The luckiest unlucky man to ever live cheated death an amazing seven times. It really depends on your perspective of things. Was he lucky to survive, or unlucky to have encountered near death experiences? We will explain his unfortunate encounters and let you decide.
Frane Selak is a Croatian music teacher who was born in 1929. He holds the dubious title for being the luckiest unlucky man alive after nearly meeting his maker seven times. He first cheated the Grim Reaper in January 1962 when the train he was a passenger in slipped off the tracks and plunged into a river. He was rescued and survived the incident with a broken arm and hypothermia. Seventeen other train passengers perished.
His second near appointment with the undertaker occurred only one year later in his only flight in a plane. This incident should have ended him, but just like the Coyote he managed to survive. As they were flying the engines of the plane stopped running and it began to lose altitude. But things were about to get worse, or better for Mr Selak. The planes door came off the plane, and only Frane was sucked out. But as fate would have it, he landed in a haystack and survived with only minor injuries, while the plane crashed killing 19. The mortician missed out on a paycheck for a second time for Frane Selak.
Three years later, in 1966, he tempted fate with public transport yet again, this time in a bus. The bus he was riding in slid off an icy road and into a river, taking the life of four people. But Frane managed to survive yet again with only minor injuries. I’m beginning to think they should have placed a do not allow to ride picture of the man at all ticket booths.
So by 1966 he had survived three encounters with public transport that should have killed him. It’s no wonder he decided to ditch them and manage his own transport. But it wasn’t going to help him.
The luckiest unlucky man ever nearly met his untimely end for a fourth time four years later in 1970. This time the car he was driving caught fire and he jumped out of it moments before the fuel tank exploded. This guy has more luck cheating death than Superman.
Near death experience number five occurred three years later in a car he was driving again. This time the car caught fire due to a malfunctioning fuel pump. This caused flames to be ejected through the vents into the car. This incident burned his hair, but he otherwise remained unharmed.
After managing to avoid any hazards for over twenty years, Frane Selak tested his luck a sixth time. In 1995 he was hit by a bus in Zagreb. Apart from only minor injuries, he remained in good health.
He only had to wait another 12 months for incident number seven to come knocking at his door, or as it would be, lurking just around the corner. In 196 he was driving on a mountain side when he encountered a UN truck. He swerved to avoid a collision, and in doing so plunged his car through the guard rail and over the cliff, Miraculously, he wasn’t wearing a seat belt and was ejected from the car as it fell to a fiery demise.
What made Frane Selak the luckiest unlucky man in the world?
Evading death seven times in the fashion he did can be viewed in two ways. He was unlucky to have experienced such events in the first place, or he was lucky to survive each encounter. But wait just one second. His unbelievable story doesn’t end in 1996 with being run over a cliff. His luck was about to change.
In a real life story of beating the odds, in 2003 the luckiest unlucky man in the world won the lottery. You didn’t make a mistake reading that, he won the lottery, a cool €800,000 ($1,110,000 U.S. dollars). In 2010, after buying two houses and a boat he gave the remainder of his winnings away to relatives.
