Cheating Death: Have You Done This?

Greetings, ATS!

Setting: The Pavilion Amusement Park in Myrtle Beach, SC. I was vacationing with my family, my best friend Sarah, and my brother's friend Andy. My parents dropped us off at The Pavilion so we could enjoy the rides without being seen in public with our parents (typical teenagers). We agreed on a place to meet and set off for fun.

It was still early enough that the ride lines were very short. My friend and I went on a water ride while my brother and his friend went their merry way.

After the ride, I suggest to Sarah that we should ride the Ferris Wheel. I thought it would be a great way to dry off, and there were only a few people in line.

We waited for maybe ten minutes. The entire time, Sarah is growing more and more anxious. I can tell something's bothering here, but she won't explain it.

Then it's our turn. I sit in the seat and slide over, making room for Sarah. She starts forward, then begins to cry. She tells me she's sorry,m but she can't get on the ride.

No big deal, I hop off and apologize to the folks in line behind us. They said it was no big deal and took our spot. We go to the next ride over (the bumper cars) and get in line. I asked her what that was all about, and all she would say is that she felt sick about that ride. (For the record, I have ridden Ferris Wheels with her before, so it wasn't a fear of heights). She was genuinely upset, so I dropped it.

Five minutes later we hear screaming. A woman comes running to our line shouting, "They fell, My God, they fell!"

Thinking the worst, we ran back to the Ferris Wheel. What we saw will stay with me forever.

The Ferris Wheel has stopped moving. At the apex of the wheel, a young woman dangled by one leg. On the ground in front of us were bodies.

The fire truck had to extend their ladder to free the girl...it took forever. One of the boys who fell died from his injuries.

The next day the papers ran a story on the incident, with photos of the injured people.

I'm positive that the girl in the photo was the same girl who took our seat on the Ferris Wheel.

We may have cheated death that day, due to my friend's....premonition? I don't know, but I think it's possible.

Has anything like this ever happened to you?

link to newspaper article about the incident

Can't upload a pic from my mobile, but here's a photo of the girl dangling: photo

reply to post by smyleegrl

We may have cheated death that day, due to my friend's....premonition?

We have something inside that gives us hints to these situations coming... some call it guardian angels...

I don't know about that... but I've been close to situations very similar... where I would have been injured if I had not stopped to do something menial like... tie my shoe for example...

This is an ongoing discussion in many of Jhill's threads...

S&F

I have nearly died numerous times.

I was once standing under a tree that got struck by lightning.
When I was young I fell off a peer at a beach, I still remember being underwater and the ginger guy who saved me
I was once hit by a car
I was dropped through a glass table when I was baby
I got electroucted by a electric fireplace when young

*oh I was also hit by a firework just under my eye, I doubt that could have killed me though but I was lucky not to end up blind. *

I am kind of lucky to still be alive.

With some of the experiences in my life ( totaling a car at 14 drunk, crashing a 4-Wheeler off the pacific coast trail canyon, jumping/falling 4 stories high on drugs) make me question the fabric of reality and life and death. Perhaps you just don't go if its not your time?? When I was 14 the car was wrecked but I was fine. When I crashed the 4-wheeler I literally came inches from being gorged by a broken branch, flying down an almost sheer cliff. The 4 wheeler was still on the trail. When I jumped off a parking structure in San Francisco (high on drugs all I did was dislocate my ankle, but I got the strangest gap of time, almost like it happened too fast. Sometimes people are mowed down with death everywhere, other times a bullet to the head won't kill you. Strange World.

I've had a few brushes, but I'll tell this one. I was driving between jobsites. I was trying to decide between stopping for something to eat or going straight to the site. Coming to an intersection I decided to eat. Just as I changed lanes a speeding car turned from the cross street the wrong way right into the lane I just left. It was followed by about a dozen police cars in a high speed persuit. If I had not decided to eat I would have stayed in that lane and the car would have hit me head on. It may not have killed me but I would not have been a happy camper!

