Have you ever come close to killing someone, whether it was by accident, or it was deliberate?
Judging by these responses, you’d be surprised how often it actually happens.
Here are some pretty scary stories from AskReddit users.
1. This is scary.
“I operate heavy equipment(dozer excavators) these thing weigh over 30 tons on the light side for perspective. Anyways we had just started a brine pond project an had just hired some new laborers. They were as green as they come lol.
Anyways ,I used my two way radio to ask them to come over to where I was to tear down a set or barricades so I could proceed. One of the laborers literally ran right up beside my machine without making direct eye contact or radio contact(industry standard is to do so I can safe out the machine).
I was backing up at the time so I was watching behind my machine. When I turned around to go forward the laborer literally 2 inches from my tracks…Needless to say I’ve never pressed the engine decal pedal as fast as I did in that situation.. if I was new to the machine or inexperienced the guy would have been an empty tooth paste roll on the ground.”
2. Almost lost it.
“My wonderful husband had several brain tumors and died a horrible, painful death. After he died (shortly before our 25th anniversary), FIVE different people told me how “lucky” I was to be a widow and not divorced like them.”
3. Wow…this one.
“Had an abusive stepfather when I was a kid. A bit pedo-creepy – would do things like “accidentally” let his robe gap open with no underwear on, would start tickle fights as an excuse to get gropey, that sort of thing. That was nothing next to the beatings, gaslighting, manipulation and other varieties of psychological and physical torture. I hated him more than I’ve ever hated anyone in my life and one night I decided to try to make rat poison tea.
Turns out the rat poison we had wouldn’t dissolve in the tea. It’s for the best. He’s still an asshole but at least I’m not a murderer.
4. Close call.
“Drunk student fell into the road in front of me. I swerved and wrote off two cars and injured my passenger (I was fine).
He didn’t even hang around to thank me, little wanker.”
5. Be careful on the stairs.
“When I was fifteen, I carried my two-year-old cousin down a flight of stairs, when I tripped and we fell down three steps. She fell on the back of her head and I on top of her. It took a split second before she started crying and I thought she was dead.
Thankfully, she was fine, but I’m so glad she didn’t fell harder or over the handrail, or else she would have fallen at least three meters and would probably be dead.”
6. Dodged a major bullet.
“Driving tired once, had a microsleep and woke up driving down the wrong side of the road. Fortunately it was late at night, no traffic around, but could easily have killed myself and my passenger.
Never driven tired since.”
7. Standing up for mom.
“Step dad spit in my moms face after not having abused her in over 5 years. So I shoved him he said he was gonna come back and kill us and ran out the door.
So I followed picked him up from behind, carried him off the porch and slammed him headfirst onto the cement and then just beat the shit out of him while neighbors came out.
Got arrested, and got my first felony.”
8. A nurse’s tale.
“Nurse here. Unit was very very busy and I mentioned to a patient we needed to start her on antibiotics. Patient consented. I hung penicillin, only to find out our computer said she’s anaphylactic allergic to penicillin. Incredibly, she must have outgrown her childhood allergy.
Beat myself up for a long time for that near miss.
Won’t make that mistake again.”
9. Self-defense.
“Grabbed a screwdriver in a desperate attempt to dislodge my ex husband from pinning/ strangling me.
Swung up and only put a hole in his shirt.
Really wish I hadn’t missed.”
10. This is insane.
“I volunteered at an orphanage in Thailand a couple of years ago. I had been gone for about a month and when I came back they told me about a guy who had been sneaking into the girls dormitory and raping some of them. The girls were so scared that they wouldn’t sleep. These girls were all between 1-12 years old.
All of the other staff were women and the guy would physically overpower them when they tried to stop him from getting in the dorm. I am a paramedic by profession so I have a bit of a personal respect and value for human life but this guy had crossed so many lines. I went to the local police and asked them for help and they told me to deal with it. I waited right inside the door of the girls dorm until about 2 AM with a large bamboo pole.
I didn’t want to kill him but honestly I didn’t have any problem if it came to that. As soon as I saw the door open I rushed him and knocked him over the porch railing. He had a machete but he dropped it when I tackled him. I jumped over the railing and started beating him as hard as I could. I am not a tiny guy and I also have combat training so I was quite effective.
He fought back but I had the size advantage and I was raging. After about 2 minutes I realized that I had broken my hand and quickly grabbed the bamboo pole and swung it around as he tried to get up and run away. It nailed him in the side of his head and sliced most of his right ear off. I swung again and it k Ickes him out. He ended up with a broken nose, left cheek, missing ear, dislocated right shoulder and broken left arm and hand. I broke all of the fingers in his left hand as well.
