50 Times Ordinary Situations Turned Into Life-And-Death Moments Before People’s Eyes

9-year-old child running blindly across a major 4 lane road (against a red light at a crosswalk) without looking to see if it's clear.

I was the one who almost k****d her. I think about her sometimes, wondering if she made it to adulthood.

I watched a dud on a motorcycle turn right at a green light and plow into a car that was running that red light. He jumped off the bike before it crumpled cartoon-style into the front of the car. Then stood there in shock staring at the ball of metal that had been his bike.

I've seen a few people die but one was so close he was saved by a sneeze. A drunk equipment operator running a CAT330 swung his bucket around as he was turning at head-height and nearly took this guy's head off. He suddenly started sneezing and bent over just in time for the bucket to touch his hair as it went over his head. We all had a lil nervous giggle but definitely reported the event. Nothing was done about it anyway.

Watched someone pick up a handgun, look down the barrel and pull the trigger. It was loaded, but not chambered. The owner ripped it out of his hands and slapped him in the face.

Hiking the Mist Trail at Yosemite. There were two teenage girls goofing around shoving and grabbing each other. They both lost their footing on loose gravel on a slab of rock right next to a huge drop off. They slid a couple feet and were dangerously close to the edge. It didn't phase them though. After the briefest of pauses they both ran giggling up the trail.

Was on holiday in Tallinn, Estonia and hired one of the electric scooters to explore the area quicker. Was coming up to a crossing way too fast and hadn't tested how the brakes on the scooters worked before. Tried to brake, but it barely did anything until I pulled hard and the abrupt stop threw me into the road in front of an SUV. Thank f**k the guy was paying attention because the view of the crossing was blocked by a bush until just before the road. I got up with a couple of scrapes and bruises and apologised to the guy and thanked him for not k*****g me. Then, I walked back to the hotel while trying not to have a full on panic attack.

I was white water rafting with friends and as we were going through a class IV rapid we noticed a person in the water. We were frantically looking for him trying to get him into the boat but he disappeared under the water I don't even know how long. All the sudden he popped up right next me me and I stick my paddle out. He grabbed it and it took most of us to pull him in. I cant believe we didnt flip our boat trying to pull him in! Dropped him off with his friends after the rapid and he refused to get back in the boat. They didn't seem to think it was a big deal at all but he was shook, hyperventilating, repeating"I almost just died!".

That person was me

I lived near the base of a mountain so everything was downhill

Coming out of a neighborhood is a busy street but I can see as I'm coming if it is green

I was cruising down on my longboard and was going to just keep going as it was my right of way, noticed a car was gonna run the red pretty fast so I hooked my arm around the street light pole to stop myself

My Sector 9 board got f****d, but I lived.

Rubbernecking on i80 in the Midwest where people are normally doing 80+mph. Two cop cars had someone pulled over. Guy in sedan veered into center lane from the left, two cars ahead of me. He hit a van, van immediately lifted onto two wheels, shot across the lane to the right before flipping a few times and landing on top of one of the cop cars (cop inside), launching the cop car maybe 30 feet into the ditch. I somehow managed to drive through the chaos completely unscathed. Sedan man was covered in blood, van man covered in blood, cop covered in blood, back half of the cop car was nowhere to be seen. Checked that everyone was alive at least, left as helicopters were approaching to take people to the hospital.

So this was me.

My cousin and I were rough housing in the pool. He was on top of me and it forced me down. As a result I started to drown. I inhaled a bunch of water panic then calm. I happened to see a ladder close by before I lost conciousness. I grabbed at it used that to get my head above water and got him off. I coughed up water for a bit but was good after that.

There was also the time I nearly choked on calamari. Parents and sisters were across from me. Did not notice I was dying quitely. Luckily I drained my drink and disloged it.