rob - I'm just glad that you're safe. I wish everyone in the accident will be okay.

You definitely had an angel on your shoulder!

That’s so scary, I’m glad you are fine! Hoping there were no fatalities:(

Scary!! A few years ago we were driving up a hill on a state highway and a big truck tire careened down hill toward us. Husband had to do some major evasive maneuvers to avoid us being hit by it. It was very scary and took both of us quite a while to calm down.

Will all my highway miles been in those near miss situations too many times to count. As far as for having to take evasive action from crazy drivers, that is almost a daily occurrence. We've had fatalities on roads near my own home where I was "just there" a short time ago, or planned to go out but decided to stay in instead. I would say the scariest road incident for me would be driving on the coastal highway alone and hitting a minor rock slide. Everyone needs the experience of driving almost completely blind through bouncing gravel and blinding silt on a twisting road near sheer drop-offs. ;-) It probably lasted seconds but it sure felt like a whole lot longer. I was just glad I was heading north and on the mountain side of the road.

I'm reading your stories, if I say I like it that means I hear you.

I just realized there's actually a second thing. We've been going to our local Greenway, after having a cup of coffee every Wednesday morning. We didn't go this week. The exact time we would have gone two women were attacked. My beloved puts no stock in this, but it's amazing to me it's the exact same time???

Two times in one week? Unheard of.

Rob....glad your alright. Sorry you had to have that "what-if" experience. Your guardian angel was hard-at-work.

This has happened a lot of times. When I was a young airman, stationed in Arizona, I used to drive home, alone to Nevada and back. I was always very careful, filling up every chance I got so I wouldn't run out of gas in the middle of nowhere. Drove 55 even when no one was around. (that was before I got stationed in Germany lol). One time I was on a two lane highway in one of those states (don't remember which), middle of nowhere, when a car passed another in my lane. Headed right at me. I had to slow down and pull completely off the road to miss them. They never even attempted to slow or avoid me.

Same thing happened on another two lane between Fallon and Fernley NV many years later. Lot of deadly accidents on this road. Now there are passing lanes along that highway.

Driving home from Reno after work let out early due to snow. The ex and I were both working in Reno and commuting an hour to Fallon. He was driving my little Corolla going through the mountains with about 4 inches of ice and snow on the road. So many truckers passed us going too fast for the road conditions. For some reason the ex decided to pass a slower vehicle in front of us. When he started I said, "why are you", and as soon as it came out of my mouth we spun out, completely turned around on the interstate and slammed into the guardrail. Thankfully one of those big rigs hadn't been in back of us at the exact time we did that, otherwise we would be dead. Rescuers drove up soon after to see if we were okay, they were on their way to help all the vehicles in front of us that had flown off the road. The ex's head hit the top and side of the inside of the car but otherwise we weren't hurt. He later trashed that car by hitting someone head on in KY, causing us to have to replace the hood, bumper and engine. I'm surprised he's still alive after all the accidents he's been in. He wrecked two trucks, one flipped completely over multiple times. He ended up in the ER but wasn't injured amazingly. The last one I heard about was way after we divorced and he survived that one too.

When I was a teenager I worked at an onion dehydration plant about an hour from Fallon, in the middle of nowhere, off I 80. Graveyard shift. One night I was passing another car, only to see headlights coming toward me in the same lane. I got back over and they eventually passed. Scared the crap out of me. This was before cell phones so hoping one of the many truckers called it in on their radio. This was the same interstate my dad was found driving the wrong way on a few years before he died. He should never have been allowed to drive and is lucky the police stopped him before he hurt someone or himself.

When we were younger, my husband and I rode with a motorcycle club. We decided not to go on one of the rides organized by a club in the neighboring county (I don't recall why we didn't go). As the group was returning home, someone in a truck ran a stop sign and plowed into two of the motorcycles crossing the intersection. The driver of one bike and the passenger on the bike ahead were killed. The passenger on the second bike lost one of her arms and one leg. The driver of the first bike, a friend of ours, lost one of his legs. Had we gone on the ride, we would have been traveling with that group.

Decades ago I lived in a small town with a nearby small airport. I had returned from a trip on the night flight at 10PM which was one of two incoming for the day. That plane would leave at 7:00 AM with me on it for a business trip. I was no sooner home when I got a phone call that my sister needed emergency surgery. I cancelled my flight. That plane collided with another small plane and fell into Lake Michigan, killing all aboard.

