Brushes with Death

[llew]

well i have a list of things that have nearly killed me but the most recent one was a bus doing 80mph running a red light in a residential area and the only reason it didnt hit me was because a little voice in my head said "stop walking, look left again", did so and the bus was so close i could feel the slip-stream coming off it

 

[Trivun]

I almost crashed the car today when doing about 45-50mph on a 40mph road, and didn't notice the traffic light ahead was red - had to do an emergency stop and ended up stopping right in the middle of the crossing. Fortunately there were no cars behind me and no-one was crossing the road at the moment, but yeah, I was an idiot for not noticing it, especially as it's a road I use regularly and has traffic lights all the way up and down. Other car incidents haven't been my fault, mainly when I've been cycling, sticking to the designated cycle lane, and taxis have come at high speed (despite the heavy traffic) roaring into the cycle lane not caring that I'm there trying to stay alive. Leeds has some of the stupidest taxi drivers I've ever seen...

I also almost drowned when I was a kid, when I was in Wales, kayaking on Bala Lake. I capsized, rolled right under the water, and couldn't remember how to get out of the kayak the way the instructor had showed me. I managed to get out eventually (clearly, or else I wouldn't be telling this story), but that was a scary moment...

 

[murdeoc]

eehm.. let's see,
almost drowned when my canoe got stuck in a small waterfall (it kept filling up with the water which made it turn 360degrees and do the same again) and i was stuck underneath it.
a large pole, the highest point of a 6-sided tent dropped down on my head becuse some fool was releasing it from the opposite side, i ducked only just in time.
ran in full panick-mode over an extremely treacherous rock outcrop in chile, any wrong footing would have had me fall down some 30ft onto jagged rocks amidst very strong currents.
in a car on the highway the driver was actually talking to the dude next to me on the backseat ans didnt see the truck changing into our lane in front of him.
also in a car we drove pretty much into a traffic jam we didnt see coming... by the time we stood still the driver had managed to steer in between the 2 lines of cars and we had already passed 3 cars on both sides...

strangely, the most frightening occasion was a fairly recent dream in which my plane crashed and i simply knew it was over when i saw the ground coming up to me.