I've only been in a close call with a few car accidents, usually near the pretty dangerous intersection outside of where I work. A lot of it seems like fate, and it's creepy.
Last year one of the front tires of my car flew off as I was going 70 mph down the interstate and had L in the car with me (I recently had my car serviced and apparently my tire wasn't put back on correctly). I had just passed somebody and if my tire had came off 10 seconds sooner, I would have slammed right into the car I was passing and had a huge accident. It was so scary, but we were very lucky.
there was an elderly man that drove his car through the santa monica farmers market one year. i was there that day, and i remember specifically seeing daisy fuentes buying fruit. i was walking back to my bar class which was a few blocks away and heard the sirens, etc. it happened i guess just after i had left.
I think I remember hearing about that story, so terrible.
When the teen was a newborn, we were out running errands around town one day. I was sitting in the back with her while the ex drove. After sitting through a red light, we started moving forward when all of a sudden a car on the other side of the street came barreling over the center divider and plowed right into the car behind us. Went right through the front seat and ended up crammed in the back seat. All I could think of was that my baby and I would've been creamed. I cried for about an hour afterwards. Still shakes me up a little when I think about it.
or have been in a place where just a few minutes sooner or later and you could've been in a really bad way? sorry if i'm being a tragedy whore but i have to get this out there bc it's been bothering me all day/night.
my community has a downtown that's really small, as in, maybe 3 long blocks. my son goes to a swim school downtown and before class i take him to a boba/yogurt/dessert shop beforehand and we sit and watch ppl through the window. it's 2 doors away from a boutique i go to when i'm downtown.
i went downtown today for some ME time. was craving a sweet and was going down to the boba shop and cops were flying down the street, tons of sirens. i said "eh i'll just get a mc'd cone instead" so i turned and left. this was at about 230pm.
turns out at the boutique today, a man shot his wife (going through divorce) and then shot himself. right around that time. it just makes me ill. he had taken her into the back where the dressing rooms were. i keep wondering what if what if what if and it's so scary.
it's really disturbing. (btw tarzanswife this shop is next door to the restaurant where i saw you at that one night)
anything like this ever happen to you?
I just heard about this!! OMG I have been in that boutique and the Boba / yogurt place many times! So scary, I actually know someone that used to work in the boutique part time. I can't believe this happened.
We were OOT one night and DH had to use the restroom. We drove down a street filled with gas stations and stopped at one that seemed empty. I decided to wait in the car. DH comes running out and throws the car in reverse and drives off.
He walked in and heard the clerk screaming for him to leave, looked behind the counter, saw him laying there in blood, but the clerk wouldn't let him help and just kept yelling for him to leave immediately. We got down the street a block or so and the police cars came flying past us.
A few minutes earlier we would have been there when the gunman came in, a few minutes later and we probably would have looked like suspects to the police.
We now stop at the busiest damn gas stations we can find.
I haven't but my dad had one right before I was born. He's a police officer and working at a tiny department at the time and was the only one on. It was the middle of the night and he stopped behind an abandoned car on a really dark stretch of road that is extremely dangerous, even now. He checked the car to make sure no one was in it and made his way back to his cruiser. As he was sitting down in the car to write a ticket, he dropped his pen on the floor of the car. At that second, a drunk driver in a truck rear-ended him and literally drove up onto the hood of the patrol car. If he had been sitting up, he would have been crushed. But since he had been hunched over, he just smacked his forehead on the steering wheel and had some bruises. I've seen pictures of the crash and it is nasty. The patrol car was completely totaled.
Yeah. One time H and I were in the city where I teach (it's 50 min from where we live). You take a two-lane highway for part of the ride home. There are lots of twists and turns. He had been in town helping me set up my classroom and we were about to head home. We almost stopped to get ice cream at a shop there, but decided we'd rather get back home and could grab some there. So we left and got home.
I saw on the news a little bit later that there was a fatal head-on collision on one of the curves in that highway just 15 min after we had driven through. Both drivers died. Someone headed the opposite direction we had been heading decided to pass in a no-passing zone and hit a car head on. The car he hit could've been us if we had stopped for ice cream and left 15 min later. I was really shook up that day. There are still so many accidents on this highway that it makes me very nervous to drive it.