I stopped just short of killing him, but not because I didn’t want to. I knew that if I did kill him I would have to live with that and I didn’t want to give him that power. I already have a ton of guilt just from patients who have died in the field or in the ambulance, I couldn’t bear to kill someone in cold blood like that even if I was justified. I ended up walking away with just a broken right hand and some bruises and sprains. The girls got to sleep though. To this day he hasn’t been back.”
11. No one would ever know…
“Let me just start by saying my dad was extremely abusive. Mentally, physically and emotionally. He beat on my mother and I quite a bit. He also hunted a lot (deer mostly) and it was a big tradition in our family for the uncles and cousins to all go together.
My grandmother (mom’s mom) pulled me aside the day before opening day, and told me she would buy me a car (I was 15, almost 16 at the time) if I shot my dad out in the woods. She told me no one would ever know, and she would get me the best lawyer money could buy if it came to that. I agreed.
To this day, I wish I would have pulled the trigger. I was too scared and my conscious got the best of me. I know I would have gotten away with it, and it would have saved my family so much trouble down the road. He’s dead now, but I wish I could have been the one to do it.”
12. Allergic to peanuts.
“Working at a fast food shop, my friend who was very allergic to peanuts asked for our shops version of the blizzard, I joked “you want that with peanut butter cup right? hahah” we both chuckled, he said no and asked for cookie dough.
For some unspeakable reason, no a single clue why, I made it with cookie dough AND peanut butter cups. Handed it to him without a second thought. He brought it back like a minute later and said he thinks he saw peanut butter cup in it, and sure enough, my dumb teenage ass put this mans literal death poison in his ice cream.
I apologized 100 times, He said it wasn’t a big deal. I lived with that anxiety causing thought for a while.”
13. Revenge.
“My mate got stabbed 8 times almost died, we caught the guy but just beat the shit out of him.
A lot of kicks to the head but we didn’t end up stabbing him like we planned to.”
14. The group home.
“When I was 13 years old I was living in a group home. The boys in the group home were never allowed to go upstairs where the girls dorms were. I was the only girl who left each day for public school. Everyone else went to school in the basement.
Every day, as I would be the only one upstairs getting ready, this one guy snuck up the stairs and forced himself upon me. I told one of the house parents and she laughed at me.
After a month of this I snapped. I stood on top of my bed listening as his foot steps got closer. As soon as he walked into my room I lunged at him. I wrapped my hands around his throat.
As soon as he hit the ground everyone in the group home came running to see what that sound was. It took several people to pry my hands off that guy’s throat. I was arrested and originally charged with attempted murder. Luckily that kid confessed to raping me repeatedly. I was still charged with assault and battery though.
I spent 2 months in juvenile detention. I was also given 6 months of house arrest and 6 months of probation.”
15. Caught in the act.
“Walked in on my (now ex) wife having sex with another man. That man was a cop. His pants and gunbelt were right there on the floor. I came VERY close to shooting them both, but didn’t.
I never understood terms like “seeing red” or having an out of body experience until that moment.”
16. Good thing she was fine.
“When my daughter was seven weeks old, I was going out to the coffee shop around the block from my house. It was a rainy day, but had stopped briefly.
I put her in my Moby Wrap and went out. I went and got coffee and a sandwich. On my way back home, I went to step up onto the sidewalk. Instead my toe clipped the curb. I fell forward. My daughter was thrown out of the wrap and onto the sidewalk.
Luckily I was closer to the ground as I was falling as well, and the fall wasn’t as far as it could’ve been. She began to cry immediately and all I could do was sit on the wet sidewalk, rocking back and forth crying, as a woman was standing next to me saying, “oh my god. Oh my god. Oh my god.”
I didn’t have my cell phone with me bc I was just running out. A kind gentleman let me use his and I called my husband who was working around the block. He was there in seconds.
We went to the emergency room. Got lots of tests done. Watched as my seven week old daughter was placed in a CT scan, I felt so helpless.
She was completely fine. It was the worst day of my life. I can still close my eyes and see her falling to the ground.
Although this experience was terrifying, it taught me some important lessons: kids are resilient, if they cry immediately they’re probably okay, if they move immediately they’re probably okay, you’re gonna eff things up as a parent so be easy on yourself.”
Life can be a game of inches sometimes, it’s very true.
What about you? Have you ever had any experiences like this?
Share them with us in the comments, please!
