Have you ever had a close call?

[Liberty Belle]

Maybe drove through an intersection right before a bad accident occurred behind you? Stopped dating someone after one date to find later on they went to prison for a crime? Cancelled a flight that ended in disaster?

The first thing that comes to my mind is...when I was 12 I think my friend and I (or just one of us) were almost abducted by a pedophile. We were dropped off at the beach and told to walk to my cousin's house after a couple of hours. (I would never allow my child to do that). Their house was about two or three blocks from the beach. A man at the beach was taking pictures of us and when we left (early because of him), he followed us in his car, staring at us the whole time. We got to my cousin's house and there was a note on the door saying they'd be back soon! We at first sat on the porch and waited and the guy kept circling around the block, so we hid in the backyard behind a bush. I think he could still see us, though, and he kept circling. Finally my cousin got home and stood out on the porch and the guy left. We called the police, but they didn't come out.

I can still see the guy and his car. It creeps me out to this day and might be a factor in my overprotectiveness with my children .

 

[speedydisteen]

the only one that comes to mind was when i was babysitting a 5 month old and a teeny tiny little miniature daschund. i was carrying the baby up to bed and the dog was following and accidentilly tripped me. i almost went flying down the stairs with the baby and crushed the dog when i grabbed the railing. i mean i'm only a size 2 but it could have hurt the dog real bad and the baby. that is all i can think of.

 

[DisneyfeverTN]

There have been a couple of times.

I went to a nightclub with my sister. We left at the same time, but in different cars. I thought she was following me in her car, but it turned out to be some creep. I couldn't ditch him. I was driving almost 90 mph on city streets in the middle of the night just praying that a police car would pull me over. I finally got near my neighborhood and was approaching a stop light. For some reason he pulled in the lane right next to mine. I acted as if I was going through the light, but at the last minute I turned left. I saw him go through the light and hit his brakes. I drove quickly to my neighborhood and turned off my headlights to drive the rest of the way home. I was so scared that I was shaking.

Another time was when my brother and I were children walking to school. An adult male was standing in his garage and called out to us to come here. We stopped and looked at him. He keep telling us to come in to his garage. We just took off running.

The most amazing thing happened to my FIL. He was booked on a flight that he changed at the last minute. His original flight crashed and everyone died.

 

[Vivianne]

What I consider my close call was this event:

"The Mianus River Bridge on Interstate 95 in the Cos Cob section of Greenwich, Connecticut is famous for the collapse of a 100-foot deck of its eastbound span on June 28, 1983. Three people were killed when their vehicles fell with the bridge into the Mianus River 70 feet below, and three were seriously injured."

We were a group of 5 on this highway earlier in the day.

 

[monarchsfan16]

This summer my mom and I were driving to the grocery store. To get there we have to go through an intersection that has on and off ramps to the highway. We were sitting at a stop light in the right lane, since we were continuing straight at the next set of lights. Suddenly we hear screeching brakes, and horns blasting. We look left, and coming down the off ramp completely out of control was a Jeep. He tried to take a left off the ramp but didn't quite make it and jumped the curb, landing inches from our car. Had we been in the left lane, he would have smashed right into us. And due to the milk truck trying to get through the intersection we couldn't get out of the way. We were really lucky, as was the car behind us. Luckier though was that no one was in that left hand lane, because that SUV was moving FAST.

 

[DawnCt1]

I had taken DSs to WDW without DH one year. We left the airport and were about 15 minutes from the hotel when we crossed a busy intersection. We had the green light. Someone ran the red light through the intersection and if I didn't see him out of the corner of my eye, that would have been it. I slammed on the brakes and avoided a possible fatal accident. I am always very vigilant when I drive in Florida; particularly in the Orlando area. Lots of tourists who have no idea where they are going.

When I was five, I was almost kidnapped off of my street in Boston. I ran into the Chinese Laundry for help and the creep drove away.

 

[Sonya]

We had some creep run a red light, thank goodness that I didn't have time to do anything like hit the gas or breaks, because if I had they would have hit a different place on our car and DH would have ben either trapped or very badly hurt. The place he hit just spun us around. (into oncomming traffic, but that is another story)

 

[2princesscuties]

When I was a senior in high school,I had asked a friend of mine to the prom.I had known him for about a year or so,we also worked together.About a month later,he was accused of Rape and kidnapping.Needless to say he said it would be a good idea if I found another date!

