NEAR-DEATH EXPERIENCES

Status
Not open for further replies.
When I was in high school, we had a 1-ton flatbed truck parked behind the lift, which had a 64 Mustang sitting on it about 6 feet in the air getting transmission work. The guys working on the flatbed truck had the ignition switch on with the transmission in 1st gear, and someone accidentally shorted the starter circuit, causing the engine to turn over. The truck lurched forward, smacked the back end of the Mustang, which sent the Mustang catapulting off the front of the lift. The front half of the car hit the 5-ft concrete retaining wall separating the lift from the front walkway, and sent the retaining wall crashing to the floor in front of where I was standing. Pieces of cinder block flew everywhere as I turned to run. Had I been any closer to the wall, it woulda nailed me.
 
Paul:

Is it just perhaps possible that there's a lesson to be learned from the fact that, on more than one occasion, you have found yourself being chased by enraged people intent upon doing you bodily harm?
wink.gif
tongue.gif


Actually, thanks, your story reminded me of my own snowball throwing escapades, from a time and place long ago left behind. Somewhere around age 15, my cousin and I had ambushed a guy in an old Caddy, pelting him so hard, it sounded like his rusty fenders were going to collapse. Mr. Linebacker skidded to a stop on the ice, leapt out with some sort of club in one hand, and without hesitation, chased us into the woods. He was gaining on us too, as we bounded through the thigh deep snow, until we reached the bank of a small creek. It was partially iced over, roughly 20 feet wide, and a tad less than waist deep. He was about 50 feet behind us, baring his teeth in an evil grin, and said something like, "I've got you little bas****s now." It didn't take long to decide: into the freezing water and across we went. As we ran to hide at a friend's place you could hear him screaming his promises to be back for us later. At the time, I sure thought it was a near-death experience!
cheers.gif
 
Worked for Lockwood Corporation some years ago in their tire dept. They would grind and re-rubber the 16 ply truck tires for trator tread, mold the rubber under heat and pressure and the I would mount them on a drop center rim.

I had a regulaor on the tire and while it was filling I was mounting another tire. went over to check it because it looked very...plump. It had 165 lbs in it and as I started to let the air out it exploded. Broke my arm, and blew my coveralls nearly off. Pulled the zipper right out of them and around my neck. Witness said I went over backwards and face down, sort of flipped. I remember the "white" flash and I stil have ringing in my ears to this day. Once in a while I still have problems putting air in a tire.
 
The tire story is familiar. I had a semi tire blow up inflating it at about 80 lb and I couldn't hear out of the ear next to it all day. The blast just about knocked me down. I was sure glad it was the inside tire and not the outside one next to me.
 
Example 1:
When I was a kid, I heard a single "tick" sound while under a stripped down Monza that we were preparing as a drag car. I looked around just in time to watch a cinder block fall apart - the one under the driver side rear. The car moved just a little and then balanced on two of the remaining three blocks - driverside front and passenger rear. I slid from under the car and proceeded to but jack stands on all four corners. ..an actual live and learn story.

Example 2:
I use to deliver pizza in a '75 Rabbit. I was parked in a customers driveway that was fairly steep -manual transmission, no parking break. I had the steering wheel turned all the way to one side. I had the car in 1st gear. While at the front door of the customer, I saw the customer open the door and immediate produce a stupified glare with wide-opened eyes. As I looked around to see what had grabbed the customer's attention, the bumper of my car smacked me behind the knees. It had slipped out of gear and looped through their front yard backwards and up to the front door. As it paused about 4 inches beyond where I had recently stood, the front tires righted themselves and the car when rolling down their front yard slowly. I caught the car and put on the brakes as the car bashed into a shade tree. I had run over myself, outrun my car, and hit a tree, all at the same time. I was very embarassed, but not hurt otherwise. The car still has the dent in the bumper. A live and look stupid story.
 
Safety note:

When I'm under my car, I am accompanied by four jackstands and two wheel chocks. Before I go under the car, I toss my 350 lb self at both bumpers and both sides of the car to see if I can knock it over.
After reading this thread, the next time I'm at the store, I'm buying two more wheel chocks.
 
GMorg:

C'mon now, you left off Example #3: Continuing to tempt fate by owning (or merely possessing and operating) a 1975 Rabbit. Hey, this car became downright dangerous twenty years ago -- and you still have it??? Wow. Just driving the thing in 2006 probably qualifies as a near-death experience in and of itself, each time you try it.
wink.gif
tongue.gif


This isn't really a "near-death" thing, thought it might qualify on the same basis as GMorg's Rabbit ownership. Until recently, we had another Colonel down here in New Orleans who got around town in an 82 Dodge Caravan (the first year they made 'em -- I think it was 82). This thing was the ulitmate, picture-in-the-dictionary, example of a P-O-S. The guy, who is a casual friend, found it quite amusing when I advised him, half seriously, that merely being seen in this thing probably constitutes a violation of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, Article 133, which defines Conduct Unbecoming an Officer (in his defense, he actually keeps a Lexus back in SoCal). Actually, now that I think of it, this van was the source of two NDEs -- it broke down twice while climbing New Orleans bridges during rush hour -- a bad, bad thing to have happen.
wink.gif
cheers.gif


Edit for typo.

[ August 23, 2006, 05:06 PM: Message edited by: ekpolk ]
 
Mom says you guys are too wild and dangerous and that I can't play with you anymore.