I guess was saved me was compassion for my sister.

I had an appointment scheduled for September 11, 2001 at 9 AM with a client at Cantor Fitzgerald, on the top of One WTC. The Friday before, he called to push it back a couple of days as he was going to be delayed out of town. At the time, I lived alone, worked alone, nobody knew my schedule and no one would have known had I been there. I suppose eventually my family and friends would have realized that they hadn't heard from me, and maybe suspected that I had been there. But there would have been no way of knowing for sure.

Wow. There are too many near misses to recount them all and how seconds and even fractions of seconds made a difference.

I too was scheduled to be in the WTC on 9/11 and blew off the meeting. So glad I did. I was on a teleconference instead when the news broke.

A co-worker's wife worked at the WTC. The night before they'd had company and she had a little too much wine so slept in and was arriving late. As she was coming up out of the subway, she saw the first plane hit. Many of her coworkers died that day.

Another co-worker was driving home from work on the parkway and a large tree limb let go and smashed into the car behind him, killing the driver.

Friends were driving home one night from dinner and dancing and a young girl ...most likely distracted...lost control of the car, crossed the lane and smashed into the front fender of their car. Our friends both ended up in the hospital. Had the timing been a split second later, she could've hit the driver's door instead and probably killed them both.

I took four of my friends to Maine for a wonderful woman weekend, it was the fourth of July weekend. On July 5th we were heading home and I was about to turn in to a gas station, had the blinkers on when a van smashed into us, and veered us into oncoming traffic where a huge white truck came plowing into us and ran over my car. We were all in seat belts but my knees pushed into the knobs on the panel and were bleeding plus my nose, face, etc. The lady next to me had been lying down as she had a surgery and she turned out okay, I looked over my shoulder and Terry had blood pouring out of her head. I saw all the windows crashed open, glass everywhere, and our luggage all over the highway. A man came to my broken window and said, I'm a dr. can I look at your knees? The door wouldn't open so he leaned in and gently felt them and told me not to move an inch, he would hold them in place until the units arrived. In Maine, they have volunteer fire depts. so it seemed to take forever but we all went to ambulances. I saw them removing the truck driver as the vehicle landed upside down. We were taken out through the roof. We were all in shock and wounded. I ended up with the most surgeries, knees shattered, and serious back surgeries so it was several years of treatments. The others had stitches and back and neck issues and one had surgery. It took me a very long time to go back but I did finally and overcame the fear. The driver of the car was drunk and came to my window and said "I'm so sorry." so there was that.

The worst thing that ever happened to me was when I was trying to save my horses following the flood, following Hurricane Harvey. I had evacuated them to a place away from the bayou. I thought they were safe, but following the hurricane, which did no damage to us, it moved inland, turned around and came back, and stalled out over us. My horses would have been swept away if they were still at home...water 8' on the land and very swift moving current. As it was, they were in 5' of water....that is how extensive the flooding was....in their safe place. We borrowed a boat and Jody tied a rope to me and I tried to get to them. Some guys in a boat came and roped them and pulled them to safety. My little Arabian had drowned tho.

But a close call in traffic was on a Houston freeway. I was behind a truck....traffic wasn't heavy and I wasn't close to him. Some things blew out of the back of his truck. I was able to quickly change lanes and wasn't hit but the next thing out was a huge barbecue pit. It looked as big as an airplane flying at me. Missed me by about a foot.

So many close calls. I’m glad you all are still with us.

I have heard of many stories from friends, almost too shook up to talk about it but must to let it out. I’m quite sure I have had many close calls while driving, but managed to avoid them through some unknown act of driving I managed to do at the time.

Was that the accident on 40 by Monterey? I heard it was awful. I have had several close calls, luckily I have walked away from them all.

Amazing stories. I'm so glad you're here to tell them.

Yes, terilyn that was it. Do you know what happened to the people? I've looked and looked. I would feel better if anyone survived.

I can't think of any.....I'm sure if I did, it would be forever imbedded in my mind.

But all of your stories, thank God you're all okay.

Rob that's horrific, thank heavens for an extra hug that day. (and twice in one week....that's crazy unheard of)

" My beloved puts no stock in this, but it's amazing to me it's the exact same time?"

