work.

What is the closest you've come to meeting your maker?

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