We’ve all had that one moment.
Maybe you’ve stopped your car just in time, tires squealing as you avoid a nasty collision,
or you managed to catch a child tumbling down off the couch just before they hit the floor.
Either way, the physical experience is the same.
Your heart pounds just a little harder as your adrenaline spikes.
Today, we’re going to check out our third installment of terrifyingly close calls caught on camera.
A Really Bad Trip
During the summer of 2020 in St. Petersburg, Russia, somewhat boring dashcam footage of
traffic became a lively, heart-pounding thriller when a middle-aged pedestrian stepped into the street.
The dull line of slow-moving cars pauses to allow a female pedestrian to cross, and she
quickly hurries across the two right-hand lanes before proceeding into oncoming traffic,
waving cheerfully to the drivers.
Her lighthearted mood is soon shattered when she realizes that the two oncoming lanes are
flowing much faster than the lanes she just crossed.
As a large white van barrels towards her, the woman freezes in shock for a moment before
continuing, only to trip and fall to the ground.
Luckily, the driver of the white van reacts quickly and manages to stop mere inches before
the woman, saving both of them from a very bad day.
The woman is certainly lucky to be alive, and this clip serves as a great reminder of
a childhood lesson: always look both ways before you cross the street…
Don’t Mess with Mama
Seeing baby wild animals is usually a cool and cute experience.
That is, unless, their much bigger, stronger, and angrier mother is lurking nearby.
A hiker in Utah found out pretty quickly that wild cats are simply not as cuddly as their
domestic counterparts.
While running in Slate Canyon just outside of Provo, Utah, during October of 2020, then
26-year-old Kyle Burgess stumbled upon some kittens on the trail.
Thinking they might be baby bobcats, Burgess whipped out his phone to document the adorable moment.
Just as he presses record, a fully grown female mountain lion materialized out of the scrubby
brush on the side of the trail.
As Burgess swiftly backtracks down the trail, he is trying to keep his eye on the mountain
lion, maintain his own balance, while continuing to document the ordeal.
As you can hear, Burgess is attempting to frighten the animal himself with growls, hisses, and yelling.
Though he has no formal wildlife training, Burgess, a Utah native, remembered being instructed
to “make yourself look big” when dealing with an aggressive wild animal.
He tried to achieve this by lifting his arms up to extend the visual appearance of his
six-foot, 150-pound frame.
Even though Burgess is talking and moving through the duration of the recording, he
noted that every time he took his eyes off the lioness, she would lunge at him, but she
never got quite close enough to touch him.
As you can see, the lioness ultimately streaks away, back up the trail presumably towards her babies.
Burgess said that when he finally felt like he could momentarily stop, he grabbed a rock
and lobbed it at the creature, which might be why she turned and fled.
The state of Utah sent a team from the Division of Wildlife Resources out to the site the
following morning to ensure that the mother and cubs were no longer lingering near the trail.
Scott Root, director of the division, noted that the mountain lions in the area usually hunt deer.
He couldn’t remember any mountain lion physically harming a human in his thirty-year career.
Although according to wildlife experts, the lioness was just trying to chase Burgess out
of the area to keep him away from her young, it doesn’t make it any less scary.
Burgess handled the situation as best as he could.
Apparently, he, the lioness, and her cubs are all now safe within their respective habitats.
Let’s all remember, as cute as they are, do not approach baby lions in the wild.
As for Burgess, he’s still an avid outdoorsman despite his close brush with nature.
As he says: “No way will it prevent me from going back outside…When we’re out there,
we’re in their home, and we just gotta be aware of what we’re doing and be respectful to them.”
Keep an Eye on Your Kids
As many parents know, once babies start walking, it’s important not to turn your back on them,
even for an instant.
They can move fast, and who knows what kind of mayhem they could cause in those few moments.
One mom in Tuyen Quang, Vietnam is certainly lucky that even if she couldn’t see her
child, two quick-thinking truck drivers could.
On June 9, 2018, a truck driver’s dashcam captured the moment that an overly ambitious
toddler ran into the street.
Luckily, he spots the child and slams on his brakes while sounding his horn to alert the
oncoming vehicles.
The truck coming the opposite way also stops, just as the child decides that the street
was an excellent place to sit.
A biker on the right-hand side of the truck also notices the child, pulls up and dismounts,
removing them from danger.
Thankfully, a woman, who we can only presume to be the baby’s mother, comes racing out
to claim the toddler from the biker.
A serious tragedy was narrowly avoided, and it’s a good thing these drivers were so
alert since the baby wasn’t so easy to spot.
Missed by Mere Inches
It’s always deeply unsettling when a near-death experience unfolds during the most mundane
of circumstances.