I agree with him, his is a mature view. Things outside of one's control happen because they happen. The people who were unfortunately caught in the accident were at that time and place because of the time consuming things they did and didn't do earlier in the day. There's no take away to dwell on, as far as I'm concerned.

A random close call. You're sitting on a patio and your friend gets stung by a bee and you don't. Nothing to learn from that. Most people have and avoid random events every day. Some are serious and some aren't. They're inevitable.

In general, I think men and women have different levels of emotion surrounding a particular event. Yes, that is a sexist thing to say. Where I am at a heightened level of worry, dh is attempting to look interested, sometimes. I don't believe the difference in reaction has anything to do with "maturity."

Rob, how sorry I am that you had this horribly frightening experience yesterday. I can see how rattled you are and there isn't any type of "closure" because you don't know how the people involved have fared. I would have the same reaction as you. I hope you have a gentle day today.

Rob - glad you're okay.

I've had a few of these, but tend to react to them more like your D_ and Elmer despite the fact that I'm a woman. How we deal with the aftermath of being lucky is less important than the fact that we were, indeed, lucky!

I will make a few calls and try to find out.

No injuries in the first two accidents, they are not releasing information on the third accident.

Thank you for checking!!!

It hit me a moment ago that the ambulances left full blazes. They wouldn't have done that if there had been dead people at the scene. Mind you they may not have survived, but they didn't die at the scene. And it would not have been cleared it away like that had it been the scene of a death. At least not here in Tennessee.

I'm better now.

rob333, I'm glad you're feeling better.

I agree that things are a matter of accidental timing, no rhyme or reason, and my life is no more valuable than anyone else's. I did have one strange experience when my husband and I were traveling on a major highway. A couple of cars had exited on a ramp to the right of us (my side, as passenger), when I had the strangest feeling. I told my husband the car next to me wanted to re-enter the highway. I think I actually said, "Someone over here wants back in." I couldn't see a turn signal, the car didn't make any sudden moves, it was just a feeling I had. No sooner had I said that, than the car ahead of that one swerved back onto the highway right in front of us. The car beside me continued on the exit ramp. I was wrong by a length.

ps rob:

You seem to have a very bright kid. I'm sure you're proud of him no matter what but I'm usually impressed by the things you've shared about him.

He's incredibly intelligent. His internship at work? They said genius. Don't tell him. I don't treat him like that, at all. I give him a swift kick in that rear and tell him to show me he's got it. Truly, he doesn't act like he knows. Let's hope he doesn't ever.

This is one time I'm beyond disappointed. We've fought tooth and nail over his return to campus to take online classes, in person. It's boiled down to, he knows I don't support it, and he knows he's returning for emotional reasons. Time will tell if he's risked it all or it didn't matter.

That must have been scary for you. Glad you had that last hug. I have had a few close calls. I was a passenger in a car accident, left hand turn he couldn't see oncoming traffic. I saw the car coming and knew I was going to get hurt, I blacked out, when I came to, people were yelling at me not to move. Fire trucks and ambulance arrived. They had to use the jaws of life to cut me out of the vehicle. The fireman said I was extremely lucky, had the impact been one inch to the left the fireman said I would have been severely hurt or dead. Another time, when I was 18 my friends and I left the mall in the middle of a storm. We saw the wind pick up the cement parking blocks and move them. We thought we better hurry home. We knew the wind was behind us. We pulled off the road into an A&W for cover and sat as we watched a tornado blew past us, go up a block and implode the curling club where it killed either 6 or 9 people. That was so scary for us. Another time I was on a jet that had mechanic trouble and had to turn back over the ocean to dump fuel in case we had to crash land. Thankfully we were able to land safely. Other than that the worse time for me I was travelling with a friend from work and her family from Toronto. Her husband was driving. I was sitting in the seat behind him. He kept nodding off and falling asleep while driving. I was freaking out, telling my friend to take over driving but she didn't. I felt really close to death that day. Busy highway and this guy was sleeping. I was yelling at my friend to do something, she would jab her husband to wake up. I was so afraid. By whatever gods were watching over us we were forced to pull over into a rest stop because of an accident ahead. We couldn't get back on the road for 2 hours so the driver slept off whatever was going on with him and we made it safely back home. Never again have I driven with a driver I didn't know. Oh there have been other close calls but my post is already too long.

