25 Interesting Vehicular Accidents and Crashes

In 2002, a car was reported running off the road in Surrey, England by multiple witnesses. Police arrived and found no signs of a crash. After a careful search the car and driver were finally found but it was determined the accident occurred 5 months earlier.

2. The day after German World War 1 ace Oswald Boelcke died from a crash landing following a midair collision, British pilots dropped a wreath at his airbase which read: "To the memory of Captain Boelcke, a brave and chivalrous foe."

3. When Peter O'Toole cut the top of his finger off in a boating accident, he dropped the tip of the finger in some brandy before pushing it back into place and wrapping it with a bandage. Removing the bandage weeks later he found he'd put it back the wrong way round.

4. Mark Hamill was in a car accident that caused substantial facial trauma a day before he finished shooting the original Star Wars. An in-universe explanation for his scarring was developed for The Empire Strikes Back, where he is mauled by a Wampa, allowing him to continue the trilogy.

5. A doctor named Dr. Michael Shannon saved the life of a premature baby (Chris Trokey). 30 years later Chris, who was a paramedic was the First responder to an accident, saved the Dr.'s life that had saved him.

In 1985, a 17-year old named George Lamson Jr. was ejected from a plane upon crash (Galaxy Airlines Flight 203) and landed upright in his seat in the middle of a street. He was the only survivor.

7. The Japan Air 123 accident was the deadliest single-aircraft crash of all time. The crew could not control the plane so they used thrust to go up and down and differential trust to turn. It crashed after 32 minutes. No simulation reconstruction held out as long as the crew did.

8. While shooting Resident Evil there was an accident that injured 16 people. First responders to the scene thought there was a catastrophe and had trouble assessing the injuries due to the victims' zombie costumes.

9. Out of 262 Blue Angels pilots, 26 have been killed during training or show accidents, giving the job a 10% fatality rate.

10. Hugh Trenchard, a British soldier in the Boer War, was shot in the chest and spine, becoming partially paralyzed. He took up bobsledding as a hobby, and after a major accident regained use of his legs.

A college student named Derek Kieper wrote against seat belt laws, saying they are "intrusions on individual liberties" and that he won't wear one. He died in a car crash, and his 2 passengers survived because they were wearing seatbelts.

12. In 1886, 3 people were killed and many more injured in a Texas train company's publicity stunt. They had invited the public to watch two of their trains crash head-on into one another at full speed, promising a good show.

13. The 1977 University of Evansville Men's Basketball Team was killed in a plane crash. One player didn't make the trip due to an illness. He was killed in a car wreck 2 weeks later.

14. Philosopher Bertrand Russell, while aboard a flight in Norway, asked the flight crew to seat him in the smoking section, claiming that "If I cannot smoke, I should die." The plane later crash landed into a bay, drowning everybody in the non-smoking section.

15. A woman named Peace Pilgrim walked across the US continuously for 28 years, only to be killed in an automobile accident while being driven to a speaking engagement about her travels.

In 2004, a $300,000 diamond was lost in an F1 crash. The diamond was attached to the car to promote Ocean's 12 and was never recovered from the crash.

17. The MGM lion Jackie was in a plane crash and survived on sandwiches.

18. In 2010, a plane crashed in the Democratic Republic of Congo, killing 20 people, because everyone onboard ran to one end of the plane and it became severely imbalanced. They were fleeing a crocodile that escaped confinement. The croc survived the crash.

19. If a person has had part of their body crushed in an accident and trapped for more than 15 minutes, you should not free them without medical personnel on the scene. Crushed muscles break down into toxic byproducts, and releasing the pressure lets these flow into the body, killing the person.

20. There was a man named Frane Salek who survived a train derailment, a door coming off of an airplane, a bus crash, a fiery car, and two car accidents only to later win the lottery.

Maurice Wilson in 1934 died in an attempt to climb Mount Everest by flying halfway around the world, crash-landing on the mountain, and then walking to the summit despite having no experience in either mountaineering or aviation.

22. In 1989, a MiG-23 pilot mistakenly ejected on take off from Poland, and the aircraft continued flying 560 miles on autopilot only to crash into a house in Belgium killing a teenager.

23. Kursk was a Russian submarine that sank in August of 2000 due to an accident involving poorly maintained torpedoes. None of the crew survived due to old, poorly maintained Russian rescue equipment and the Russian Navy's refusal to accept Western aid.

24. Robert Patrick (the guy who plays T-1000 in Terminator 2) was once involved in a boating accident and he swam for 3 hours to get help for others.

25. The 2016 plane crash which killed most of the Brazilian Chapecoense football team was caused by the pilot failing to make necessary fuel stops. The plane ran out of gas while in a holding pattern at its destination airport and fell out of the sky.