In November of 2020, the eastern Russian port city of Vladivostok had experienced a night
of particularly vicious “ice rain” that brought down trees, made the roads hazardous,
and caused thousands to lose power.
The following morning, a couple were attempting to clean ice off of their car when the unimaginable happened.
26-year-old Darya Ponomarenko-Zhuk had just gone back inside their apartment building
to grab some hot water, leaving her husband, 27-year-old Alexander, outside, clearing the
ice off of their Nissan X-trail.
CCTV captured what happened next.
Appearing to hear something, Alexander looks up and runs away from the car just in time.
A massive 8-foot, 2-ton block of concrete comes hurtling down from the ninth floor of
an adjacent building, crushing the Nissan and narrowly misses Zhuk in the process.
The concrete slab was said to be a piece of siding from the building, but how and why
it fell remains a mystery.
The weather likely had something to do with it, since another piece of concrete from another
building on the same street also fell that day, crushing a nearby Toyota Passo.
Zhuk and his wife are thankful that they both cheated death and undoubtedly grateful that
their five-year-old daughter wasn’t in the backseat.
He later posed for a photo with the crushed car, holding a beer to commemorate his: “second birthday,” -
since he escaped with his life.
Although he is now rather well known on social media in Vladivostok, Alexander reportedly
said of his newfound fame, “better my car was intact.”
Good thing he was so quick on his feet and aware of his surroundings.
Why Did the Ducklings Cross the Road?
Humans aren’t the only ones who scrape by during a close call.
Usually, we think about us being the ones escaping from the animals, but in this clip,
the shoe is on the other foot.
During spring of 2020, a bystander in Fort Worth, Texas, decided to film the adorable
scene of a mother duck and her eleven yellow babies waddling across a multi-lane highway.
Obviously aware of the potential peril in the duck family’s journey, the videographer
muses, “Mother duck, where’s your yellow safety vest?”
just as a vehicle appears.
A seemingly unaware driver plows through the duck family at high speed, and the bystanders
seem braced for tragedy.
Unbelievably, the mother and all eleven babies were left unharmed, though scattered and likely
frightened by the event.
The mother duck gathers her ducklings and continues to make her way across the highway,
without any further interruptions.
Although we’re all rooting for the duck and her ducklings, it’s worth noting that
the driver got pretty lucky too.
Running over ducklings can be considered animal cruelty which can carry a penalty of up to
five years in jail.
Keep your eyes on the road, guys!
One Lucky Lady
For those of us who drive, traffic incidents are usually the cause of our heart-stopping,
sweat-inducing close calls.
We often take for granted that operating a multi-ton vehicle at high speeds can have
some serious consequences, and every now and then, we get a chilling reminder.
Early on a gray morning in January of 2020, in the town of Sooke, British Columbia, Canada,
dashcam footage captured the miraculous moment a woman misses not one, but multiple potentially
fatal accidents.
A female SUV driver on Highway 14, thought to be in her fifties, speeds up to pass our
videographer in order to overtake the car in her lane.
As she merges into the left lane to pass the sedan to her right, she loses control of the vehicle.
It was only thanks to the reactions of those around her that the woman remained unharmed.
The driver of the white car in the oncoming lane was able to quickly merge to their right,
avoiding her.
The driver she was attempting to overtake maintained their speed, thus avoiding her
when she spun back to the right before coming to rest on the shoulder, hitting a signpost.
Allegedly, a witness claimed that the driver was “late for work,” and that was her
reasoning behind her reckless driving.
What a good reminder that it’s better to be late to work, than dead.
Not the Catch He Expected
Even if you don’t routinely find yourself in Florida, most of us know that alligators
are no joke.
With a powerful bite, surprisingly fast speed, and superior camouflaging abilities, it’s
best to keep your wits about you when you’re in their territory.
That being said, even those that live among the gators can accidentally let their guard down.
In May of 2019, a fisherman in Florida was enjoying some light fishing in the Everglades
when he narrowly escaped losing a limb to the large reptile.
The video was shared on Instagram by the user BBQBassBros.
The alligator surfaces and chomps all at once, as the shocked fisherman jumps back, causing
the gator to miss his hand by a few measly inches.
Although left understandably shaken and likely a bit sweaty from the close encounter, the
man managed to keep all his limbs and walk away with his fish.
If the gator had managed to make contact, it would have done some serious damage.
Just remember, when in Florida, keep your eyes open and your hands to yourself.
Which one of these clips put you on the edge of your seat?
Do you have a close call story of your own?
We’d love to hear all about it in the comments below.
As always, thanks for watching!