Eeks, what a collection of stories! It has occurred to me in the past that seconds can make a difference.

One time I was at the mall shopping. I left to pick up my son and on the radio not long after I left I heard there had been a shooting right where I was. Jilted boyfriend went to shoot his girlfriend but ended up shooting others as well.

you just never know.

Elmer, with your view of the south , I am shocked that you could give a Southerner a compliment on their intelligence.

What's my view of the South?

Many years ago DH and I we're driving home on the expressway. We were in the Middle Lane and had merged over to the right as our exit was coming up. A semi, which was in the far left lane merged into the middle. We heard a loud bang and realized the truck had blown a tire. Pieces of the tire flew everywhere and would have hit our car had we still been in the Middle Lane. To this day I will not drive with a semi in front of me. That was the scariest experience I've ever had while on the road.

SamKaren Your resident dj

It's crazy to think about it. I'm glad I'm here, guilty they didn't fare as well. It is luck of the draw. It's so so so crazy! Fate is a fickle lady.

Not fate, Rob. No external force or agent is involved. Just happenstance, good or bad luck in the circumstances.

I dunno what you call it. There is something beyond us.

Something...

I'll take it this time.

If your suggestion is true, who wins and who loses? The beneficiaries and the victims? Those who may deserve bad luck through their own actions or inactions have good luck. And vice versa. Believers in your faith, believers in faiths you disagree with, non-believers of all kinds with no faith at all. There are good and bad people in all groups. Events good and bad are randomly distributed among everyone.

That's where and why it defaults to happenstance for me, clearly so. All the same, I hope good people like you have a disproportionate share of good luck. Some will, some won't.

My near miss was minor. I drove into a parking lot, and there really weren't a lot of open spaces. I saw one, and almost pulled into it, but for some inexplicable reason I chose not to. I drove in further, probably another couple hundred yards or so, and took another spot. This meant I had a lot further to walk to the shopping destination. At any rate on my way back, there was a fire truck putting out a fire in a car that had suddenly gone ablaze. The two cars on either side hadn't caught fire themselves, but were developing severe paint blisters. I would have been parked in one of those spots had I simply pulled into that spot on my arrival.

Dad, however....

He did a lot of business travel back and forth to Scotland back in the day. There weren't direct flights from Scotland to the US, so he typically flew in and out of London airport. One the occasion in question, it was December 1988, and he was scheduled out of London to come home. He decided with the Christmas crowds it it might be better to switch to flying out of Manchester instead. So, the day before the flight was due to leave, he switched. (You could do that then, apparently without penalty). The flight he avoided with this last minute change turned out to be Pan Am flight 103... brought down over Scotland by a terrorist bomb.

wow Artemis - glad your Dad switched

We were camping in northern California in 1977.

I was cooking outside when I heard a terrible crash.

A falling tree.

I ran toward the noise to see if I could help.

Unfortunately what I saw was our 7 year old son who has been struck by the huge tree.

I rode in the ambulance with him and he was DOA.

Same day Elvis died.

Horrible memories have been replaced with happier memories except when I hear Elvis' s name.

That's a horrible story and my condolences to you. I can't imagine .A similar story of my daughter's next-door neighbors for decades. Many years ago when my grandson was five , his best friend was the seven-year-old living next door...a sweet little boy who loved animals. His dad and he went camping with the scouts and were sleeping in their tent when a falling tree hit the tent instantly killing the young boy and not hitting the dad inches away. The family had an infant daughter and a young son at that time, and went on to have two more sons. They have kept this sweet boy's memory alive all these years later. He would be 24 now and no doubt a wonderful member of society.

roy4me, I'm so sorry.

I'm sorry Roy4me. What a horrible thing to have happened.

I'm glad you've managed to live with the pain and found some joy still. I sincerely believe that's what the ones who have gone before us would want for us is to lead as fulfilled a life as we can.

When I was 21 I was in a car accident. My driver was going fairly fast downhill and his tire blew. It sent our car into a spin and came to a stop beside a grassy field. I who was in the middle on the console and not buckled (no one was buckled) went flying across the grass. While I was flying across the grass I heard a voice that said you will be all right. I didn't believe it in the moment. I will sure I must have been injured in some way or another. I was the only one without any cuts and bruises. Either my guardian angel was speaking to me or I was reassuring myself in someone else's voice. I guess I'll never know.

