Near death incidents

I was held up at gunpoint when I worked in an off licence as a student.

I was out diving on the Great Barrier Reef and jumped off the boat only to find a 3 metre hammerhead had decided to shade itself under our boat. It was about 4 or 5 feet away from me when I jumped in, and that gave me the biggest start I've ever had in my life..!

I had a few pretty major spills when I was cross country mountain biking when I was younger. The worst one, I misjudged a corner on a dirt track and stacked it into a tree. The bike was wrecked but I got away with a few bruises. Lucky escape there!

I had a few run ins with spiders in Australia as well. I was out horse riding in the mountains south of Brisbane and when you're on horseback, the golden orb spiders webs are about face height.... And they're big spiders, about 6" across. Fortunately the thing didnt bite me, and I took a stick from a tree to clear the webs after that. I also came across a few redbacks, which can kill you if you're not careful.

In my younger days we had a habit of building and testing flying foxes (zip-lines to you US folk). Had a couple of nasty landings including one where the main line sagged too much and I hit a vertical river bank - fortunately feet first.

Probably my closest near-miss would have been when I flipped my old Escort end-over. If my seatback hadn't broken I'm fairly certain I would have! Just a cracked rib to show for the vehicular damage.

I was a patrol cop in the North East during the 80's crack problem. I worked in a busy place. So a good day was one you went home . I was too young to realize I had been in danger but enjoyed my time in the car.
Been shot at, someone tired to stab me (bringing a knife to a gun fight does not work), hit by a car (saved by my vest), ran off a small cliff during a foot chase (I hate poison Ivy). This was an important lesson: when chasing a bad guy through a wooded area at night you can use the flashlight to illuminate the bad guy or use it to watch where your running. I highly recommend you watch where you are running.
Been in several car accidents, encountered too many bad guys with guns (in the 80's everyone had them), Was in a crash during a high speed chase (it made it to a highway so the speeds got crazy).
Broke my hand on a guy defending my partner from an 18 inch steel pipe, broke an ankle during a chase, fractured three ribs in five places during a car crash. Hit my shin on the corner of a three foot tall brick wall during a foot chase, boy did that hurt. I think that is all but I am sure more will come to mind during the day.
Too many heart stopping jobs to recall them all, but I am sure there are military and other street urchins that can commiserate with me.

Now the most dangerous thing I do is SHAVE!!!

When I was 11 years old I had an early morning paper route. I had to get up at 4:00am to deliver the papers. One morning a car with two men in it slowly pulled up to me and asked if I had a dollar, I started backing up and said no. The driver whipped open his door and said "Get in the back seat". I took off running and hid in some bushes. The car looked for me for about 15 minutes and then took off. I ran home and abandoned my wagon full of newspapers.

We called the police. They took a report and said they couldn't do anything about it since they had not actually touched me. We called the paper manager and all he wanted to know was what I had done with the rest of the papers.

This was the time I knew that the people who I counted on to protect me could not. That is why I have a concealed pistol license.

Shot at several times. Hit once.

Let's see...

As a toddler I once escaped from the garden through a small hole in the fence where the wiring wasn't tied tight enough to the pole. I went on to the busy road in front of the house and started walking along the white line in the middle of the road, with cars zooming past on both sides. I was rescued by a kind woman who searched until she saw a garden with toys. When she rang the doorbell my mother didn't open the door at first because she was busy and 'knew' I was safely outside in the garden with the shiny new fence :)

On holiday on Scotland I climbed mount Schiehallion, carrying no more than 2 cheese sandwiches and half a bottle of water, and a light raincoat. My friend and I were looking for a nice place to hike, and decided that MS would be a nice place, and it looked easy enough to get to the summit. By the time we got to the summit, we noticed that that was not the real summit. The real one was quite a bit higher and a mile or 2 ahead of us. So we decided to go for the real summit. Only when we got there, we noticed that it wasn't the real summit, but ... repeat this 5 times. By then we went on out of sheer determination to win (hint: not the smart thing to do).

The view was worth it in the end, but between the final 2 or 3 summits, the climb was fairly dangerous. On our way down we talked to several people who were quite astonished to meet people wearing nothing but a wind jacket. We met people who tried to get to the summit 2 or 3 times already, only to be turned back by the weather, sometimes spending the night up there because of the thick mist, snow, and freezing gales. Apparently, MS was know for turning from a sunny climb to a raging blizzard in less than 10 minutes. We, of course, had no clue what we were doing. All other climbers we saw that day had thermal clothing, thick coats, large backpacks with snow tents, heating kits, food and water for 2 days... :D
The body language of those people told us in no uncertain terms that we were a) absolutely nuts and b) lucky as hell to survive. Afterward we learned that getting to the summit of MS is quite a feat :o

And then there was the time I ate strawberries as a kid...

Rocklimbing, had an anchor fail, fell about 95 feet, with rope stretch and give in the system, I was within inches of the ground.

Climbing, actually, belaying, had a softball sized hunk of rock knock a cigarette out of my mouth, then smah into the soft earth within an inch or two of both feet.

Stupid friend playing with his father's "unloaded" gun as an 11 or 12 year old. .45 ACP hit the TV I was watching. Kid got the holy hell kicked out of him. Then his parents got home and I imagine his day got worse from there. Never talked to him again.

More than one AMAZINGLY stupid risks I took as a late teen, early 20's moron, that I will not write here. Some things don't need to be public.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by smokelaw1

Stupid friend playing with his father's "unloaded" gun as an 11 or 12 year old. .45 ACP hit the TV I was watching. Kid got the holy hell kicked out of him. Then his parents got home and I imagine his day got worse from there. Never talked to him again.

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I forgot that one. I was shooting with a .45 ACP when the next round jammed. It was only first squeeze double action, and single action for each next round. The girl next to me took the gun from my hands and started racking the slide to try and unlock the round, with the gun pointed towards ... me.

I jumped out of the way, took the gun from her and put it aside, asked her 'WTF do you think you are doing!?!', and walked away.

Too many to count and I don't dwell on them. I am a volunteer fire fighter and up to recently as I am currently inactive, an interior fire fighter otherwise known as a smoke diver. I'm the guy with the hose entering the burning buildings. Most every one is a near death experience but one time we entered a building that had been smoldering for most of the day. Me and another guy were climbing the stairs when someone on the outside put a ladder through a window. This caused a back draft! I grabbed the other guy's coat and pulled the two of us down the stairs head first. The explosion went over the top of us and blew the Chief, who was monitoring the situation from outside the front door, off the front porch. We got up off the stairs, saw the building was completely engulfed in flames and started squirting water. Put the fire out and didn't get hurt in any way. It was a close one though. If we didn't go sailing down the stairs on our chests we would have been splattered on the wall.

Hi,

1) Shot with a 12 bore shotgun by a 'fool' (polite name) when I was working as a beater. Luckily I only caught the outer part of the pattern and my jacket took most of the sting out of the No6 shot. Tweezers took care of the rest :)

2) Had a 0.308W projectile pass a couple of feet above my head. Some 'fool' was cross shooting on the rifle range. I wouldn't be smiling had I been standing up :(

Have fun !

Best regards

Russ