35 Of The Dumbest Ways People Almost Died

The chances of going through life without making a mistake are pretty low. It’s bound to happen at some point or another that when we slip up, we end up in risky situations that could be potentially fatal. So when one Redditor recently asked, “What’s the dumbest reason you almost died?”, people shared their personal experiences. Scroll below to read all the stories of how a little bad luck or a small miscalculation led to a brush with death. 

#1

Image source: Ginandor58, Kateryna Hliznitsova / unsplash (not the actual photo) Reached into a spare switchboard space and touched the live 440 volt busbar at the back because someone had removed the guard.

#2

Image source: TheAzrael2013, Getty Images / unsplash (not the actual photo) Going down an expert ski slope when being just a beginner. Hit a rock and flew in the air. Very close to hitting a tree and ended up with just a severe concussion. .

#3

Image source: ohsocrazy2, Tim Umphreys / unsplash (not the actual photo) I am not allowed near a chainsaw. Years ago my late husband was in a bad car wreck. We had a fireplace, and lots of large tree limbs waiting to be cut. My BIL kept putting off helping, so I said I can do it. I have waist length hair. Put it in a ponytail and tucked it in my shirt. Did fine. Next time I. forgot to tuck my hair in my shirt. My hair got caught in the chainsaw motor. The only thing that saved me was the fact that I had so much hair the motor choked when the chainsaw was about 4 inches away from my neck. It is a self-imposed chainsaw ban because I was so stupid and know I would not be so lucky again.

#4

Image source: anon, Curated Lifestyle / unsplash (not the actual photo) Got folded up in one of those fold up couch/bed things. It got stuck and I was in there for 15minutes. Was sweating so bad, pinned. Accepted death. It was at my friends house and we were like 12. Luckily his older sister came home and they each grabbed a side and forced it open.

#5

My girlfriend at the time left me in the middle of the lake because her kayak flipped. I gave her mine, (Mine was more like paddle board) I asked her to go slow so I can swim beside her. She just left me there. I started panicking and freaking because I got tired and my head was barely above the water. All I heard was my mom yelling at me to be quiet.. like what the f**k I’m drowning mom. My buddy came to save me on a paddleboat after realizing I’m drowning. Needless to say, we broke up a week after. Image source: PretendCold4

#6

Image source: Educational_Dust_932, maks_d / unsplash (not the actual photo) When I was a kid I almost hopped in some strange man's car to help him find his puppy. I only didn't go because my little brother started crying. I thought he was SO lame. Aprehensive_North49: When I was a kid, a guy said he broke his leg and was lying on a sloped lawn. I was too small to help him to his car, so I ran to get a construction worker I passed down the street to help him. He was gone when we got back a couple of minutes later. The worker told me how smart I was to get an adult since he obviously was not hurt.

#7

Image source: RoronoaZorro, Olivie Strauss / unsplash (not the actual photo) Tried to catch an olive with my mouth, it went right down and I choked on it. My dad, the absolute hero, grabbed my legs and picked me up upside down, and the olive came right out again, so no Heimlich maneuver necessary.

#8

Image source: FillPsychological284, thom masat / unsplash (not the actual photo) I took too many dual credit/AP/and extra college classes my last year of high school. There was a program where each credit was $75 at the loca college while I was still in high school. I wanted to save money, so I signed up for everything I could. The problem with this is that for finals week, I had way too many tests to study for at once. I spent days awake drinking only energy drinks, caffeine pills, and sugar. While I was doing my volunteer hours at the library, I tried talking to the librarian, but she couldn't understand what I was saying. Was sent to the nurse, and she had to call an ambulance and my parents because my heart rate was crazy. Hardly remember what happened. But it's been over a decade, and my dad will still yell at me for the occasional energy drink.

#9

Image source: dma1965, AllGo / unsplash (not the actual photo) Let myself become morbidly obese with no exercise. Doctor told me I was going to have a heart attack any day now. Thankfully it shook me up and since then I have lost over 100 lbs.

#10

Image source: No-Sun-3156, sebastiaan stam / unsplash (not the actual photo) In 1991, my dad passed away. I was 19 years old, home on leave from the military. While going through his things, I found a handgun in his toolbox. I removed the magazine, and — being young, grieving, and only a year into my military training — I assumed that made it safe. I looked at the gun, curious. I wasn’t trying to hurt myself. I was just in a strange headspace, overwhelmed and not thinking clearly. I raised the gun, intending to pull the trigger — thinking it was unloaded. At the last second, something made me stop. Instead of pointing it at myself, I turned and aimed it at the garage wall. I pulled the trigger. It fired. There was a round chambered. I had no idea. I just stood there, completely shaken. The noise, the hole in the wall, the realisation of how close I’d come to an accident I’d never have seen coming — it’s stayed with me ever since. I’ve never told anyone this before. But it was a turning point that I’ll never forget.