A few weeks ago I was driving with my daughter in the back seat of my car. I was on the freeway in the furthest right lane, and for some reason I switched one lane to the left. 30 seconds later, a truck comes barreling down the freakin wrong side of the freeway. I exited the freeway and had to pull over a few minutes to gather myself. I was shaking at the whole "what if" situation.
Post by dreamcrisp1 on Oct 26, 2014 0:37:59 GMT -5
Yeah. This happened 2 years ago. A driver ran a red light and straight into the right side of my car. My car was smashed and so totalled. Every single thing from the right side of the car flew to the other side from the impact of how hard the car hit me. I was absolutely fine. I didn't even have whiplash. I always believe in fate after that day. It felt like someone or something was just protecting me. I should have been hurt, even a little, but I had no residual effects from that accident.
Post by karmasabiotch on Oct 26, 2014 0:56:18 GMT -5
Long time posters here know that I went in for an elective surgery and it almost cost me my life. They didn't think I would pull through. I'm disfigured because of it. I was ready to die but wanted to do it at home so I could say goodbye to J who was 3 at the time.
I feel so fortunate to have somehow pulled through. What was supposed to be a 6 week recovery turned into 6 months. It made me appreciate the little things.
Also worth noting I sonehow still posted a few times during this which I don't remember that much but I found comfort here.
Post by JayhawkGirl on Oct 26, 2014 1:11:40 GMT -5
Mine was similar to SueSue's - Valentine's Day 1992, my high school boyfriend made me dinner at his parents' house. There is a stoplight between our families' houses. I just barely caught a car barreling through the red light as I was entering the intersection on green. I was so glad for that one extra quick kiss before I left that kept me two seconds behind and not in the path of that car.
I was supposed to go out with a friend, then canceled that day. Her and her boyfriend were killed in a drunk driving accident the night I was supposed to be with them. I have all kinds of feelings about it, it was almost 20 years ago and I still think about it.
Post by purplelemon on Oct 26, 2014 1:20:08 GMT -5
My family was on a camping trip, and we stopped in Wells Gray Park for the night. We had been driving all day and started to set up when my Mom freaked out and said we had to leave. My Dad didn't want to, it was getting late and my Mom couldn't explain why she wanted to go.
We left.
That night, one of the worst mass murders in Canadian history took place, a family of 4 and their grandparents were murdered in the park.
I was leaving Target, pushing my baby in the cart and there was an old suburban parked out front. I was walking behind it, but several feet away and the driver put it in reverse, accelerated as fast as they could and and backed around the corner into the parking aisle, all without looking. People who witnessed it were screaming, I had to run to get out of the way and it barely missed us. A witness told me I must have guardian angels around us and I kept my calm in the moment but I totally burst into tears as soon as we got to the car.
I've had a few close calls, but that was a recent one. I always remind myself if I'm running late or stuck in traffic maybe there's a reason for it and not to be so annoyed.
My family was on a camping trip, and we stopped in Wells Gray Park for the night. We had been driving all day and started to set up when my Mom freaked out and said we had to leave. My Dad didn't want to, it was getting late and my Mom couldn't explain why she wanted to go.
We left.
That night, one of the worst mass murders in Canadian history took place, a family of 4 and their grandparents were murdered in the park.
Still gives me chills.
That is very chilling! I am such a firm believer in listening to your instinct (especially mommy instinct in all matters that involve protecting your children).
Post by prettyinpink on Oct 26, 2014 1:57:58 GMT -5
When I was in 5th grade we had gone out of town on a ski trip. My mom had left lights on and as we pulled up our street she noticed the lights were off. She didn't say anything because my dad hated leaving lights on and she just figured he had turned them off before we had left. Well then the garage wouldn't open so my mom and I headed to the house while my brother was asleep in the car and dad tried to figure out the garage. Our front door gives a straight shot of the side of the back door. I remember I was wearing a jacket with a hood and mom unlocked the door and I started in. She grabbed me and yanked me back, the back door was standing open and there was glass everywhere. The burglars had ran out the door just as we pulled up. Neither M our I could sleep in our own rooms for like two weeks.
