Redditors who have cheated death by missing a flight, calling in sick, missing the bus etc. What happened and did it change your perspective on life?

1. I stayed in my car to listen to the end of the news on the radio after parking up. As I turned off the ignition someone speeding lost control of their car and skidded straight into the back of mine, driving it 4m forward and through the cars in front. Tore the back off mine and wrote off 2 other cars as well. I got a bit of whiplash and was rather dazed for a couple of days. The other driver was banned and charged with a string of driving offences. If I hadn't stopped to listen to the radio I'd have been halfway out of the car instead of restrained inside it. And the other driver would have had manslaughter added to the charges.
   — aeon-lakes


2. I didn't miss anything or call in sick per say, but I was due to have a back operation for scoliosis and on the morning of the op date, the doctor came to my bedside and said he'd had a dream (or a gut feeling) that he shouldn't operate on both curves of my spine and only do the top one, the worst one. I just agreed to whatever he thought would be best, I mean, I could always go back for another op if need be. And thank fuck he had that feeling because I literally bled out on the table, as quick as they were pumping blood into me, I was chucking it back out. The op should've lasted 3-4 hours, but mine lasted 8, nearly 9 hours because I wouldn't stop bleeding. He said if he had opened my whole back up I would've most likely died. I would just like to thank anyone who donates blood, you're unsung heroes, and thank you to doctors and nurses who do everything they can to help save people, you're brilliant!
   — Warm_Kitty


3. I was 15 and went with my mom to the bank. She asked if I was staying in the car to wait or go inside with her. I stayed in the car for maybe 3 minutes. Then turned off the ignition and went inside the bank, just cause I was bored. Not even 5 minutes pass and a man runs in and says a truck smashed into a 2003 Ford windstar. The passenger side was crushed. If I hadn't gotten bored and went inside I would be dead.
   — LadyLamorna






4. I was leaving the mall after buying some clothes for a wedding I was attending and began to walk to my car, as I was getting into my car I realized I didnt buy a tie and had to go back in. I got out of my car and a small pickup truck slams into the back of my car and pushed it into the center of the parking lot aisle. the entirety of the back of my little Ford Focus was completely crushed and the guy inside died. Turns out he was drunk and was coming from the bar across the street to go into the mall for the foodcourt and hit my car.
   — kindofafugitive


5. I was recently in Lima waiting in line to go on a bus tour to San cristobal when my dad decided that we didn't wanna go there and instead went on the tour to Miraflores which is the richer part of Lima. That bus ended up falling down the hill killing at least 8 and injuring a lot. After that we went back home and thought about how our vacation could have ended drastically different. I had no clue what happened during the tour until the family in front kept getting calls and I heard them say that they were fine. Later the tour guide told us about the accident.
   — Achurro


6. I was supposed to speak at a conference at the World Trade Center on 9/11. My late husband has family and friends who live in NY and NJ. They were going to meet us at the WTC plaza so we could do the tourist thing after I finished my presentation. But, at the last minute, the conference organizers had a cancellation at an event in Houston and asked me to fill in there instead. I will never forget the relief in my mother-in-law's voice when she called to make sure that we didn't make the trip to NYC or how that relief turned to fear and then to anger as other family members started reporting in. The cousin who was supposed to be our tour guide that day worked in the towers and he didn't make it out. It's hard to be relieved that you escaped a horrific death when you're grieving for someone who didn't.
   — jhn107






7. Not me but my mom demanded that someone come in on September 11th for an interview for a job rather then fly out on vacation because the job had to be filled ASAP. Anyway the plane he was supposed to be on wound up hitting one of the twin towers. He was forever grateful to my mother being bossy. He also got the job.
   — Mr_Boneman


