On a cold January morning in 1962, 32 year old Croatian Frane Selak was minding his own
business when suddenly his train derailed.
Disconnected from the rest of the train, his train car plunged down a narrow canyon and
into an icy river.
Desperately fighting to escape the sinking train car, Selak made his way to the shore
before being pulled to safety by a bystander.
While 17 other people drowned in that tragic accident, Selak suffered nothing more than
a broken arm and hypothermia.
Yet this was the day life would take a strange turn for Selak, throwing the mild-mannered
music teacher into a curious roller coaster of fate.
Welcome to this episode of The Infographics Show, Frane Selak, the luckiest unlucky man
in the world.
Prior to his train accident, Frane Selak led a quiet and unassuming life as a local music
teacher.
It seems though that life- or more accurately, death- had plans for Selak.
Miraculously escaping death in his train accident, Selak counted his lucky stars and continued
about his life, chalking up the incident to a stroke of bad luck.
But one year later Selak's mother fell ill.
Gravely concerned, Selak- who had always been too nervous to fly- immediately booked a plane
ticket from Zagreb to Rijeka.
The earliest flight being fully booked, Selak managed to persuade a sympathetic airline
employee to let him ride in the rear of the aircraft along with the single flight attendant.
Nervous, Selak took to the skies without incident, chatting up the friendly flight attendant
and sharing tea to take his mind off his nerves.
Minutes before landing though, the rear door to the aircraft suddenly blew open, the pressure
difference between the interior and exterior of the plane sucking Selak and the flight
attendant clear out of the airplane.
Plunging to a certain death, Selak miraculously survived by landing in a haystack, suffering
nothing more than minor injuries.
Unfortunately, there were no other survivors of the terrible accident.
Two brushes with death are enough for a single lifetime, but fate wasn't done with Selak.
Four years later, Selak was commuting on a local bus when the bus suddenly skidded into
a river.
Once more plunged into icy waters, Selak managed to swim free of the sinking vehicle and make
his way to safety, suffering nothing more than cuts and bruises.
Four other riders were not so lucky and lost their lives.
Perhaps, and very understandably, deterred from public transportation, Selak purchased
a car of his own.
In 1970 while driving, his vehicle burst into flames and exploded.
Diving for safety, Selak managed to escape the burning wreck, once more suffering nothing
more than minor wounds.
What should have been a freak accident repeated itself three years later, with yet another
of Selak's vehicles exploding after spontaneously catching fire.
Diving for safety once more, Selak escape this time with minor burns.
Perhaps giving him a chance to catch his breath, life gave Frane Selak 22 years of relative
peace- until a bus hit him while walking on a street in Zagreb in 1995.
Surviving once more with relatively few injuries, Selak was then forced off a mountain road
a year later.
Driving in the Croatian mountains, an oncoming UN truck barreling down a narrow road forced
Selak to swerve, sending his car plunging off a the mountain ledge and into a ravine.
Jumping out at the last second, Selak managed to grab onto the branches of a tree and hoist
himself to safety as his car smashed into the ground below.
That would be the last time death would make an attempt on Selak's life- at least to date.
As if to make up for his incredible streak of bad luck, Selak caught a break in 2003
when he won a million dollar lottery.
Interviewed by several international publications, Selak said that “You could look at it two
ways- I was either the unluckiest man in the world, or the luckiest.
I preferred to believe the latter.”
Lucky or not, Selak's reputation for tragedy had made it difficult to keep friends.
People around him are hesitant to get into vehicles with him, or be in his general proximity-
and who could blame them?
Reflecting on his life, Selak told reporters, “There came a stage when I was lucky to
have any friends at all.
Many stopped seeing me saying I was bad karma.”
A neighbor of Selak also commented, “Put it like this, if I heard Frane had booked
a flight or train, I would cancel.”
Selak's long streak of bad luck seems to be over, but with so much international attention
falling on the man, doubt about some of his claims have begun to spring up.
Many doubters point to a lack of official records documenting any fatal plane or train
crashes in 1962 or 1963, and in an interview with the BBC either Selak misstated his original
story or a reporter miswrote it, giving the first year of his accident as 1957 and not
1962, and saying it took place on a bus instead of a train.
Inconsistencies have also popped up in Selak's own telling of his stories, with Selak claiming
in 2003 that he'd been playing the lottery consistently for years before finally winning,
but when re-interviewed in 2010 he claimed he'd won the jackpot on his very first time
playing.
Details tend to become murkier the longer a story is retold, and with Selak now in his
late 80s it's understandable if there are some inconsistencies.
The nature of Selak's incredible escapes from death also makes them fodder for skeptics,
yet Selak and those close to him stick by each story, and real or not Selak has had
to bear the stigma of being incredibly unlucky from friends and family alike.
If real though, Selak is truly the unluckiest lucky man in the world, and it's nice to see
that life finally granted him a consolation prize for trying to kill him- even if it took
70 years.
So, what do you think about Selak's life?
Too incredible to be true?
Let us know in the comments!
Also, be sure to check out our other video called Most Evil Popes in the History of Mankind!
Thanks for watching, and, as always, don’t forget to like, share, and subscribe.
See you next time!”