How many times have you dueled the grim reaper?

[SunSamurai]

Originally posted by: lxskllr
Had a 5/8" cable drop on my head when I was 12' below ground.
A runaway truck passed within 6' of me at the bottom of a 15%(estimated) grade
A flatbed truck locked up it's brakes and slid past me(about 3' away) when I was walking on the side of a highway.
I slipped off a bridge form and caught myself about 2" away from a piece of rebar going through my neck.
I miscounted lanes in the road, took off running and slammed into the side of a car that was going about 40mph
I rolled a car going about 60mph
Brakes went out on my Thing, and I was coming up on a flatbed truck. I quickly snapped the wheel, and just broke the windshield instead of getting decapitated.
Was driving to work one morning paying more attention to the sunrise in my rear view mirror than driving and neglected to notice someone turning in front of me. Again fast steering wheel action saved me from a bad crash at 60mph. Was driving a full sized van also, and somehow didn't roll it.
Had that same van sideways on some black ice on a fairly narrow highway and 12'+ drop offs on either side.
Again in that van, I almost dropped it into a creek driving in snow in WV. I was on a paddling trip at the time. This one wasn't death inducing, but it would have been many miles walking to even find a phone, and I don't know how the hell it would have gotten out of the creek. The roads were very inaccessible, and the creek was about 10' down.

When Darwinism goes bad.

 

[SunSamurai]

I cant really say I've been close to death

First time driving alone after getting my license, going down a steep hill, then applying brakes..not slowing much and applying more, and realizing the brake was not going down further becuse it was already to the floor. Nearly T boned some SUV at around 40Mph. I realized fast to slow down way before a stop on steeper hills in that fucking thing.

 

[potato28]

I broke my nose, had a major concussion and walked 1 km back to my house to get fixed up. I made it to the hospital 2 hours later, I don't remember this.
Countless times trains have snuck up on me when I walked the train tracks to get around.
Many cars have almost hit me when I used to jaywalk all the streets around my town, same applies with biking.
Had acute CO2 poisoning from work, the pop machines were leaking and we didn't notice for 2 hours.
Then theres all those people I cut off on the highways and normal roads where it was a very close call...

 

[pontifex]

maybe twice in car related events

 

[Nitemare]

Was born face fist with the umbilical cord wrapped around my neck.
Took nearly 20 stitches in the face from a dog mauling when I was 6.
Was struck in the leg by a thrown aluminum baseball bat in the ondeck circle when I was 12
Numerous times in college binge drinking.
2 car crashes with the ex, both totaled.
Hydroplaned across 5 lanes of interstate traffic, before I could gain control and not a scratch on the car

 

[rockyct]

I've never been in a car accident and I can't remember any near-misses in the 10+ years I've been driving and I drive about 25k miles a year. The worst thing with driving is that I didn't know how tired I was when driving a couple times. I wasn't really close to getting in an accident as the five lanes of freeway were nearly empty but I could feel my reaction time slow considerably. I got off the road and got some coffee. I now can read my body better and I always have ample caffeine on hand.

I haven't had any real close calls with death before. I'm boring, and I like it that way.

 

[StinkyPinky]

My son had the cord around the neck when he was born.....terrifying but thankfully ok. Never told my wife about it.

As for me...hmm...had some heart issues. Had a heart murmer that seems to have fixed itself and I still get irregular heart beats which is unpleasant but apparently harmless (altho i do wonder...)

One time a friend of mine had a rage moment and completely cracked me full strength over the head with a tennis racket....knocked me the fuck out. When I woke up I knocked him the fuck out the same way. Anyone watching must have thought it was a comedy routine

 

[Train]

Originally posted by: Nitemare
...
Was struck in the leg by a thrown aluminum baseball bat in the ondeck circle when I was 12
...

uhh and that was a near death incident?

 

[Daishiki]

Had the heimlech performed on me after choking on a tater tot in elementary school.
Probably a few to add to that while driving or riding my bike. A H2 hummer nearly took me out on Sunday while trying to change lanes with me right there.

 

[Pacfanweb]

Age 6, first grade, I was in a school bus accident that had my feet hanging out the door while the bus skidded to a stop in a ditch. Broken right leg, compound fracture. Bone showing from ankle to almost the knee. I'd probably be rich and have the school named after me if that happened today.

Around age 13, a friend was over and was checking out my Dad's guns. I wasn't paying attention, and he had pulled a Browning .308, and said something to get my attention.....and had my head in the cross hairs of the scope. I dove off the couch, took the gun from him as he was laughing, and opened the chamber.....and he saw a bullet in the chamber, and he had unknowingly turned off the safety. That was about 30 years ago, and it shook him up so badly that to this day when I see him, he will still mention it and say how lucky we both were.

Age 19, car wreck, 2 360's, spun through an underpass, wasn't hurt.

1998: Towing my race truck to the strip, trailer tire went down and trailer started swaying at 65mph. Got worse and worse, and I was seeing the entire side of the truck on the trailer in my side mirrors. At the bottom of the hill, it swayed to the right, and when it came back around I KNEW it was going to flip us. So I turned right and at that moment we started uphill, and it quit. I was apologizing to my GF at the time for killing us all the way down the hill. She was never worried, said she thought I had it under control the whole time. I didn't.

Last November: Freak accident ended with my brand-new Kershaw pocket knife buried in my stomach. Ambulance ride and exploratory surgery to find/repair any damage it caused.

 

[InflatableBuddha]

Only once that I can think of...night out on the town in Paris when I was traveling last year.

Had dinner with the rest of my tour - 4-5 glasses of wine. Went to a cabaret show - another 3 drinks. Came back to our camp where we were staying and had another 3 beers at the bar.

Woke up several hours later in the shower (looking at my watch, it was 6:30 am) wearing only my boxers and seeing puke all over the shower floor.

Apparently one of the girls passed me a partially-consumed bottle of tequila and I went to town. I have no recollection of it.

My girlfriend took care of my wasted ass that night and was alternately pissed at me and also concerned that I could have died from alcohol poisoning (I had locked myself in the bathroom apparently). That was the last hard binge I have ever done. I take it much easier now.

_________________________________

Apart from that, nothing. No broken bones, no car accidents, no falling from trees despite playing in tree forts, etc. When I was 8 I flew over the handlebars of my BMX bike at low speed and only scraped my hands and knees, but that's it.