31 Terrifying Moments That Changed People Forever
1.
A car accident between a motorcyclist and a car, the cyclist head rolled to the sidewalk near me. Not pretty.
2.
My husband having a psychotic break from sleep deprivation a few days after we had our first born child.
3.
A job I used to work at, my boss had a heart attack in his office and died in the middle of the shift. The office lights were motion activated so we thought he left to go something as it was dark. I went into the office to get a new radio and there he was, leaned back in his chair with his eyes wide open. Scariest thing I've ever seen
4.
Saw an old man slip and die at a bus stop in Portland early in the morning when I was a teenager. That was sad, but what really shook me was the way he was picked up by an ambulance, the sidewalk was washed off, and they left. Within 15 minutes people were occupying that space waiting for a bus, and it was like it had never happened.
5.
When I was maybe 7, my cousin and I was playing outside. We went in the front yard and saw my brother in his car with his friend. Their eyes were closed, heads back against the headrests, windows rolled up on a hot summer day. Then they started making these odd jerking movements with their arms and heads. Being kids, my cousin and I thought they were just being silly and messing with us. But when we noticed the drool and that they weren’t responding, we got scared and got my parents.
We didn’t know at the time, but we were watching my brother and his friend overdose. I don’t know what they took, I probably never will. My parents sent us in the house while they took care of the boys. They thankfully survived. But that image of them passed out in the blue, 90s Toyota will stick with me forever.
7.
Just this past Saturday I hit the local bar to get some carry-out and a growler. I saw a friend outside and chatted for maybe three minutes when another guy took a step, tripped, and face-planted hard into a “stepped” area of concrete. In the blink of an eye, this guy was within minutes of dying. He began convulsing and vomiting uncontrollably, could not speak and was bleeding profusely from his head, nose, and ears.
He hit so hard that his nose was shattered and his skull split open across his forehead. EMTs were stunned and got him out of there as fast as possible. The bartender came out and washed more blood and vomit than I’ve ever seen from the pavement with buckets of hot bleach water.
The scariest part was the speed at which this happened. People were standing so close to this guy but he went down so fast and hard that there wasn’t time to react and catch him. The violence of the impact was shocking.
8.
My mom called me at midnight asking me to go check on my dad because she was worried about him but didn't say exactly why. I found him drunk in the woods behind the house sitting on a stump with a pistol in his mouth. I spent the next 40 minutes sitting there talking him down. He eventually gave me the gun and went to bed. I'll never get over it.
9.
A few months back I was driving on the highway and a truck hauling a bunch of lumber almost went off the shoulder, swerved into my lane coming right for me, then swerved back into their lane and tipped over and went into the ditch. I pulled over and puked because I was so scared. A guy behind me went and helped the driver out and called ems and everything, everyone was alright but it was very frightening.
10.
I saw a head-on collision between two SUVs on a remote section of the road near Jasper. Approximately 100km from the closet hospital. I was first on the scene, pulled bodies from burning vehicles after breaking windows, my shirt caught on fire pulling people out. I attempted CPR with two other people on 4 of the six people until they passed away in our arms. Their bodies were broken, or CPR was not possible due to severe facial injuries and pneumothorax. One man kept reaching up to me asking me if he was going to die, and telling me he couldn’t breathe, but his lungs were obviously perforated, I breathed for him until he passed away. I told him he was loved and was with people who cared for him.
The vehicles caught on fire, causing a forest all around us, and had to be put out with a helicopter hours later. During the hour that it took for EMS to get to the scene, a bear walked through the scene, and we had to constantly scare it away, probably due to the smell of blood. I watched 2 people burn to death because I could not reach them through the fire, I promise I tried to save them. I was covered in blood, body fluids, bone chips, and a tooth stuck in my knee. There was a baby laying face down on the road and it was placed on what I thought was the mom while doing CPR.
In the end, the baby and mother were the only ones of all 8 who lived. So many peoples lives were destroyed that day. I still have PTSD from the experience. I often feel like I failed at saving people, but their bodies were so severely damaged. Smells, sounds, textures, were all so vivid that I get flashbacks, I’m emotional writing this. Since then, I have had many horrifying dreams, but the dreams that stand out most are dreams of meeting the people who passed. In the dreams they tell me positive words of encouragement and appreciation, even laughs and jokes about life. It’s weird. Please drive safe, love each other. I tried everything I could do to help, I promise to god I tried.
Edit; I sincerely thank you all for the outpouring of kind, loving and positive thoughts and comments! I am at peace with the events of that day and very happy in life! I’m sincerely not a hero, I was just trying to help where I thought I could. Whenever I think about that day I just think about hugging the loved ones of the people who lost their loved ones. Spread that love around and we will all be hero’s!
If you were involved, or know anyone at the scene, please reach out to me!
11.
My cousin getting attacked by a Rottweiler. We had a neighbor (14) that had a Rottweiler tied up in their backyard. We always thought it was friendly. We would hang out with our neighbors often. This one particular time my neighbor's sister was feeding/playing with the dog.