Unbeknownst to me a drunk driver had slammed into our car and that is why we all flew out of the car. That plus no seatbelts. It's the one time I am so glad I didn't stay in the car to get crushed by the drunk driver. Mixed blessings.

Luckily only one of us was of us more permanently hurt in my car. She had physiotherapy for two years in order to be able to straighten her arm.

Unluckily the drunk driver died upon impact. If he had been sober he would have been able to easily evade us. And we would have not have been flung out of the car.

To this day I am a very nervous passenger who always checks everyone's seatbelt and backseat breaks every time I feel the person is going too fast or someone around us is inattentive or too fast.

I'm so very sorry roy4me.

How devastating for you and your family roy4me to lose a child. Very heartbreaking and I am sorry for your great loss

Years ago, I was doing a radio story for a large metro radio station about sending supplies from DSM overseas for some reason or other [early 80s] ... they had loaded the plane with supplies and vehicles and I had interviewed the appropriate haunchos, then I went to the back of the massive transport [C130] to get some 'nat/ambient sound' of the gates sealing, on tape for my voiceover.

After gathering 10-20 seconds of audio, I moved my stick 8-inch microphone I was holding, out of the hatchway. Scant seconds later, as I turned around, the hatchway slammed shut with such force it would likely have taken my arm.

I don't think of this often ... I remember one trooper looking at me like he thought I was nuts.

I've had near misses in a vehicle but the one that stands out the most to me happened while white water rafting.

The second or third year we went rafting down the Snake river and the 2 man inflatable rafts weren't available so we rented the hard plastic ones. Oh man I hate those things! They tipped so easily compared to the inflatables. While going down an easier area we tipped over. Unknown to us it was an area with a major undertow. I ended up pinned between a rock and the raft. My husband (then boyfriend) was holding onto my arms so I wouldn't get pulled under. I just knew that if he let go i wouldn't come back up. We found out later that this undertow area claims a few lives each year. My future BIL was there in another raft but my FIL had not put the ropes in the rafts so there was no way to pull us out. After what felt like forever, but probably no more than 5-10 minutes, another rafter came by and lent us his rope. We got out and needless to say I was done rafting that trip and swore never to go again.

A year later with the promise of only inflatables and ropes in the rafts we went again. On one run hubby and I were behind his dad and brother. We got to a wider and very calm part of the river when I looked ahead and saw a dog in the water. I hollered back at my hubby and we started paddling towards it. Hubby is questioning what we will do with it but I knew it had to be rescued. As we got closer I realized it wasn't a dog but a man in is late 60s or 70s. We got over to him and he looked to be in shock. His eyes were wide open and seemed to be checked out but he was at least alert enough to hold onto the side of the raft as I also held onto him. I tried to say calming things like "we've got you. You are fine" while trying not to cry but I'm not even sure he heard me. He had a life vest on but it wasn't snug and wasn't holding him up properly. We got to the side and then really had no idea what to do. While we were sitting there going over options a larger raft caught up with us and pulled over. He had fallen out on a rapid and was swept away faster than they were. We said good byes quickly wanting to give them some privacy. The man was clearly not doing especially well and it felt like we were invading.

I am forever glad I went rafting one last time and able to return the favor to another rafter.

Roy4me, I'm so sorry.

I think these things hit a nerve because they show us how fragile life really is. If I hadn't, if I had...who ever knows? What if...

DD struggled (still does) with severe, debilitating migraines. When her apartment caught fire she had just come downstairs to take her medication she had forgotten. As she came into the kitchen someone came and pounded on her door yelling. Had she taken it five minutes before upon getting home and gone upstairs nothing would have awoken her. That particular medication she was on at the time completely knocked her out within minutes. She would have died in that fire. Her bedroom took the brunt of it. Her having to come back downstairs saved her life.

So I do believe there is something more than just random luck out there. It wasn't her time.

I haven't lived my own life overly cautious. I only became somewhat cautious when I became a parent. Those closest to me who know some of my story wonder at the fact I am alive today. There is something that protects us or chooses when our time is up. Whether that something is a gift to us or a guardian I don't know. But there is definitely something.

(((roy4me)))

I am sorry to send this up again, but I can't go without saying how sorry I am roy4me.