The day they escaped from the jaws of death

In the last week, we've heard stories of people surviving accidents. Here are some more

Call it a miracle or just luck. Last week, Pincho and Shilpa escaped death by a whisker after a speeding train rammed into their car near the unmanned railway gate at Lingarajpuram. "It was a terrifying experience and I saw death in its face. If we had delayed even by a second in getting out, we would have been crushed," says Pincho.

And on Friday, a few morning walkers were just as lucky when a car mowed down four in Indiranagar.

What is it like to come so close to death? We spoke to some people who share their stories of horror and loss.

Cricket craze

"About a week ago when I was at work, my wife called to wish me for our anniversary. The odd thing was that our anniversary is actually in September, so I was confused. The haze cleared when she reminded me that it was exactly a year ago that I survived a car crash.

"I was on my way to Chennai to watch the cricket match between India and South Africa. We were late, so my friend started speeding up and suddenly we felt a jerk and all of us went blank. A truck hit us from behind and my friend lost control and hit the wall. That's all I remember. It felt very strange but thankfully, all of us survived," said Kishore Kumar, a Bangalore-based banker.

Auto scare

Vanilla and Indrani are not too happy having to relive not-so-pleasant memories. "We were on our way to college. We were travelling by an auto and the auto-driver was acting funny. He kept talking to himself and was driving fast. We realised he was drunk but we didn't want to take another auto as we were getting late.

Near Vasantnagar, the auto hit a barricade and toppled. We were injured badly and one part of my face was jammed," said Indrani, a student of Mount Carmel College.

"That day we saw death, it took us over a year to get over this," added Vanilla.

Shocking experience

"This happened five years ago. My friends and I were on a bike on our way to Yeshwanthpur. My friend was slightly drunk but he didn't let me ride. Somehow I knew something bad was going to happen. We were speeding and suddenly a cow came in the way. Trying to avoid it, we hit a tree.

"I was in pain but I didn't know what had happened to me. My friend was unconscious and there was blood oozing from his ears and his pulse was low. He took almost a year to recover but this was a shocking experience," said Vishnu, a techie working for ABB Solutions.