My cousin (8) and his twin brother went over to join her. One of them got on the doghouse and the dog didn't seem to like that, so it latched onto my cousin's thigh. He jumped down and tried to run away but the dog pushed him down and grabbed onto my cousin's head and started thrashing him around. I was in shock. I couldn't move and it took me a few seconds to realize what was going on. It was like watching it happen in slow motion.
His head was snatched back and forth and blood was everywhere. I snapped out of it when I saw my neighbor run towards them and started punching the dog in the face. He let go and my cousin took off running and screaming that he had a hole on his head. I ran over to him and tried to calm him down. His scalp was hanging off his head. I could see the white of his skull. We lived next to my parent's restaurant and the parking lot was full of customers.
I called 911 and the ambulance was there in minutes. He was taken to the hospital and had to have his scalp stapled and stitches on his chest and thigh. He was scared of dogs for the longest after that.
12.
Arrived at an accident about 30 seconds after it occurred. A friend of mine was driving and rolled the car, she was thrown clear (no seatbelt - wear them FFS!) and hit a tree. I found her, did first aid and helped the paramedics lift her onto the stretcher and into the ambulance. Her body stopped functioning about a week later but it's pretty obvious she died there (massive brain trauma), it just took a while for the end.
13.
I haven’t had the most adventurous life, but I remember one time when we were camping, my family was hiking around on this big rock and it started getting cloudy. My dad and siblings climbed up to the top of the rock but my mom and I decided it was too steep for us. My dad reached up into the air and said he could feel static on his fingers.
My little sisters hair starting standing up a little, and my dad was just standing there with my brother, laughing at the staticky feeling he got when he reached up. My mom and I tried to convince him to come down but he wouldn’t. Eventually he ended up getting down and no one was hurt, but I was terrified watching my little sisters hair stand up and my dad not do anything about it. He’s a good dad, but sometimes he can be a moron. He didn’t think the situation was that serious, even with my mom and I freaking out
14.
I was a skydiving instructor for a couple of years.
There was a really cocky kid that went through our program, who was pretty bad at listening, barely tested into the solo jump phase, etc. I didn’t have the authority to kick him out, and regardless, I wasn’t close enough to the situation to know whether or not they were wrong in letting him jump.
His first jump, he had a poor free fall (not uncommon), but not terrible canopy work.
I saw his second jump, where he didn’t follow radio directions under canopy, and turned without looking, such that his parachute wrapped around another student, obstructing that student’s vision and mobility.
At this point, with the first kid hanging by a collapsed canopy wrapped around the second kid (~1000ft off the ground), they are trained to ride it down since neither is moving at a dangerous speed towards the ground. But of course, dingus doesn’t want to follow direction (or the advice given to him over the radio). He cuts away his first parachute, going back into free fall, to allow his reserve to deploy.
Watching from the tower that day, I thought I would witness this kid bounce off the ground. Fortunately, we had some of the best riggers in the country working for us, and the reserve deployed immediately. No sooner had it fully deployed, that kid touched down.
He couldn’t have cut it any closer! Suffice it to say, this kid didn’t get to jump again.
Edit: all students jump with radios, so the kid whose vision was obstructed was able to follow radio instructions to land safely, even though he had to do so without being able to see in front of him.
15.
Back in the mid-’70s, I worked for a company called TriForm Corp in Gurnee, Illinois. I worked in the machine shop on the day shift. I usually went in early so I could have a smoke and a cup of coffee before I started my shift. I worked on a turret lathe mostly. There was a woman who ran that turret lathe on the third shift, so I always took over from her. I didn’t know her all that well, just knew that she was pretty and had long silky hair. One morning I heard a scream and then people scrambling, lots of shouting.
I ran over to the source of the noise. It was that girl. Her long hair had gotten tangled on the piece of bar stock she had been working with. It grabbed her hair and ripped her scalp off, peeling in from the back of her head the tip of her nose. When I got there it was still spinning around. I’ll never forget that wet slapping sound it made. I hit the emergency stop. Somebody had grabbed towels and stuff and wrapped her head and was trying to keep her calm but she was hysterical. It was bad. Real bad.
16.
Me, a 25 year old tram driver, once almost hit a group of teenagers who ignored all warning signs, causing me to hit the emergency brakes and injure 4 of the passengers in my tram, who fell to the floor due to the sudden stop of the tram. Also, i was traumatized for 2 weeks and needed to take off work to go to therapy. I swear, in that moment i saw these kids, i just hit the brakes, closed my eyes and prayed I don't feel an impact. That was by far the scariest thing in my life so far.
17.
I watched both WTC towers come down from a few blocks away. Had serious PTSD for about 15 years.
18.
Ah….well. This happened around 15 years ago. I was visiting El Salvador with my family and long-time friend of 30+ years. One day we went to a coastline and thought it was a great place to fish, we could see for miles away and my friend was a well-experienced diver+boater.
