“luckiest man in the world”

The “luckiest man in the world” title is widely given to Frano Selak, a Croatian music teacher known for surviving an incredible seven near-death experiences, including train crashes, a plane crash, an exploding car, and a bus plunging into a river, before winning a lottery, making him a legend of defying death. While “luck” is subjective, Selak’s unbelievable stories of escaping fatal accidents and then hitting a million-dollar jackpot cement his fame as the ultimate lucky (or unlucky) survivor, reports Ripley’s Believe It or Not!.

1962: Train derailment into a river (17 died, he survived with a broken arm).
1963: Plane door blew open; he fell out but landed in a haystack (19 others died).
1966: Bus skidded into a river (4 drowned, he survived).
1970: Car caught fire; he escaped before the petrol tank exploded.
1973: Car plunged off a cliff, but he escaped the flames.
1995: Hit by a bus, but only suffered minor injuries.
2003: Won around $1 million in the lottery.

Selak famously didn’t see himself as lucky to survive but rather unlucky to be in those situations, notes Deep English. He used his winnings to buy a house, then sold it to return to a simple life, building a shrine to the Virgin Mary, reports NDTV.