 

[MamaLema]

There have been a couple of times.

I went to a nightclub with my sister. We left at the same time, but in different cars. I thought she was following me in her car, but it turned out to be some creep. I couldn't ditch him. I was driving almost 90 mph on city streets in the middle of the night just praying that a police car would pull me over. I finally got near my neighborhood and was approaching a stop light. For some reason he pulled in the lane right next to mine. I acted as if I was going through the light, but at the last minute I turned left. I saw him go through the light and hit his brakes. I drove quickly to my neighborhood and turned off my headlights to drive the rest of the way home. I was so scared that I was shaking.

Wow! You're a smart woman to think so quickly under pressure!

 

[luvflorida]

One summer, when I was 16, my older brother was up in a tree hacking off branches with an axe. I happened to walk by the tree right when the axe slipped out of his hand, flew through the air, and landed within inches of my feet. At the time it happened, I don't really remember it scaring me, but whenever I think about it now, it scares me how close that axe came to my head.

I've always kidded my brother about the day he must have been really mad at me, and the axe "slipped" out of his hand.

 

[Katy Belle]

I used to drive an hour to college everyday, through boring countryside. I woke up,3 different times, on the wrong side of the road, each time on a bridge. I started car-pooling after the third time, I just couldn't stay awake by myself.

Another...last year we were heading to school and my middle son(8) could not find any of his shoes. He had to go knock on all the neighbors doors and finally found 3 pair of his shoes. This slowed us down by about 5 minutes. On our way to school we passed a BAD accident that had just happened. It was a lady who lived in our compound, she hit a stopped dump truck on the side of the road. It killed her 10 yr old son and badly injured her 8 year old. It happened 5 min. earlier. I hugged my boys and explained how things sometimes happen for a reason. I had told my son he lost his computer time due to not having his shoes, I gave that back.

Katy

 

[Keli]

When I was 18 yrs old I was working in a fast food resturant. The asst. manager (a 20 yr old woman) and I were by ourselves, closing for the night. No customers. Two guys came in got coffee and one walked out. He returned with two double barrel shot guns. I thought I was going to die that night. Turns out they just took the money and left without harming either one of us. Definitely a close call in my book. God was watching out for me that night (as well as every night before and after that event! LOL)

 

[Narnian_Princess]

One time when I was about 10 we were going out to eat at a certain place we all liked. I was very impatient to leave because I was hungry, but my mom decided we should bring the mail in first. I brought in the mail quickly, thinking "Now we can finally go!" But guess what, our bank statements were in the mail and my mom had to go over every detail. It only took about 5 minutes, but I was impatient and had an attitude by the time we finally left. As we drove up to the intersection where the restaurant was, we saw a bad accident right in the intersection. We turned into another entrance and asked someone what happened, and they said that a car had run the red light and smashed into a turning car just 5 minutes before. If we hadn't got those bank statements, that would have been us! Needless to say, my attitude vanished immediately.

About 2 years later we were driving up to see family in Wyoming from our Colorado home. We had a guest with us, and even though we usually drove straight through, because of our guest we stopped at a rest stop. For some reason we stayed there for about 20 minutes, getting sodas out of the back and just stretching our legs. May I add that never before or since have we spent so much time at a rest stop. We got back in the car and drove down the road to the exit ramp we were supposed to take, and traffic was backed up horribly, to about the middle of the long exit ramp. From where we were, we could see about a 5-car pile up at the bottom, and when we turned on the radio we heard that it had happened about 20 minutes before, RIGHT when we would have been driving through there had we not stopped at the rest stop and then stayed there for a crazy length of time.

 

[ziggystardust]

Mine doesn't really compare to some of these others but...

I was heading home one night, and to do that I have to turn down my street from a 4 lane (2 lanes in either direction) street. I wasa turning across 2 of those lanes. I always makes sure to put my blinker on nice and early and that day was no different. As I'm sitting there, waiting to turn I look in my rear view mirror and barreling towards me, sideways is a van that obviously didn't see me. He tried to turn and ended up spinning into on coming traffic to avoid me. I somehow had the sense to slam the gas pedal and move out of the way. No one was hit, thankfully.

Another time I was the passenger in a car driving on the hwy. I was looking at the driver as I was talking and from behind there was a Bronco 2 that was flying, tried to turn off the exit that we were getting off, realized they were going too fast, tried to get back on the hwy, overcorrected and the car basically did a somersault a few times. the cab of the car came apart from the wheel base. One guy was thrown out the back window, the other stuck in the car. The guy that was thrown out, started running around the hwy. Somehow , in rushhour traffic not one person was hit.

