There but for the grace of God

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This morning, the scaffolding on the office building next door to mine collapsed. It's cut off the whole of Wardour street - fortunately it wasn't very high, but it did break the windows of the Intrepid Fox. No-one was hurt, which is a miracle as it's always busy with cars and pedestrians - the only casualty other than the Fox was our water delivery guy, who was on his first day on the job in a brand new lorry.

We're not allowed out of the building, but really that's nothing compared to what could've happened.

So - your narrow escapes here!

― Markelby (Mark C), Tuesday, 6 April 2004 09:59 (twenty-one years ago)

the only casualty other than the Fox was our water delivery guy, who was on his first day on the job in a brand new lorry.

Thats what I call a shitty first day.

― Johnney B (Johnney B), Tuesday, 6 April 2004 10:10 (twenty-one years ago)

a couple of years ago i was in the car with gf driving over Ruislip station, at the foot of the hill we see a white Mercedes tear in from the right, over the mini-roundabout, onto our side of the road and careering towards us before switching back into the right lane and whizzing past us at around 50mph. we were only 3-4 seconds from fatal impact imo.

― stevem (blueski), Tuesday, 6 April 2004 10:13 (twenty-one years ago)

I should state that the water delivery guy wasn't injured, as he was delivering water to us when it happened. Sorry to worry you unnecessarily.

― Markelby (Mark C), Tuesday, 6 April 2004 10:14 (twenty-one years ago)

I once narrowly avoided death while walking up the road from the beach to the train station in Brighton. It was one of those incredibly blustery Brighton Sunday mornings, and someone in --Waterstones? Books etc? -- had neglected to lock the third storey windows. As we approached the shop one of the windows slammed out, sending the pane of glass falling 40 feet down onto the pavement, three feet in front of us. We were paralysed with shock and rooted to the spot. One minute later, another pane of glass fell and shattered. Naturally, we fled.

― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Tuesday, 6 April 2004 10:14 (twenty-one years ago)

whoa, Mark! At least you have water in your building now, so can survive inside a while yet.

My narrowest escape: walked a block to my local video store in my old DC neighborhood early one evening, barely notice how the staff are all clustered quietly near the front window. I was browsing the front section near them when, a few minutes after I came in, I see a guy run out of the movie theater next door, carrying a huge bag. He runs past, followed closely by a shouting theater employee. They disappear just out of frame before I hear 5 shots, and the video store staff all duck and I run to the back of the store.

Turns out the guy was carrying the theater's safe, and had turned and fired wildly at his pursuer, right in front of a packed restaurant's entire outdoor seating area. He had already shot someone in the leg inside the theater. By some miracle no one was hit then--he jumped into a jeep and careened around DC before crashing a couple of hours later. The police showed up soon, cordoned off the block and marked off the bullets and chips on the sidewalk with white chalk. I was really relieved that my stroll hadn't been slightly earlier or later.

― sgs (sgs), Tuesday, 6 April 2004 10:25 (twenty-one years ago)

My mum fell asleep at the wheel on the motorway about 10 or 11 years ago, on the return journey from Sheffield. We bounced off the central reservation barrier. Scary as fuck. No one hurt, but the car was a write-off.

― Sick Nouthall (Nick Southall), Tuesday, 6 April 2004 10:36 (twenty-one years ago)

Don't tell me these things. There's scaffolding all over my building right now. I find it disturbing enough to see the builders walking around at window level so all I see is their legs, without worrying about the scaffolding falling off and them all plunging to their deaths in the streets like that Australian backpacker who fell into Southampton Row last year...

― Super-Kate (kate), Tuesday, 6 April 2004 10:41 (twenty-one years ago)

I had a car incident just outside Inverness not entirely dissimilar to Stevem's, when a car heading towards me thought it would be a smart idea to overtake on a blind corner. Cue me reaching corner at same time as idiot boyracer comes round it at the same time. Swerved, just avoided him, thanked the Lord that I was driving uphill in a twenty-year-old Mini (i.e. not heading towards disaster at anything like the same rate I would have been had I been in my parents' car). Sat in layby shaking for about three quarters of an hour.

― ailsa (ailsa), Tuesday, 6 April 2004 10:45 (twenty-one years ago)

I'd been staying over at my friends house and we were in our dressing gowns watching the highlights of the previous day's Glastonbury over bowls of cornflakes when suddenly we heard an enormous bang. Thinking it was a bomb, we both dived floorwards. I remember hearing fluttering before I saw a load of pigeons flying up past the window. After a moment, we went to the window and saw that a big red London bus had crashed into the house next door.

― Madchen (Madchen), Tuesday, 6 April 2004 11:03 (twenty-one years ago)

Anyway, to answer the question, my scariest close escape... I was a really little girl so I don't remember the exact details or names, but my grandparents booked us a holiday in Durban. We got to the hotel and found that it had neither a pool nor an ocean view, thus defeating the entire purpose of being in Durban. So we changed hotels to one on the seafront so we could go swimming. (Though my paranoid granny wouldn't actually let us go swimming in the open ocean due to sharks.)

A few days later, the hotel we very nearly stayed in was bombed.

― Super-Kate (kate), Tuesday, 6 April 2004 11:09 (twenty-one years ago)

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