#11

Image source: PumbaKahula, Anton Malanin / unsplash (not the actual photo) Walking through an unlocked door to that led to a basement without a staircase. Straight to the basement floor express.

#12

Image source: notrudejusthonest123, Sibeli Velázquez / unsplash (not the actual photo) I stepped onto the road whilst busy talking. Not realising I was standing seconds from being hit by a bus, a random stranger grabbed my shirt and pulled me back onto the curb. The bus brushed against my hair as it drove past. The stranger just kept on walking after causally saving my life.

#13

Getting in a car of who I thought was a close friend of a very good friend. He was going to give me a ride home. He had been talking to my friend, laughing & joking. When I walked up to them my friend introduced us. He was super friendly, cute & he was driving a Vintage red Mercedes sedan. Instead of “turning right” to get to my house, he sped forward, getting on our crosstown freeway, headed to the boonies where he said he & I were going to “make love” Freaking Serial Killer change in his demeanor& bios eyes turned black & evil. He had to slow down to get off the freeway & I went buck wild on him, scratching, kicking screaming, whir tossing my backpack out his window & spinning around 360 like the Tasmanian Devil. All I could think of was the Criminal Investigation Panel in Phil Donahue Sho. The head of SVU, before it was called “SVU” couldn’t emphasize enough, “don’t ever let them take you to a second location. If they are transporting you away from where they grabbed you, you are almost guaranteed you will be victim to the vilest of abuse & more than likely you will be m******d. If they have a gun or a weapon to scare you into submission, I would think about calling their bluff.” Another expert added, “that isn’t necessarily recommended or is it the best tactic” and the 1st guys said something like in all his years invested abductions, sometimes death wasn’t the worst thing that could happen to you during transport. “You cooperate until he takes you to the 2nd location & you’re as good as dead.” That was the 70’s. I was a sophomore in High School. After going OFF on him he had no choice but to pull over & I jumped out of the car @ a busy intersection, walking back to get my backpack(it had all textbooks! My mom is going to k**l me!) while Good Samaritans got the description of the car & asked to use the phone to call the police @ the mini mart on the corner. No cell phones, DNA. I believed 100% he would have k**led me. I still had his hair tangled around my fingers, his skin under my fingernails. The local Sheriff gave me a “stern talking to” took me home. No report was ever made. The “good old days” when the blame fell on the victim. I “knew better”! Image source: Loomismom

#14

Image source: Zukazuk, Getty Images / unsplash (not the actual photo) I took birth control. Turns out I have a genetic clotting disorder that makes me unable to breakdown clots at a normal speed. I ended up with clots throughout my right leg and both of my lungs.

#15

Image source: Forward-Loan-2282, Getty Images / unsplash (not the actual photo) Didnt bother to shut the car bonnet/hood fully locked, for about 2 weeks, bonnet flipped open onto the front windscreen whilst driving to work at 60mph middle of winter driving to work in the dark.

#16

I was 19 and in college. I got really sick. Coughing, feeling hot. I would wake up in a pool of sweat every morning. I thought I’d just get over it on my own. I let this go on for about a week before my aunt made me go to the ER. I was so bad that the doctors were convinced in had tuberculosis, asked me if I’d been in contact with anyone who had it, etc. They tested me for TB but also did an X-ray on my lungs right away and concluded that I had a bad case of pneumonia. The doctor said that if I’d been an elderly person, I would have died. Moral of the story: Go to the doctor if you’re f****d up. Image source: mh985

#17

Image source: Euphoric_Minimum874, Marino Linic / unsplash (not the actual photo) I slipped down a tidal bank when I was four and didn’t know how to swim. Sank straight down that bank with a tremendous amount of fear… just dead in the water. Until I had an out of body experience, where I saw my Mother running down the beach to save me. I saw her running up to me until our bodies connected. There was a lady that was next to me that I was pulling on the leg of for help, and she was kicking me away. I remember my Mother saying, “you f*****g b***h.” Until this day, 32 years later I can ask my Mother what’d you say to that lady when I was drowning in Germany? And every time she replies, “you f*****g b***h.” I was four.

#18

I threw a microwave into a dumpster. Power chord wrapped around my neck midflight and almost strangled me. Image source: SlimPickens77Box

#19

Jumped out of a boat to help my brother collect my nephew. Nephew lost his swim shoe so i swam past them to get it. I suddenly gassed out in the weirdest way. I am scuba certified. I swim laps. I am very confident in the water and can hold my breath quite some time. I just couldn't. It was like I was too heavy, and too weak, and needed too much air all at the same time. I started swimming back to the boat but I couldn't keep my head above the water. My girlfriend spotted me and asked "You good?!" And I tried to say "nope," and went under. My brother started swimming to me and I remember sinking and thinking to myself, "okay, you know drowning people drown people, you CANT grab him." And I was okay with that. He somehow got my arm on a float thing and it was enough to help me up. I got pulled into the back of the boat by my horrified family, and puked myself back to life. I remember feeling SO f*****g weird for like an hour afterwards. Like I wasn't real. Or had died and just slipped to another dimension. It was f****d. For a swim shoe. Image source: TheGreatHahoon

#20

Image source: anon, Getty Images / unsplash (not the actual photo) Fell off a ladder breaking into my own house because I didn't want to wake my wife up.