I had a buddy i logged with......
He was always a fatalist....never really caring about servicing or safety gear....just a general death wish kind of guy....One brisk winter morning as we set out for the patch he pulled up beside me with the skidder and motioned for me to get on the hood.....
I didnt usually ride to the bush but with some trepidation i climbed on the blade and he lifted me, gas can axe, wedges saw and all up to the top of the radiator cowling.
.....me stting on the hood of the Skidder, ....him driving the old Timber toter....we set out up the steep slope..
Now a 4 53 gimmy diesel is a two cycle engine, and it screams when its in its power band....you can hear them on the next mountain top over....literally....
We made it up the first leg of 150 yards with a steep drop off on the left side down to the valley below.....
turned a sharp angled corner and were halfway up to the next bench when the engine gave a slight falter.....
At that moment i realized that the gomer hadnt fueled up that morning and we were about to run dry on a steep hill with a right angle turn at the bottom and a drop off that was nearly vertical......
In a flash i could see exactly what was about to happen.....
Sure as God made apples, it wasnt thirty more seconds before she sputtered and died.
By that time i had already slid down off the rad and had my feet firmly planted atop the skidder blade ready to take a swan dive onto the icy trail.
As soon as forward motion stopped i jumped down gear and all landing with a jar on the ice.
turning quickly i was just in time to see the skidder now doing 15 mph backwards, careen of a huge stump at the side of the trail.
My buddy , having decided that the emergency brakes were defunct, and he couldnt stop the machine no matter what, decided to exit the cab.
I still remember him stepping so easily out of the cab onto that huge stump, and both of us standing dumbfounded as we watched the timber toter roll over the drop off backwards and summersault into the valley below.....landing
in the deep snowdrifts on its back for all the world looking like some gargantuan dead yellow snow beetle....
Thats the way it usually happens for me....
Just too damn late i seem to realise just seconds before something happens but its only half effective.
and i have the scars to prove it.....

reply to post by smyleegrl


You've read this before, and probably many others have too, but I'll tell it again to contribute my two cents worth:

When I was in my early twenties I was driving down a country two-lane road when I came upon an extremely sharp curve. As I approached the curve I heard a voice in my head saying, "STOP!"

I was startled, and wondered where that voice came from, and if I really heard it. Again the voice said, "Pull over off the road as far as you can, and STOP!!"

The voice was so demanding, I obeyed. Just as I got over in the grass and sat there for a couple of seconds wondering if I was "losing it", a big dump truck came around the curve on my side of the road! If I hadn't pulled off the road I would have been hit head-on, and probably killed! I about went into shock. I pulled back onto the road and stopped at the first available place (a country store) to compose myself!

I agree that we have a guardian angel, spirit guide, or someone on the other side that watches over us who protects us (if we will listen) from danger.

S&F on your thread, Smyleegrl. This is going to be another "hit" for you. I can tell.

ETA: That was a remarkable story you posted! Sorry the boy was killed.
When it's "our time" we are led to it, when it's not... someone tries to tell us.

A week before my Senior prom I was driving home and the radio in my car had broken a few days earlier. I was young and thought I was invincible so i didn't have my belt on. About 5 blocks from my house I fell asleep. I woke up as I hit a stop sign on the curb which gave me about 2 seconds to realize that I could not avoid the tree that I was about to hit. So, I cut the wheel anyway and hit the tree at an angle . Since I had no belt on I flew forward and hit the top of the steering wheel between my top lip and the bottom of my nose. I bounced off the wheel and landed horizontally in my seat after the car came to a rest. According to those that had witnessed it, the car flipped twice when it hit the tree. I got lucky on multiple fronts to say the least. The bottom of the car collapsed in and if I would have had my belt on, I would have most likely lost my legs. The windshield shattered inward and multiple large shards were sticking in my seat right where i would have been. In not having my belt I landed in the one spot that would not cause massive damage or end my life. I crawled out the passenger side window and ended up with only 7 stitches on the outside of my mouth and another 6 inside.

That was the night i cheated death.

reply to post by smyleegrl


I was reading This One and apparently they fell because the boy was rocking the chair causing them to flip over

the operator warned them not to rock the cab but they apparently disregarded that instruction

reply to post by Tlexlapoca


I heard that, too. We left the next day and I only saw that first article. I don't know if he was rocking it or not.

I have never gotten on a Ferris Wheel since. Don't think I could, even if I wanted to.

reply to post by smyleegrl



.......wait a minute....but there is another one article HERE

wich one is it? well this one is more interesting than the first link i posted because if you scroll up there are crop circles "Mysterious Spots"



So the question i ask you now is were you visited by Aliens that day?

reply to post by smyleegrl


As humans we are but a whisper away from death at any moment in our lives only when it is revealed to people though a traumatic event are people truly conscience of it - fear

Originally posted by Tlexlapoca
reply to post by smyleegrl

 

.......wait a minute....but there is another one article HERE

wich one is it? well this one is more interesting than the first link i posted because if you scroll up there are crop circles "Mysterious Spots"

edit on 31-5-2013 by Tlexlapoca because: (no reason given)

So the question i ask you now is were you visited by Aliens that day?

edit on 31-5-2013 by Tlexlapoca because: (no reason given)

I don't understand your question. Are you doubting the story happened? Or just the cause of the accident?

reply to post by smyleegrl


When I was 19 we were having a going away party for me and my buddies before we were headed to a construction job on the east coast. We spent the night partying and drinking. We ran out of beer and drove to the liquor store to get some more. When we were going to get back in the car, I got such a terrible feeling, I just did not want to get in. My buddy asked me what was wrong, and I told him I didn't want to get in, I felt like I was going to die. It was a really bad feeling.