8. I was young at my brothers baseball practice at an elementary school after hours. I was around six. My eleven year old sister takes me inside to use the bathroom. It's dark we can't find our way out. The only light comes from the principles office. We decide to ask her and walk towards the door feeling eerie. Just as we approach the handle my mom appears at the end of the hall asking why we're taking so long. We leave and go home. Hear on the news that night the principle shot herself in the office at the same time we were in the school either before or after. Edit: I was half asleep when I wrote this and thought no one would see it, yes principal. It was actually in Georgia. I heard she was stressed about her test scores. I don't think I cheated death in this moment but I do believe it would've scarred my sister and I, or we could have miraculously saved her. What stuck with us is how eerie we both remember feeling. We were lost for about twenty minutes trying to find the right door to lead back to the ball field. We were scared to ask the principal for fear that she'd be upset we were in the school, and I kept insisting. It was such weird timing that we never made it inside. Very very sad story and for the kids around the town.
   — Shellsteph


9. Hailed a cab in NYC about a year ago. Realized I left my wallet in the hotel room. Told him I'd be right back, he said that would be too long and took another customer. When I came back out of the hotel I saw his taxi overturned halfway up the block. Turned out that a van driven by a drunk driver blew through a red and slammed the side of the taxi. Both the taxi driver and his customer died. I wouldve been going in the same direction had I stayed in the cab. Wouldn't say I've changed much, but I was certainly more cautious in the weeks following the event.
   — RME198






10. I was in a terrible car wreck on a family roadtrip when I was 9 years old, ejected out the passenger window while it flipped over three times. All I suffered was a head laceration and minor concussion. My sister and mother were fine---they were wearing their seatbelts. I was not wearing mine. Here's the clincher---if I had been wearing my seatbelt I'd be dead because where I was sitting, the back passenger seat, was completely crushed. Only moments before the accident I took my seatbelt off so I could reach in the front seat where my backpack was so I could grab a Calvin and Hobbes book. My perspective hasn't changed much.
    — doonkune


11. My phone vibrated in my cup holder (just a junk email for moores) while waiting at a red light. In the two seconds it took me to look at my phone, the light turned green and a dump truck blew through their red light doing at least 100kmph. I was dealing with a lot of depression at the time and was slightly upset that it missed me. But now, looking back on it, I feel like there is something important out there for me and I have another chance to find it. Whatever it may be.
    — GozerDaGozerian


12. When I was in my teens, our family always used to go to the same place for groceries. Always the same day of the week, always the same time when our parents got home, always passing through the same spot to the parking hall when we were done. Then we got a dog. The day we usually went shopping he had a vet's appointment, so we postponed groceries. That day, right around the time we would have been passing through that usual spot to get to our car, someone detonated a bomb, killing and wounding several people. I knew what would have happened to us without our dog who managed to save us simply by existing. I started crying, thinking how close it was. Later I've been thinking how many lives it affects when something like that happens - one second in one spot, and the lives of countless family members, friends, coworkers and acquaintances will never be quite the same again. And it's not only the death. Many survivors were injured permanently and suffered for years because of it, maybe even today. It could happen anywhere, and it will. Again and again. One day I may not cheat death again and it will be my family that is affected.
    — NightFellTooFast






13. Not me but my dad works for a pretty well known jet company as a flight test engineer. One weekend he was supposed to be working overtime but he called out to go to a wedding. That weekend, the jet he would've been test flying had a bad takeoff and crashed killing everyone on it. Needless to say, he no longer works in test flights.
    — gxbcab


14. I was at a mall once with my brother and mother and we were on vacation so we were walking all day. My mom wanted to go to this one store to go Christmas shopping for my other brother but my brother that was with us was tired and wanted to get supper. My mom kept arguing with my brother that she would have only been a couple mins, but since my brother that was with us is a complainer, we decided to go for supper. We came back from supper that evening and learning that there had been a shooting in that mall like 5 mins after we left and it was right in front of the store we were going to go to. A couple of people died and me, my mom and my brother were terrified the rest of the night. Went back to the hotel for the night and watched the news. And didn't go to that mall the rest of our trip. We would have been right there in the middle of the shooting had we actually went to that last store my mom wanted to go to. So it's a good thing my brother complained about going for supper.
    — PoopOnMyBum