Scary Moments

[Dannyalcatraz]

Oh, forgot to mention a fun close-ish call: I was in a plane that was flying in/near a storm cell, and suddenly, everything went bright white and I couldn't hear the engines.

"Ladies & gentlemen, this is your pilot speaking: that was a lightning strike, but we're OK..."

 

[Homicidal_Squirrel]

I'm pretty sure these guys have you all beat.

 

[Kramodlog]

I'm pretty sure these guys has you all beat.

If she had better aim that would have been a blender moment.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Hey, this Texas teen joined the small "I survived skydiving without a working parachute" club:

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/nat...ived-skydive-plummet-speaks-article-1.1613198

And there was one I remember from maybe a decade ago about a railroad worker* who was run over by a train while working on a trestle. He couldn't make it to safety so he flattened himself out on the tracks...and found out his body's thickness is 1/4" less than the clearance of a train. He was dirty, hot and scraped, but otherwise unharmed.

Then, while recounting his story of survival to the local news, fell off of his porch and broke his leg.







* nicknamed "Lucky" before this accident

 

[Nellisir]

Scariest one I can recall was probably...twenty years ago. I was supposed to meet my brother & sister to go canoeing on a small lake near our house. It's a man-made lake, with a dam at one end, and a pinchpoint in the middle, shaped something like a hourglass. They got there early and decided to go without me, so when I got there, they were in the middle of lake.

I decided to walk around the lake instead. The road only runs halfway around and it'd be bushwhacking the rest of way. I walked half of it, and reaching the narrow part, decided to swim across. The original stream channel ran between where I was and an island, and from the island to the other side was less than three feet deep. I hadn't intended to go swimming, so I was wearing jeans, a shirt, sneakers, & socks. I took off my shirt and put my shoes and socks in there and tied it up, and put it on my chest so I could basically just float across and keep my shoes, keys, and wallet dry. It was only 50 feet or so, What I didn't expect was the amount of drag my jeans would have, and the fact that I am slightly terrified of not being able to see the bottom of the water. There must have been a ravine between the headland and the island, because when I started swimming across, the bottom just disappeared. Ten feet out, and nothing but darkness below me. Halfway across, and my jeans were dragging down so I was on my back but my legs kept dropping, and I still couldn't see bottom. Between the depth, the jeans, and keeping the shoes and stuff dry, I have never felt so close to drowning. I've flipped a few canoes and have yet to go white-water rafting without the raft flipping, but it's hard to understand just how much difference a life preserver makes until you're going under without one.

I have never been so happy to feel solid ground under me as I was when I hit that island. I think I sat there for 30 minutes before I crossed (walking) to the other shore.

Google Bradley Lake Andover NH and you'll see the lake. It's a short distance to swim, but damn...put ten years on me.

 

[Nellisir]

One other little incident: I was working for my father doing construction, and working with the foreman taking down an old barn. It was an old post & beam thing, and we were down to three posts and the top beam, about 8 feet high, with braces from the posts to the beam. No siding or anything, just framing. He wanted the two of us to just "lower it down" and lean it on the dumpster: I didn't think it'd reach the dumpster and the bottom would likely kick out anyhow, but I was just the boss's jerk kid and he was in charge of the jobsite, so we did it his way.

Sure as shinola, the pile of rocks my post is sitting on kicks out, and the whole thing comes down. It misses the dumpster by 6 inches, but I can't move back because of the dumpster, and we can't hold it, so I take a half step forward and to the side, and the wall smashes to the ground, with me standing in the corner between the post, the beam, and the diagonal brace. Didn't get stratched, but the look on his face when he thought he'd killed the boss's son was priceless. I don't think I said anything, just looked for a moment and started taking it apart.


Same job, but roofing the new garage, the other carpenter (not the foreman) was above and to my left, and he slipped and started sliding down the roof. No scaffolding under him, a 12' drop at the end of the roof, and he's a big guy, 6'4", 250 lbs or so. He looks at me as he slides past and calmly says "Don't touch me; I'll just pull you down." Pulls his hammer out and drives the claw through the roof sheathing and stops about a foot from the edge of the roof.

Have a few saw stories and a scar on my scalp from getting hit by a window jamb, but those are weren't really scary, just "lets not use power tools again today" moments. (Well, the head wound was more "lets fasten that better next time, and could you drive me to the hospital because I'm covered in blood."

 

[Man in the Funny Hat]

Fatality car accident. A lane that joins the freeway, running parallel, and lets drivers merge onto the freeway and off of the freeway and then seperates again. Other driver fell asleep at the wheel, hit the divider between that merging lane and the freeway lane I was in (and was probably dead from that impact), her car then spun across the freeway lanes. First bounced off the right front corner of the truck I was driving - and I was standing on the brakes and swerving hard left trying to get out of the way - then kinda did a pinball thing off another car or two and ended up back in front of my truck again and crushed. At least that's the best recollection I have of it - and that's kinda reassembled from what I thought I remembered and what the police said happened. I didn't remember that first impact with my truck right after the accident. Police kept asking me about it which I thought was wierd. Only later realized they were right and started to remember that part of it happening. Never will need to convince me that eyewitness accounts are NOT reliable.

Just remembered another one I'd managed to forget. My mother almost drowned in Hawaii. A place known as Big Beach/Makena Beach on Maui. Large waves, lots of fun for body surfing. She had been swimming out past the break and the waves started getting bigger. She started getting tired and knew she HAD to come in. Got rolled badly by a couple big waves and most of the family had started to notice. She had barely gained her feet and had barely managed to get a desperate breath. Her back was to the ocean when we saw a wave peaking ABOVE her head behind her. Screamed at her to turn and dive into it but she couldn't do a thing but try to suck air. My brother and I started for her at a dead run. She got slammed down hard again by the wave and we dragged her out between us. She said later that was the last gasp. Had we not got to her RIGHT THEN, she'd have been unconscious and drowned in the surf. Oh and as we pulled her out my brother slashed open his heel on a big piece of metal that had been buried in the shore.

Anyway, shortly after the freeway accident I quit my driving job, moved out of state, and started doing something ENTIRELY different for a living. I'd been living in fear of just that sort of uncontrolled event happening to me for years as traffic in and around the area where I lived/worked got clearly and steadily worse. Had some close calls, and saw lots more bad accidents happen around me. Cars, poles, pedestrians... Defensive driving will only get you so far. Safety practices will only prevent so much. Bad things will still happen to you and those around you even if YOU do everything right.

 

[Homicidal_Squirrel]

Getting off the highway last last year, I came upon this.



I forgot I had that pic.

 

[Kramodlog]

So this is how baby cars are made.

 

[Nellisir]

So this is how baby cars are made.

Wrong way 'round for that.