An ordinary man, Frane Selak’s incredible experiences with life and death make him the world’s luckiest unlucky man.
Most people would consider themselves lucky to escape a near-death experience. But imagine going through such a situation seven times!
Yes, an octogenarian from Croatia, Frano (or Frane) Selak, managed to escape the jaws of death not once, not twice, but seven times, according to the BBC.
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A music teacher from Croatia, Selak was born in 1929, and his close encounters with death began in 1957. While traveling by bus, the driver, who had been drinking, crashed into a river, killing many others, but Selak escaped unscathed.
His next brush with death came when the train he was on derailed due to a boulder on the tracks and plunged into a river. While 17 passengers drowned, Selak was miraculously pulled to safety by a stranger, once again escaping the waters.
The third near-fatal incident occurred during a flight when the plane’s door flew open mid-air, sucking Selak and other passengers out. Amazingly, he and an air hostess survived the 800-meter fall by landing on a haystack, while all others tragically lost their lives.
The next two near-death experiences were car accidents, and he narrowly escaped both times just before they burst into flames.
It seems like Selak had a bizarre relationship with all kinds of transportation modes.
He once again narrowly escaped being hit by a bus, and his final brush with death occurred in 1996. While driving, his car went off a cliff, but he cheated death by grabbing hold of a tree on the way down, marking his seventh and final escape.
Selak’s life has been a rollercoaster ride, as he survived all possible forms of accidents and proved fate wrong each time.
As if these bizarre accidents weren’t enough, he won a lottery in Croatia for 6.5 million kuna (approximately $1 million) at the age of 73. He used the prize money to buy a luxury house and lived happily with his fifth wife until selling it in 2010 to go back to a simpler life.
Despite all the strange occurrences in his life, Selak was grateful for his many escapes from death. He built a shrine in honor of the Virgin Mary, funded a hip operation in his later years, and generously gave away most of his money to friends and family, according to Total Croatia.
Dubbed the world’s luckiest unlucky man, he passed away peacefully in 2016 at the age of 87.
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