Back in 2006 my family and I were on a vacation on the Greek island Crete. My older brothers and I were out for a swim at the beach, there were some waves but nothing we couldn't handle. Or so we thought... There was a terrible outwards stream underwater which nearly pulled me and my oldest brother out to sea, but we managed to swim near some rocks that we could climb unto, and we "only" got a couple of scratches from the rocks. I still have a few scars to remember that incident by.

Edit:
Just remembered another one: This one was, ironically, also in Greece (It's not that we go to Greece all the time, I've only been those two times). It was 1998 or 1999 or something so I wasn't very old. My parents and I had rented a car, and for some stupid reason I was sitting in my mom's lap on the front seat while my dad was driving. My dad missed a STOP sign at an intersection, citing the reason that the sign wasn't sprayed with flourescent spray and was partially hidden by a tree, but I can't remember. Anyway, we got hit right in the side (driver's side) and spun out of control and hit a wall. I was wearing a seatbelt so I only banged my head really hard on the dashboard and got a huge bump, but nothing serious. Didn't even get a concussion, but years after I still had a sort of "ridge" on my forehead. You couldn't see it, but you could feel it if you ran your fingers over my forehead.
The lady who hit us (it was totally our fault) didn't get hurt, but both cars were totaled. My dad, being a tourist, had to pay for the repair of both cars and pay a huge fine.

I've obviously had quite a few pretty bad ones in my career, most of which just don't need to be brought up... but I have a recent one that stands out;

In Korea as part of my lame ass training deployment...went to do some dry runs on some remote range, we were getting helo'd in (9 min flight vs. 45 min truckride...) since there was a lot of army and USMC air assets on where we were staying...there were Army blackhawks doing 'security' I guess and flying in formation around our one busted looking CH-53 that we were riding in. We had to do several relays to get everyone there so one group went, the chopper came back and grabbed the next group, etc...well we we got picked up, flew in, set up and 20 minutes later as we were waiting on the hill just dropping gear, smoking talking etc we were watching the next group come in. The blackhawks came in and formed a circle around the LZ which was very dusty so all we could see was a giant red cloud with the 53 landing in the center...and out of the cloud we saw the distinctive gray and yellow of a rotor blade fly way off into the treeline, which just didn't really register with anyone at the time until the brownout cleared and we just see a MANGLED FUCKING HUSK lying sideways and split open! Helo crashes rarely end well, and I felt fucking sick thinking that I just witnessed a bunch of my good friends dying. Luckily the whole tail end split open in such a way that everyone managed to get out of the thing and get the wounded evacuated in the army blackhawks and nearby humvees well within the 5 minute or so window before the thing started to burn down to a puddle of molten metal. Miraculously everyone was and still is pretty much okay, but just thinking of how bad that, statistically, it SHOULD have been, and the fact that I was on the thing not even 15 minutes before the incident is fucking mind blowing.

If you guys want to read about it and see the picture of the wreck after it melted here's a link:

http ://rt (dot) com/news/us-helicopter-crashes-korea-922/

On a lighter note than that but still kind of a close call:

Back when I was a boot, I was out in Waikiki with a buddy who is now notorious for dumb and trashy incidents during our off time...the night was coming to an end, we were leaving a Denny's at about 5 in the morning after having enjoyed the obligatory post-bender feast there...of course at that time and place (right on the strip) there are a lot of whores in there and as we were eating we were getting our laughs in from looking at one across the restaurant who was obviously very heavy into meth...

Anyway there I am out front smoking, waiting for my friend to finish paying and he walks out with the biggest shit eating grin on his face, laughing and beginning to tell me what hilarious shit he had said to her as we were walking through the alleys (should have taken the main strip!) and as if on cue, this same tweaked out bitch comes running out of an alley yelling "THERE HE IS DADDY, THAT'S HIM!!!" and then a gigantic moke with gold chains and face tattoos runs out with a machete and starts screaming inarticulate shit and chasing us...luckily he was fat as fuck and didn't get very far

What's a moke, Lance?

Same here you could see my shirt move and my friends were trying to reassure me everything was ok other than that I jack knifed a tractor and trailor which scared the living bitch out of me.

This past December I flipped a minivan driving way too fast on a wet, foggy road when I couldn't see a curve in front of me. I'm sure I would be dead or paralyzed had I not been wearing my seatbelt, and because of it I was able to exit the vehicle on my own and walk away with no major injuries.

Needless to say, I drive more carefully now.

Derrogatory term for the scummy variety of native hawaiians....