#21

Image source: LauchGrabung51, Andrej Lišakov / unsplash (not the actual photo) Was really drunk at the oktoberfest in munich. We went to the rollercoaster and before sitting in it, I didn't remove my backpack. The guy just "closed" the security attachment over my shoulders, when we were doing a looping I noticed the thing wasn't closed. I hold it as strong as I could, when we came to the end, the guy looked at me an was completely shocked that it wasn't closed, it was a close call.

#22

Image source: girlfrombri, camilo jimenez / unsplash (not the actual photo) Was given a very severe wedgie and I had to get rushed to the hospital. It was all captured on camera and there’s still photos ? It caused some internal bleeding and a blood clot in my leg, almost died may be an over reaction, but it did require medical attention.

#23

Image source: Hushwater, Tim Foster / unsplash (not the actual photo) Riding my bike down a mountain road, smoked the break pads down to the metal, hit a pile of horse s**t and did a front flip, meat crayoned into a ditch full of poison ivy. Having that poison ivy contact fresh abrasions caused a brutal reaction and took the rest of the summer to heal.

#24

I ate a gas station egg sandwich which landed me in the icu with the nurse injecting my b*m due to seizure and asphyxiation from severe allergy. My tombstone would have said, taken by an egg sandwich. Image source: mt0386

#25

Image source: Icy-Professor477, Monika Grabkowska / unsplash (not the actual photo) My toast got stuck in the toaster. I had a metal knife in my hand. The toaster was still plugged in. Fortunately my brain kicked into gear an inch before my knife made contact with the toaster. I think about that a lot.

#26

Middle of the night, getting too comfortable eating a veggie tray. Threw a piece of broccoli into my throat and started choking. I had to walk 2 rooms over to the bedroom to try and wake up my girlfriend but by the time I got into the middle room, I had started blacking out. Fell over onto the arm of my couch and dislodged it. Broke a blood vessel in my eye. Image source: Jerimus1

#27

The ER doc thought I was d**g seeking and sent me home with laxatives. 24hrs later my appendix ruptured. Image source: wintremute

#28

Image source: ComradeFrano, Kateryna Hliznitsova / unsplash (not the actual photo) Was wearing a Halloween costume with no arm holes. (Wouldn’t have been authentic to have arms…) and fell backwards down a staircase! Thank god best friend saw it happen and grabbed me before I went headfirst down the flight.

#29

Image source: Beginning_Big4819, Alan J. Hendry / unsplash (not the actual photo) I lost my balance and accidentally grabbed an electric fence with both hands. It was incredibly painful, and I screamed because I physically couldn’t let go. Thankfully, a friend was there to help me.

#30

Was cycling back home after late night movie, with headphones on. There was railway track on the way and the gate was shut. I was like ??‍♂️, decided to jump the gate. I felt sudden gush of air RIGHT AFTER stepping off the track. It was a f*****g train that could've hit me if I was literally 1/100th second slower. I didn't put on the headphones for rest of the cycling that night. Image source: Pora-Pandhi

#31

I was 3. I went feeding the ducks with my mom and baby sister. I threw the bread but forgot to let go??‍♂️ so in the water i went. My earliest memory is my moms hand coming down to me and pulling me up (fun addition i also saw the ducks feet moving when i looked up before my mom got me) so yeah...that was dumb. Im 38 now?. Image source: B_love_K

#32

Image source: TheFemale72, Andrej Lišakov / unsplash (not the actual photo) Jumped off a roof when I was 7 (it was the late 70’s, wildly different time). My plan was to jump on the roof of the shed, but I missed and landed between the shed and the backyard fence. I swear I had a guardian angel, survived with just some scratches on my back.

#33

Image source: Melodic-Yesterday894, engin akyurt / unsplash (not the actual photo) Had my tonsils out two years ago, the surgeon left my artery exposed at the back of my throat so I had a haemorrhage a few days later. Emergency specialist I saw said there was nothing wrong, the one I saw the next day said it should have been fixed the day before or I could have bled out overnight.

#34

When i was a kid, I ran onto the road to avoid getting hit by a giant purple exercise ball, only to end up being hit by a car instead. Image source: flawedcanvas77

#35

One time I was cleaning my grill, I sneezed and bonked my head on the side of the grill. Knocked myself out in the sun on a 95F day. Woke up with severe sunburns and dehydration. Image source: Secksualinnuendo