 

[Hercules10]

Sometimes I'm amazed that I survived past 25 y/o...

 

[Cantw8]

I was stopped at a red light one time, I was smoking (yeah, I know )..anyway, the light changed to green, I dropped my cigarette and bent over to pick it up, just then, a huge truck going about 100 miles an hour ran the red light. If I hadn't dropped that cig, I would have been right in the middle of the intersection and I would have been broadsided Yes, smoking saved my life

 

[N&B'smom]

When I was little, around 4 I remember being in our local McDonald's with my family. My mom and dad were standing in line and my brother and I were just walking around behind them. Typical kids not standing still. I remember wandering a bit off to the side where an old man was sitting at a table alone. He informed me (I remember this so vividly) that I was so pretty and that he had a doll in his car that looked just like me and told me that I should come with him to see it. Even at the ripe old age of 4 I knew he was full of crapola. I turned right around and didn't leave my parents side the rest of the time we were in there. If only I had told my parents right then and there. Although my dad probably would have gotten into trouble for kicking that guys butt.

My hubby was approached by a man when he was a little boy. He was in first grade and his school was on the same street as his house. His parents let him walk to school since it was not even a block away. One day on his way home a man pulled up in a car and told him to get in, that his parents told him to pick my hubby up. Now of course my hubby KNEW that wasn't possible since his house was just steps from the school! He told the man that he lived right there but the guy repeated to him that he should come with him because that's what my hubby's parents wanted. My husband said he actually laughed at the guy and told him once again that he knew he wasn't supposed to go with him because his house was directly across the street. The man sped off. They called the police but my hubby doesn't know if they ever figured out who it was.

Scary world, huh?

I also had a situation one time where my car slid on the ice. I slid directly into an interestion about 3 seconds after a car came through going the other direction. If I had been a few seconds earlier I would have been hit right on my driver's door and who knows what would have happened.

Shelby

 

[Disney Ella]

I had gone over the Walt Whitman bridge from New Jersey into PA and was going to get on 95 South. I was stopped at the light right before the on ramp and there was a car next to me in the right lane. His lane was going to end right after the light and I could just tell he was going to try to cut me off and get ahead of me when the light turned green. I was right. As soon as the light turned green, he zoomed into the intersection, while I hung back and let him go. Just as he hit the middle of the intersection, a car went through a red light and broadsided him. It easily could have been me who got hit.

 

[OceanAnnie]

The scariest for me was when my bf & I went for a walk in the woods while in college. We were just talking, following the trail, and lost track of time. It got dark pretty quick, we had a flash light with us just in case but I told her we should start heading back.

We were about 2/3rd the way back and came to a clearing that was like a camp fire type setting. There was a large circle of logs. We decided to rest a bit and were talking. I was looking at the full moon off in the distance and saw a figure walking our way very quickly. My heart still pounds just thinking of it. All the while my friend was shining the flashlight this way and that and chatting up a storm. I told her to be quiet and turn off the flashlight quick. I said look! She turned it off and we held each other. It was the biggest guy I have ever saw in my life. He walked right through the middle of the circle of logs and my friend let out this little gasp. He stopped and looked in our direction. We were frozen. And after a long few seconds he continued walking quickly right up the path we were just on! We waited a few minutes until his footsteps sounded distant and we took off back to our dorm.

I shudder to think what would've happened if we had run into him on the path.

 

[Evil Genius]

I can think of two. The first time was wehn I was about 19 - 20. It was a lovely summer day and my friend was driving. She wasn't driving crazy or too fast and we were on a 4 lane highway. All of a sudden her car slid sideways into on coming traffic. Coming at us was an 18 wheeler. All I remember was screaming. The car stopped in the ditch. The trucker stopped to see if we were all right. It was very, very strange.

The second one, I use to love to go to downtown Chicago on my own when I was in my mid 20's. One day went to the Art Institute and was wandering the galleries. On my way out a very nice looking young man stopped me and we chatted for a while. We walked down to Buckingham fountain and talked. He then offered to drive me back to my car in the underground garage. I found it a little strange that his car was parked right by the fountain. I declined the ride and he started to insist. It was turning into a fight, and I ran towards a group of people. I don't remember if he got into the car or if he left on foot.