Frane Selak was a Croatian man who became famous for his unbelievable stories of surviving seven near-death experiences. He was dubbed as the world’s luckiest unlucky man, or the other way around, depending on how you look at it. But how did he die, and what was his legacy?
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The Seven Brushes with Death
According to Wikipedia, Selak’s alleged near-death experiences began in January 1962 when he was riding a train through a cold, rainy canyon and the train flew off the tracks and crashed into a river. An unknown person pulled Selak to safety, while 17 other passengers drowned. Selak suffered a broken arm and hypothermia.
The next year, during his first and only plane ride, he was blown out of a malfunctioning plane door and landed in a haystack; the plane allegedly crashed, killing 19 people. There are no records of a plane crash in 1963 around Croatia matching Selak’s narrative.
Three years after that, in 1966, a bus that he was riding in skidded off the road and into a river, drowning four passengers. Selak swam to shore with a few cuts and bruises.
In 1970, his car caught fire as he was driving and he managed to escape before the fuel tank blew up. Three years later, in another driving incident, the engine of his car was doused with hot oil from a malfunctioning fuel pump, causing flames to shoot through the air vents. Selak’s hair was completely singed in this incident, but he was otherwise unharmed.
In 1995, he was struck by a bus in Zagreb, but sustained only minor injuries. In 1996 he eluded a head-on collision with a United Nations truck on a mountain curve by swerving into a guardrail, which gave way under the force. Selak was not wearing a seatbelt and was ejected out of the car, clinging to a tree branch as he watched his vehicle fall 300 feet.
The Lottery Win and the Frugal Lifestyle
Two days after his 73rd birthday, Selak won €900,000 (US$1,110,000) (£702,920) in the lottery. At the time of his win, he also married for the fifth time. While he purchased two houses and a boat with his winnings, in 2010 he decided to give most of the remaining money away to relatives and friends after deciding to live a frugal lifestyle.
According to The Telegraph, Selak said: “I know God was watching over me all these years. Money cannot buy happiness so I decided to give it away.” He also said: “I have everything I need at my age – my wife is my lottery.”
Frane Selak Cause of Death: A Peaceful End
None of Selak’s near-death experiences have ever been independently verified, and at times some of his accounts of his near-death experiences were inconsistent. However, his stories have captivated many people around the world who wondered how he could cheat death so many times.
Selak died at the age of 87 on November 30, 2016. According to Total Croatia News, his cause of death was not reported, but it is assumed that he passed away peacefully after living a long and eventful life.
Selak’s legacy is one of resilience and optimism in the face of adversity. He once said: “You could look at it two ways – I was either the unluckiest man in the world or the luckiest. I preferred to believe the latter.”
