A man cheats death 7 times then wins the lottery
A man escaped from a derailed train, a door-less plane and five car accidents only to win $1.1 million in the Croatian lottery.
Frane Selak, a music teacher from Croatian, was born in 1929. He is well known in his town as the man who escaped multiple potentially fatal accidents. One would say this man was unlucky to be involved in so many dangerous encounters, other would say he’s the luckiest man in the world for escaping them. Furthermore, he won $1.1 million in 2003, two days after his 73rd birthday.
Selak is well known in the global media as the ‘world’s luckiest man’ and even the “world’s luckiest unluckiest man”. Here are his seven brushes with death…
Train Trouble
1962: Travelling by train from Sarajevo to Dubrovnik, Selak was involved in a derailing. The train he was travelling on suddenly plunged into an icy river. With 17 passengers’ dead, Selak managed to escape with a broken arm, hypothermia and minor bruising.
Haystack Safety
1963: Supposedly, while travelling from Zagreb to Rijeka by plane, a door blew off from the cockpit, forcing many passengers out of the plane. Selak was thrown out of the plane and luckily landed in a large haystack on a farm! 19 other were killed during the incident. He walked away with minor injuries. This was his first and only plane journey.
Did you say five car accidents?!
1966: Selak was riding a bus which crashed into a river. Four passengers were drowned while he managed to swim to shore safely. He gained a few cuts and bruises.
1970: A car he was driving had a faulty fuel pump. He escaped his car just in time before it burst into flames.
1973: Another vehicle set on fire by a malfunctioning fuel pump spilling oil over the engine. Fire burst through the air vents while Selak was driving. He lost all of his hair but received no major burns.
1995: Selak got ran over by a city bus! You guessed it…he had only minor injuries.
1996: He drove off a cliff to prevent a head-on collision with an oncoming United Nations truck. Landing in a tree, he watched his car explode merely 300 feet below him into a gorge.
Lottery Winner
2003: Finally, Selak won $1.1 million on the Croatian Lottery.
Selak says that he ‘knows God was watching [him] over [the] years’. Doritos ask the oldtimer to star in a commercial in Australia, however, he refused, saying he ‘didn’t want to test [his] luck’ by flying. As a result of his life experiences, he prefers to be thought as ‘the worlds luckiest man’.
At the time of his win, Selak was married for the fifth time. He purchased two houses and a boat but gave the rest of the winnings to his family. We probably know the reason why he purchased a boat rather than a car or a plane.
Want to beat the odds? Play on OneLotto now!
Back To List