I'll sneak out later after she drinks that stuff she thinks is hidden in her dresser drawer.
 
ekpolk,

In 1989, I parked the Rabbit with 289,000 miles on it. It is parked in a pasture and cattle use it as a scratching post. The last time I started it was about 1993. The field mice kept chewing through the fuel line right before the carb. I got tired of replacing it. It is now in very rough shape. Cattle can take paint off very quickly.
 
That's a horrible way to retire such a good car. Cows are ruthless.

 -


Me, up to my ankles in mud, trying to give 'the girls' their daily treat of range cubes, and they're trying to mow me down. Ruthless, I tell ya!
 
Nebraskan & JohnD - glad you made it through your truck tire crises. Some don't, a number of years ago I worked on a case that contained some really vivid images of the aftermath of just such an incident, a truck rim separating while being inflated onthe changing machine. I won't go into gory detail, except to say that it required two pictures, of two separate areas of the shop, to show the results.
 
quote:

Originally posted by GMorg:
ekpolk,

In 1989, I parked the Rabbit with 289,000 miles on it. It is parked in a pasture and cattle use it as a scratching post. The last time I started it was about 1993. The field mice kept chewing through the fuel line right before the carb. I got tired of replacing it. It is now in very rough shape. Cattle can take paint off very quickly.


Well, glad to know you're safe. Sounds like the mice and cattle might be another story though...
cheers.gif
 
CBDFrontier06: That is a fake picture!! You're from Dallas, TX.. the color of the grass should be brown and the cows have way too much meat on their bones!! LOL
The one on the front left looks kind of tasty.
 
Drove Dads favorite Truck which at the time had 450K miles on it. The "Work Truck' Then entire family used. I was taking a engine to a cousin of ours for his S10 and right when I got out of downtown and onto the highway its 65MPH limit and then theirs a stop light 2 miles down the road. So I was just crusing around goin around 65-70 and then when the light turned yellow I applied my brakes only to hear a loud pop,No Brakes. I started to downshift as fast as I could since I had no emergency brake. I got down to 50 by the time the light was their. I ran onto the curb and had to shoot straight thru traffic to get by. I made it but I dont think Ive ever been so shaken. I was physcially weak after that happened.
 
while stationed up in Griffiss AFB Rome NY. it was dead of winter. I was on a recovery of a B-52 Bomber. there was ice and snow on the recovery ramp. when the plane stopped. I was placing the rear chalks against the back 2 landing gears. I heard the engines reving up like they always do. well I was in the #4 wheel well. I saw the plane starting to slide sideways a lil. I was like this isnt good. and as soon as I said that. the plane kicked sideways. I jumped up on the landing gear and just rode it out. when the plane stopped. engines shut down I waited a few min to make sure she wasnt going to slide again. I jumped down. the flight crew ran to the back and saw me. they said you ok. and I said yes I was fine and told them that I jumped on the gear. the flight crew said the girl on the headsets just kept screaming I killed him I killed him. I walked out the back over to her. she was on the ground crying and white as a ghost. I looked down at her and said. you gotta have to try harder to kill me next time. she was so happy and laughed a lil. I figure she needed a laugh after thinking she ran the plane over me. like I told her wasnt her fault. but after that I made sure I kept an eye on that landing gear. when we had snow on the ground
biggthumbcoffe.gif
 
One of the guys in our hunting club is a mortician and he said one of the worst sights he has seen to a face was a guy that was working under a late 70's model TransAm . The victim used the cars tire jack and the jack slipped while his head was under the engine.
 
When I was in high school I worked as a cashier at a supermarket. Place had just been remodeled with nice big windows all along the front of the store.

The 'beep beep beep' of our then-new scanners was punctuated by the howl of a truck engine at full power, bursting glass and shearing cinder blocks. Turns out a lady had a 'sudden acceleration' (cause unknown) in her Bazer and came right through the front of the store. Hit two registers down from me...pushed the bagging table part right up against the register! Fortunately nobody was working that machine or they would have been squashed like a bug.

Man, through the cement dust haze you could have heard a pin drop. Until a crazy old lady at the end of the 30-person long 'express' line chimed in "Great,now we'll NEVER get out of here".

After that I always tried to pick a register shielded by a column outside. $4/hour wasn't worth taking one for the team.
 
Buddy worked construction around Bristol, CT. Found a very pleasant lake available to the public. So we strapped a Sunfish (very small sailboat) to the roof of his VW Rabbit (no idea what year) and headed off to the lake. Following a winding two lane road, looking for a place to park and dock. Lake was to the left and that's where we were both looking... Got that funny feeling and turned to look where we were going, which was right through a stop sign. A monster Oldsmobile station wagon towing a pop-up camper, followed closely by a pickup truck, followed by a car, did not have a stop sign and had no intentions of stopping... I grabbed his ebrake and screamed "STOP" 3 times. He whirled around and jumped on the floor brake. The Rabbit came to a stop just over the middle of the road. The station wagon squeaked by but the trailer skimmed off the front bumper, tearing up the side of the trailer a bit and sending it into a bit of a fishtail. Truck and car followed. Collected our senses and re-started the Rabbit, since he never had time to hit the clutch... Eased into the parking lot that happened to be just ahead of us to let our hearts slow down while waiting for the guy with the trailer, and his family, to turn around...
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top