I was feeling really tired that day so I head off to sleep. I wake up and realize I dozed off too long as It’s around 6 pm and it’s dark. I look around the house that we rented for the week and realize I’m the only one here. My family or friend isn’t here so I wait one more hour and feel a sense of dread come over me almost Immediately and ran out to where I last saw them.
As I run down the street I realize a large group of people is gathering at the coast and find out my kids are stranded near the coastline with people throwing things to them to latch on to. My wife is crying and yelling and I help some other guys pull them to safety. Then I realize that my friend and the boat is gone. I do one last look at the coastline and hear “IM SORRY! I DID MY BEST! IM SORRY!” And I see my friend go down the ocean with the boat flipping over him and drowning him.
He swam for 3 hours in rough water with my kids bringing them as close to the coast as he could before succumbing to exhaustion still thinking he didn’t do good enough.
19.
I saw a person fall out of the back of a pickup going 65mph. He hit the ground, and rolled, then stood up. His baseball cap did not fall off. The truck he was in did not stop. I almost ran over him as he fell into my lane. It was clear he was in a little shock so I walked him over to the side of the road and called 911. He had a mild case of road rash (it was summer so short sleeves) I can't imagine what happened when the people got to their house and someone said "Where's Bill ??"
21.
Two drunk homeless guys were fighting and one got pushed down onto the Miami metrorail tracks with a train visible in the distance. He wasn’t able to stand on his own and nobody was helping. I jumped down and forced him back up as someone else pulled him on to the platform. I made it back up with the only like 20 seconds before the train came. I was afraid I would be electrocuted or wouldn’t have been able to get him back in time and would’ve had to leave him.
22.
A wildfire. People don't understand the noise, heat and speed of a modern wildfire. I have been managing wildfire risk for a long time and nothing compares to first hand witness of literal hellscape on earth. Watching one grow miles over minutes with resources surrounding on all sides making no attempt to manage gives a feeling of helplessness that lingers in the soul. Stay safe everyone.
23.
I was diving in the Florida keys on a very popular reef, was in about 30ft of water just kind of exploring. I came around this one corner of the reef and about 10ft from me was the biggest bull shark I have ever seen, and it was just coming towards me. This thing was at least 9-10ft long. I’ve never pulled my dive knife out faster from my ankle. Thankfully it just went on it’s way and swam right past me. I did run my hand along it as it swam by which was awesome.
24.
I was working at a chemical plant and saw a guy in fork truck make a turn too fast. He wasn't wearing his seat belt and the top of the cage landed on his head. I froze for a moment, it was so horrifying. I then ran over and killed the ignition. Some other workers came and we lifted the cage up high enough to pull him out, but it was obviously too late. I can still his blood running down a nearby drain.
26.
Mine is a bit silly, and honestly might not be the scariest thing in my life, but I felt like some of the heavier comments could use a funnier scary moment to offset them. While hiking in Japan I came across a troop of snow monkeys, and one bore its fangs and started chasing me (probably because I wasn't thinking and made eye contact, which they see as a sign of aggression). He chased me for several minutes, and I am pretty sure I felt it swiping at my pant legs. I just had this vision in my head of it climbing me like a tree and biting my face or neck.
I told my parents this story when I was showing off pictures from my trip, and the first picture I stopped on didn't have a lot in it for reference. My mom sat and listened to this story in horror, until I went to the next slide, where you can clearly see that snow monkeys stand no more than 2 feet tall. I think she was picturing something Chimpanzee size.
27.
I was 12, on the way to an amusement park at 9 something in the morning. A drunk driver slowly drove off the road and into a ditch, flipped his car over on its side. Dude climbed up and out of the window. still scared me though.
28.
Someone being murdered infront of me, gang drive by shooting on my front yard. That it I guess when I was 12 and a large group of people tried to kill this guy on our front yard, we got him inside and they tried to get into the house to kill him and my family. My dad handed me a knife and told me "whatever happens, whichever comes in. You fight for your life." The cops didn't pick up the phone when we called over and over and we had to call a friend to call for us. I was fully prepared to kill whoever I had to to survive that night
29.
Cycling home after work in London and seeing some discarded chips and tomato sauce in the gutter. As I rode slowly past, I saw a crow pick up a chip, DIP it into the sauce, and then gobble the whole thing down. Repeatedly. I still think about sometimes, and occasionally it haunts my dreams.
30.
Me and my friends were climbing up and jumping off of a partially collapsed damn. The side with deep water was prob a 15-foot drop and you had to climb up the slick concrete to jump off again. The left half of the damn was whole and you could walk along the top. The right half was collapsed and had about an inch of water over it. The collapsed part was rubble with rebar and all kinds of sharp metal sticking out.
I was climbing on the corner, partially over water, partially over the collapsed part, when I slipped about 1 foot from the top. One of my friends on the top grabbed the back of my life jacket at the last second and held me. For a few seconds, I was fully suspended over a 60-foot drop with bad s**t at the bottom. I managed to get a hold of the damn wall again and climb back up. I owe that guy my life.
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