Last week I was meeting a friend for lunch and was about half an hour early. I crossed a tint bridge into NJ and noticed the new bottle shop was open and decided to check it out. As I approached the postage stamp sized driveway, it was covered in leaves and I couldn't make out how I was supposed to park. There was an impatient guy behind who layed on his horn so I just drove by. Not two minutes later a car slid through the interesection on wet leaves and plowed into the shop.
Way back when, my DH was on an end of the year business trip to Europe. He wasn't trilled about this as he generally took the weeks around Christmas off. He went to Scotland for some plant issue and was supposed to have a meeting in London before flying home. The London portion was rescheduled a day earlier in the South of France since one of the VPs was there for another meeting. He didn't get his free time in London to do his Christmas shopping and that he had to scramble to get a flight home a few days before Christmas. The ticket he held originally was for Pan Am 103.
Post by mrsukyankee on Oct 26, 2014 5:07:55 GMT -5
I was on 80 near Scranton in PA blasting past the big trucks on my way back from grad school. It was raining. I hit a major wet patch and just went skidding sideways - coming to a stop just before the underpass. If this had happened 30 seconds earlier, I would have hit a truck. If it had happened 1 second later, I would have hit a part of the underpass as they were doing some work on it. Either way, I was freaked out (and got new tires the next day).
I went skiing in middle school on a class trip. Before I left, my dad told me if i cant stop, do a baseball slide. My friends and I went down the bunny hill until it got too easy and then went on the next hill up. I was doing ok for a while and then ended up speeding straight down the mountain and couldn't stop. I did a baseball slide like my dad said. When I sat up I was on the edge of what looked like a cliff (maybe a ravine? I don't know, I was 11 so it was a while back). If I slid a second later I would have gone over. I took my skiis off and walked to the bottom and spent the rest of the day in the lodge. I haven't gone skiing since
Wow these are freaky stories. I know I have had a few in my day as well. I know I must have some guardian angels around me as well.
First one - I was driving with my daughter to see a male friend for coffee in the winter. I was going around this very windy curve ( I drove an escort at this time) and my car just started to slide sideways right towards a lamp post, I have no idea how or why, but my car literally stopped not 2 inches before my car would have been wrapped around this lampost. It was almost like someone stepped in front of it and stopped my car. I have no explanation but this as there was NO reason why my car should not have hit that pole. Instead of coffee after that it was a big ole stiff drink that is for sure. This still freaks me out today.
Second, was the day of my cousins wedding. My brother had been in a serious car accident ( he wasn't injured) and we were supposed to drive to Michigan for said wedding. I had had a "vision" that I don't get at all, but I had "seen" a big transport trailer with a blue side that had jackknifed in the rain on the freeway. I told my mom ( this was years ago) and said I don't have a good feeling of this mom we should wait a bit to go. Of course she says it's all in your head now get ready to go it is not raining so you are just making things up. WELLL we are on the freeway it had just started to pour about 20 mins before, and this big rig (with a blue side) passed us, and just at that second the hydro wires came crashing down right in front of the rig and GUESS WHAT, HE JACKnifed right in front of us. Lucky we could pull over and weren't hurt. I was shaking like crazy and had just said, " now what do you say mom" I was right. I dont get it at all. But I don't know what would have happened if the truck hadn't have passed us I don't think I would be here to tell this story. Sorry for the length.
Post by gretchenindisguise on Oct 26, 2014 6:21:00 GMT -5
Yes. I still think about it sometimes.
My brother and I were driving home together on the highway after a homecoming dinner my sophomore year, his senior year in high school. We had just gotten out of the fast lane, when a car passed us going the wrong way on the highway in the fast lane at full speed. If we hadn't moved, we would have crashed head on and surely we both would have died.
This was more of a gut feeling thing, but I certainly feel like it was a close call.