He laughed and said "yeah, I know, we are in munch mode" I laughed and felt better so we got in the car. While driving back across a bridge, a car in front of us slammed on it's breaks and we hit its bumper, smashing the headlight on the girls car who was driving.

Had we all gotten in and I not hesitated for that few seconds and waited for that feeling to pass, we all would of been closer to that car, and everyone would of died. Us, and the people in front of us, who was a pregnant lady and her boyfriend. There were 5 or 6 of us in the car I think.

No one was hurt, and both cars drove off although we had to use a pencil to prop the headlight so it was straight enough to see the road.

I've learned to listen to that feeling.

reply to post by smyleegrl

We may have cheated death that day, due to my friend's....premonition? I don't know, but I think it's possible. Has anything like this ever happened to you?

back in the mid-1970s, I joined my best friend and someone who 'claimed' to be an avid and knowledgeable caver... or spelunker.

We met outside of a small town called 'Rising Fawn, Georgia' and then made our way to a hole that is known as Byons's Cave or something similar. It's been a long, long time.

The hole went down about 500 feet and to a point directly under the Georgia/Alabama state line. There awaited a hall known as 'Hell's Kitchen' long before the TV show, lol..

It was a struggle. We had to shimmy horizontal tubes about the size of a chimney hole, do vertical drops and climbs. We found an underground stream and all around were these paper-white spiders and grasshoppers.

After we rested and signed the register someone left hanging, we made our way back up.

One part of the ascent was much easier coming down... and I slipped. I fell about 16-20 feet and landed on a shale-covered ledge. From there, I slid downward to the edge. There was nothing to grab... I spread-eagle and, thank God, the slip stopped before I went over the edge. My legs dangled over the darkness but the trunk of my body was still on the ledge.

At the time, I was about 20... it really didn't register just how close I was to forever. Once back to the surface, my friends asked me if I knew I was about to die and... I just laughed it off.

Almost 40 years later, I sometimes wish I could make that caving descent again... just to recall exactly the feeling and how I managed to kick it aside like an empty soda can.

Many times (but I just think of them as being lucky) one that made me feel like an idiot was when I was climbing up the A-7 Corsair II (jet) and my foot slipped and I grabbed the ejection seat pull handle. I almost pulled the damned thing out (thanks to the safety pin I didn't. Jeeze..everybody came running over.. I hated that!

a little voice in my ear said "Do this now!"
so I did
instead of that which I was going to do, which would have left me as it turns out, flat as a pan cake

reply to post by Danbones


You almost got your moobs cut off?

I've come close many times. For one thing, I've had one of the most aggressive, advanced cancers my doctors had ever heard of! I'm constantly told by doctors who have treated me and who have reviewed my medical history, "Son, to be honest, I don't know how you're alive and well today."

During the treatments, I had a few close brushes with death...so close that docs had even told my mom in preparation, "He's going to die, there's nothing we can do."

There's no doubt in my mind that I cheated this cancer. Medically, there is no reason why I should have survived it.

******

Another time I was out at a glorious lake in Idaho surrounded by very tall mountains. I was walking along the beach and started heading up this ramp, this dock connecting a lower level of the beach to a higher level of forest-area. I noticed the ramp was wet as I walked up it. And there was a bit of a fallen tree off to the side.

I was thinking, "Wow, someone could really get hurt or die if they fell on this." Well, guess what happened to me? I slipped on the water, fell over the side of the ramp (probably a good 5-6 feet off the ground) and onto a pile of large stones. As I fell, I could have sworn I was aiming for this group of sharp branches sticking up.

Only thought on my mind was, "This is it." I hit the ground facing skyward and expected to be impaled through my belly or something. I sat up, looked over and the tree was completely moved over For some odd reason it was in a safer place a few feat away.

I got up, uninjured and dragged the dead tree further away so no one could fall on it. But I swear that thing was going to drive me through. Somebody saved me that day, and all the other days.

Originally posted by smyleegrl

Originally posted by Tlexlapoca
reply to post by smyleegrl

 

.......wait a minute....but there is another one article HERE

wich one is it? well this one is more interesting than the first link i posted because if you scroll up there are crop circles "Mysterious Spots"

edit on 31-5-2013 by Tlexlapoca because: (no reason given)

So the question i ask you now is were you visited by Aliens that day?

edit on 31-5-2013 by Tlexlapoca because: (no reason given)

I don't understand your question. Are you doubting the story happened? Or just the cause of the accident?

I think your link is not working. Maybe that's what he is getting at? Well it won't open for me.