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Hey Pandas, What Is The Most Dangerous Thing You’ve Ever Done, And Why Did You Do It? (Closed)
Mine was bungee jumping off a 200-meter-high bridge in South Africa. Never again.
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#1
I was working as a reporter, and boss sent me to cover a reported house fire. I get there with my camera, and there are no firetrucks. I see a water hose connected to a spigot, so I start spraying down what parts of the house I can. It was fully a half hour before the firefighters arrived. Five minutes after they started working and I went back to taking pictures from a safe distance, a gas line ruptured. They were all wearing safety gear, but if I had been up close with a garden hose, I would have been badly hurt.
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#2
Many years ago, when I was young and stupid, and thought I'd live forever, I fed cows using a tractor pulling a trailer. I would put the tractor in the lowest gear, tie the steering wheel with a piece of hay string so the tractor would keep going relatively straight, jump off, climb on the back of the trailer, put out the square bales of hay, jump off, and then climb back on the tractor.
Of course I was alone. If my foot had slipped at any time during that process bad things would have happened.
#3
Mine would be playing around on questionably thin ice over a pond when I was maybe 7-10 years old. Yes, 1 time I did fall through but a friend grabbed me and only 1 leg went under. It was enough of a wake-up call for me to use much more caution around frozen ponds and such in the future.
#4
Drunk driving, or high driving. I did in the 1980s on L S D and learned very quickly that it is not a game. Recently I worked in DWI prevention and there were a lot of times I cried.
Today I started a new job and a co-worker shared her story about her daughter being killed by a speeding driver. No blood tests. All I could do is take her hand and listen. Thankfully, she has grand children.
Stay home, take the keys and people can sleep somewhere in your home. Please do not sacrifice a life because you can't judge your ability to drive. If someone says "don't drive" Then don't drive.
#5
My husband came home one day so drunk, he was psychotic. It was not the first time.
He was slapping me around, yelling I had a man in the freezer "for later."
"At least he'd be stiff!" I yelled back.
I ended up with broken bones, but, for once, I was glad I had the courage to yell back, even knowing how it would end.
#6
Commuted to work on a motorbike for 15 years. Many, many, many stupid and dangerous decisions. But I kept making them, day after day, because I needed that intoxicating rush. Even surviving a high-speed crash wasn't enough to make me come to my senses. Turns out I actually just needed ADHD meds. No more bikes, and I drive under the speed limit on the inside lane these days.
#7
routinely drove up and down a road where people were known to plant bombs on the road and shoot at passing motorists.
Luis Hernandez Dauajare 4 days ago
From your username, guess you grew up in Northern Ireland. Am I right?
#8
When I was in my twenties and living in the coast of Baja California, I went with my friends to secluded beach to camp, and I decided to race a friend to swim to a buoy, some 600 meters from the shore. The sea was calm and the sun was shining, so it seemed very easy.
When we arrived, my dumb self challenged him to keep swimming to a second buoy, 300 meters away. We arrived very tired, as we had just swam almost a kilometer at full throttle, and decided to rest a bit, clinging to the buoy.
Well, when we tried to swim back, we couldn't. Turns out the tide was retreating, and the current keep pushing us to open water whenever we tried. We could see our friends on the shore, but no one could phone for help (this was the early 2000) and we had hitchhiked to the beach.
Long story short, we had to wait for almost 5 hours until someone had runned down the highway, asked for help and a boat was sent to rescue us. Never felt more stupid in my life, as the men on the boat constantly reminded us.
#9
What: I licked a crayfish in biology class. Why: because the carapace looked like pepperoni. And because I was dumb.
#10
almost k**l myself coming of my bike I had to get stiches in my chin, blacked out, had a severe concussion and broke my wrist and I was in the middle of the road. I went to E.D. the next day I had to go back because my concussion was so bad that it had to be pitch black no joke.
another is I had to go to E.D. for gastro it was that bad.
#11
Walk under a burning F-18 exhaust pipe while it was moving trying to not get under the tail hook or behind the exhaust which would burn your head. Why, because it was my job and how you get around on a flight deck.
Al Gehbruh 3 days ago
That's cool. I was an aircraft mechanic in the US Air Force. I started on the B-52 and KC-135. Then I transferred to another base and worked on the F-4 and then the F-15.
#12
What: Dodging a high speed train as a teenager. Why: Because I was f'king stupid.
#13
Climbed to the top of the radio tower (214 meters) a few times, just for fun.
#14
That would be a recap of the entirety of my 20's. I have no idea how i'm still alive.
#15
2020. HUGE George Floyd protest was going on so I went down to get photos and video for a documentary I was working on.
Show up and there is a wall of armored cops on one side, protestors on the other having a standoff. So I run into the middle between the two and started filming. Knew it was a dangerous idea, but I had to. After getting what I needed, I turned to run and instantly fell to the ground after being shot with a "less lethal" projectile in the leg. Then the pepper spray hit. I was blind and limping trying to guess my way to safety as the crowd screamed around me, moving in.
Anyway. I got the footage and finished the doc. I'd do it all over again in a heartbeat. Never felt so alive.
I Dunk My Caramel Milk Chocolate In BBQ Sauce 4 days ago
I would get a rope and swing around the buildings to avoid getting shot, like Spiderman or Deku. That would be even more dangerous tho
#16
Went free climbing with friends almost every weekend in college. Yep, rock climbing without ropes because it’s a hell of a day to die! We never even really thought about how dangerous it was
#18
Got a motorcycle after I survived cancer. Lasted 3 years before I wrecked it (fortunately without so much as a scratch.) Never got another one.
#19
Good Question. As a farm kid, everyday activities and chores could usually be counted on for a reasonable amount of danger - if you ever once took your finger off your number, as the saying goes. I'm sure there were any number of things that were actually more dangerous than I realized at the time. But upon reflection, I think I can safely say the most personally dangerous thing I've ever done was lift an airplane off the runway for my first solo flight, as a student pilot. Once you go wheels up, you are irrevocably committed to getting that thing back on the ground - one way or another. Why did I do it? Because I wanted to get my private pilot's license.
#20
I helped build the WBTV Television Tower in Gaston County, North Carolina. The tower is 2,000 feet (610 meters) in height. I did it for the money - and because I liked the view from up there.
#21
Driving 30-40 miles to go dancing while blind drunk all through my teens. I was a blackout drunk; I once had a whiskey drinking contest with a guy from the nearby airforce base - I beat him (we were drinking mickeys - half pints) and he chased me around the car until he passed out. My parents told me that they heard me come home and came downstairs to the basement to see me kneeling against the bed; at first they thought I was praying then they noticed the vomit trails to the bathroom
#22
Hopping a two-hour flight to attend a weekend house party with strangers I only knew from specific internet chat rooms. Twice - two different groups. In my defense this was the 90's, I was in my early 30's, and the risks where not as many or as well-publicized as they are today. Still, I am not exactly proud of my naivete.
#24
It was not intentional, but I once was cutting a hole in a wall with an old jigsaw when I was 15. While I was finishing the cut, I grabbed our shop vac to prep cleaning up the sawdust on the floor of the basement. I didn't know that the jigsaw wasn't grounded, and the shop vac had a short. I became ground for the two appliances and I had 110V running through my arms. My muscles clenched, electricity was popping out of my skin across my chest, and the doctor said I had about 5 more seconds before my heart would have stopped. Luckily, because my arm muscles had been constantly clenching, they suddenly gave out causing me to let go of the jigsaw breaking the circuit. Fourty-five years later, a small electric shock still makes me panic a bit.
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