What is the closest escape you have had from a dangerous situation?

[Kennywood]

A group of us were walking back to campus after playing some basketball. As groups often do, our group separated a little. Some of were walking a little faster than the others. As we were walking, a car came flying around the corner, lost control, and went right between our two groups. The car crashed into a chain link fence.

Another time, I was riding my motorcycle down the interstate. My dad had taught me a "game" to play, to pass the time while driving. The game is called, "What's the Stupidest Thing That Person Could Do Right Now and How Would I React?" As I was passing the time, riding westbound on the interstate, a car going eastbound went out of control, crossed the median, and crossed the westbound lanes right in front me. Because I was playing my dad's game, I had plenty of time to react, slow down, and let the car cross in front me before he hit the guard rail.

 

[Mysterian]

Got caught in a rip tide.

Me too, Pooh! I was a kid, and fortunately I wasn't alone in the water.
Now the memories are flooding back.

Also was almost hit by a school bus, as a kid.
Preteen, I was shooting cans with a BB gun. I hit the bottom of a can (thicker, concave surface), suddenly heard the BB ricochet right passed my head. I was not wearing protective gear.
Two car wrecks, and one car that drove me off the road.

 

[Alicefan]

When I was 5 or 6, my Aunt who was my best buddy in the world (only 7 years older) was sick and they lived across the street from an elementary school with a playground and baseball fields. I was over near the concession stand and it must've been around 4th of July because there were a bunch of used fireworks laying around and to me, they looked like party hats, so I was going to collect them and have a party to make my Aunt feel better. Moments later school let out which makes me think it was Summer school or I'm just wrong about the time of year but, I saw 2 boys sitting on the steps of the school watching me. I would assume if the school only went to 6th grade, they couldn't have been more than 12 or so, unless it was being used as a Summer school program, then it could've been older boys...which they totally seemed to me, at my age.
After a few minutes, one of them left and one of them started walking over to me so I moved around to the other side of the stand to avoid him but he caught up with me. He asked me what I was doing and I told him. He then pointed towards the tree line on the other side of the running track and said, "ooh, I see a lot of party stuff over there! You want to go get it?" I said I wasn't allowed that far but he went on and on about the cool stuff he could see from where we were and how my Aunt would really love it. Stupidly, I believed him because he had been running around collecting fireworks for me all the while he was describing the cool stuff he could see in the distance.
We walked over and while we were standing at the edge of the tree line, he scooped me up with one arm between my legs and the other over my shoulder from behind, and carried me off into the woods. He put me down and knelt down and told me to pull my pants down. I was crying and saying no and he told me to pull them down or else he would. Just then, my Grandpa, who happened to be walking over to the neighbors house, saw him carry me into the woods. All I remember is my Grandpa coming up behind me and snatching me up and without a word carried me home and called the police. I was mortified and scared to talk about it because I had disobeyed and gone where I wasn't supposed to go. I don't know if the police ever found the boy or not.

 

[Kathryn Merteuil]

The one that sticks out in my mind was on NYE 2019. I was at a very busy intersection in the "straight through" lane. There was a large SUV in the "left turn lane" sitting at a red light. (Normally I am watching the light ready to go) For some reason, I was looking that SUV over while it was sitting there. I happened to glance back up, and our light was GREEN. Before I could even react to step on the gas, a semi truck came through that intersection at a very high rate of speed. That SUV had a clear view of what was coming, and I could not see around them. I don't even remember what it was that drew my attention to the vehicle instead of watching the light, but. not watching the light is what saved my life. There would be no chance of survival in that scenario. I avoid that intersection now, and really pay more attention to the intersections and just do not blindly cruise through even if the light is green.

It wasn't too long after that I about got hit by a pickup truck that ran a stop sign. It was weird b/c I was just driving down the street all normal like and it was something that just looked "out of place" I guess. I just kinda drifted to the right out of the way (not even realizing what was going on) while the truck collided with the car that was coming facing me. It was one of those "Pulp Fiction" moments, where you look at yourself and wonder how it didn't hit you. I was pretty rattled, but that was the kind of crash (city street at like 30 mph in a residential area) where nobody was likely to sustain major injuries. I do not know what happened to the occupants of the vehicles that were actually involved. I know that it ended up taking out somebody's fence and tearing up their yard too. I pulled over at the next block out of the way and called 911 and let them know what happened, (I remember I wasn't too much help because I was so rattled, I couldn't tell them street names... they were like was it this street? I was like yes that's the one I think) They told me yea they were on it and were getting calls coming in about it.

 

[JBRB828]

In 1967, My g/f and I (both 17), were walking on a street in our hometown, when a guy pulled up to us and said, your father said to come home, so get in the car. Of course we knew this was not true and bolted! Scary stuff back in the day!

 

[Keli]

Working my first job at a fast food place as a teenager, the assistant manager (a girl of 20yrs) and I were closing by ourselves that night. Two men come in and order coffee and sit down for a minute and see the place is deserted ahead of closing time. One of them goes outside and comes back in with a couple shotguns. It's a miracle that all that happened was they robbed us and left. So many times it doesn't end that way.

 

[JLTraveling]

I've had a few. When I was 11, I was at day camp and my mom was at work a couple of blocks away. A huge tornado came through and did massive damage to the mall, which was situated exactly halfway between our locations.

That same summer, a friend who was on the swim team challenged me to race across the wave pool at Adventure Island. We stupidly decided to race diagonally across the pool, from one corner of the shallow end to the opposite corner of the deep end, right by the wave machine. I was a strong swimmer, but not swim team level. About 10 feet from the ladder at my destination, I went under. Everything started to grey out, nobody noticed, and I was convinced I was going to die there. Somehow I got a burst of strength and made it to the ladder, where it took three people to drag me out because I had no energy to actually climb it.

I was 15 and driving my dad's new Saab late at night. The licensed adult driver with me (a friend about 18 or 19) started freaking out when the radar detector fell off the visor on the passenger side. While I was distracted by him, I hit a board in the middle of the road and ended up sliding across the road and down a 3 or 4 foot embankment. Spun around several times, uprooted a small tree while still in midair, bounced off a few more trees, and landed about 20 feet out in the woods with the driver's door against a huge tree and the headlights pointing straight up. My friend wasn't wearing his seatbelt and was thrown out. Miraculously we were both ok--cop said he had never seen a wreck that bad where at least one person wasn't killed.

When I was 13 or 14 I was with a group of friends out driving around when we saw a car catch on fire (I think it was a wreck, but I don't really remember). We stopped and managed to pull out the woman and her three kids. Right as we all got a safe distance away, the whole car went up in flames.