In March, we drove halfway across the country to go to H's cousin's wedding. MIL drove with us. A couple of hours into our drive, we stopped in a small college town to let DS run around a bit. We found a small park, which had a shelter house and a playground. There were a bunch of people, mostly men, in the shelter house drinking, but no kids, so they playground was empty. As soon as we pulled in, I got this bad feeling, and told H and MIL that I thought we should leave. They were both confused and said, no, this is perfect, those people won't mind. They started getting DS out of the car, and two of the guys from the shelter started ambling toward our car (the only car in the parking lot), glancing at us every few steps. I told H again, I have a bad feeling. Please, let's go.
Finally, H heard something in my tone, and we left. I kept apologizing to H and MIL, but I grew up in the city, while they both grew up in the suburbs/country, so I think they were a bit more naive in this situation. They both later agreed with me, but they have been placating me. I don't care, we were safe.
I can't guarantee that the guys were going to hurt us or steal the car, but it was the strongest DANGER signal I have ever felt, so I believe that we had a close call that day.
Post by ginandjucie24 on Oct 26, 2014 7:46:27 GMT -5
When I was about 11 years old my mom wanted to take my sisters and I on a drive to the mountains on Saturday morning
Just as we were all getting in the car my Aunt ( my moms older sister) and my cousins drove up. My Aunt had said she had a feeling that she just had to come see my mom that morning. Well turns out my mom was dealing with some bad depression at the time and she had planned to drive us to the mountains and drive the car off a cliff. If my Aunt didn't have her feeling or if she left five minutes later, who knows what would have happened.
When I was 17, my friend (I was totally crushing on him too) called and asked me to hang out. He had his car and was going to pick me up. It was a weeknight and I had a ton of homework, plus it had just started snowing. My mom said I couldn't go. I was all mad and sulked in my room the rest of the night.
The next day I found out my friend lost control of his car and hit a utility pole not far from my house. He was in the hospital on life support. His family pulled the plug a few days later.
I always think about what if I was with him. Sometimes I even think that if I went with him, the accident would have never happened and he would be alive today too.
When I was about 11 years old my mom wanted to take my sisters and I on a drive to the mountains on Saturday morning
Just as we were all getting in the car my Aunt ( my moms older sister) and my cousins drove up. My Aunt had said she had a feeling that she just had to come see my mom that morning. Well turns out my mom was dealing with some bad depression at the time and she had planned to drive us to the mountains and drive the car off a cliff. If my Aunt didn't have her feeling or if she left five minutes later, who knows what would have happened.
I was on my way home for work before picking up O, but driving at the intersection before his daycare. I'm usually pretty on the ball with the green arrow, and was the first car in line to turn left, but was super slow and took my time turning. I even thought at the time "Eh, the people behind me won't mind that I'm taking my time." Two seconds later with the green arrow, mind you, a truck blew threw its red light and the intersection. If I had been driving how I normally do, I would have been in the middle of the intersection.
I had been out with a friend who was driving me home. We were driving into the sunset so the sun was in our eyes and blinding us. We got to my road which was a left hand turn. He didn't see the car coming in the opposite direction and started crossing the yellow line. Thank god I was paying attention because I screamed and grabbed the wheel and yanked it right and the oncoming car swerved onto the shoulder of the road. The other car barely missed us. If my friend had kept turning the other car would have driven into my door at 70km/h
Post by Velvetshady on Oct 26, 2014 8:28:53 GMT -5
I've had it happen many times. A couple very big ones. Once when traveling in the Middle East, we barely missed three completely different bombings in one day--the first was was minutes after we left the site in Jerusalem, another happened at a connecting airport within ten minutes of our takeoff, and the third happened a couple doors down when we were unlocking our front door (domestic incident).
The other major one was during the DC sniper attacks. I was supposed to hit the local Home Depot after I got home from work one evening. My usually-not-a-cuddler cat curled up in my lap and didn't want to leave. I decided to not disrupt her. And one of the shootings happened, right at the time I would have been in the parking lot walking to the store.