Some men are remembered for their wealth. Others are remembered for their power. But Frane Selak, a simple music teacher from Croatia, became famous for something far stranger. He lived through more accidents and brushes with death than anyone could count. His life was a mix of tragedy, miracle, and luck so unbelievable that the world still remembers him as "the luckiest man in the world."
The First Escape – 1962
It was January 1962. Snow fell thick over Croatia, covering the countryside in a blanket of white. Inside a crowded train, passengers huddled together for warmth, their breath fogging up the windows.
Among them sat Frane Selak, a 33-year-old music teacher. He carried a small suitcase and his violin, planning to visit family. He looked like any other passenger—quiet, ordinary, and unnoticed by the world.
But that night, fate had different plans.
Without warning, the train shook violently. The wheels screeched, metal screamed, and the carriage lurched sideways. Before anyone could react, the train left the tracks and plunged into a freezing river.
The silence of winter was broken by screams. Icy water rushed in through shattered windows. People struggled, kicking and fighting to breathe. Seventeen passengers were dragged under and never came up again.
Frane's arm slammed against the wall, breaking instantly. Pain shot through him, but instinct told him to fight. With all his strength, he smashed a window and pulled himself out into the deadly current. His lungs burned, his body numb, but somehow—through sheer will—he swam until his fingers caught the edge of the snowy riverbank.
Shivering, broken, but alive, he collapsed in the snow.
As rescuers pulled bodies from the wreck, Frane stared at the night sky and whispered:
"Why me? Why am I still alive?"
That was only the beginning.
The Second Escape – 1963
A year later, Frane boarded his first airplane. It was supposed to be a short, routine flight from Zagreb to Rijeka. He felt nervous but tried to calm himself, telling his heart to stay steady.
Halfway through the journey, the unthinkable happened.
The plane's door blew open with a thunderous roar. Passengers screamed as the cabin filled with freezing wind. Then, in an instant, Frane was sucked out of the aircraft into the open sky.
For a moment, the world spun. He saw the earth rushing up to meet him, the plane far above, the cries of passengers fading into the storm. Death seemed certain.
But fate was not finished with him. By an impossible stroke of luck, his body landed in a haystack. The impact knocked the breath out of him, but he was alive—alive while nineteen others perished in the crash.
Later, when reporters asked him what it felt like to fall from the sky, Frane only shook his head.
"I do not know why death keeps chasing me… or why it keeps missing."
The Third Escape – 1966
By 1966, Frane had almost convinced himself that his past accidents were behind him. But fate came again.
He was traveling by bus with dozens of others when the driver lost control on a mountain road. The bus skidded, slid, and crashed into a river. Cold water swallowed the vehicle in seconds.
Four passengers drowned, their cries echoing in the rushing water. Once again, Frane fought against the current, dragging himself to safety. His body was weak, his spirit shaken, but he lived.
People began whispering that he was cursed. Others said he was blessed. Frane himself no longer knew.
The Fires – 1970s
As the years passed, danger seemed to follow him everywhere.
In the early 1970s, while driving, flames suddenly burst from his car's engine. Fire shot through the air vents, burning his hair. He leapt out just before the car was swallowed by fire.
Not long after, another car he drove exploded. He had stepped out only seconds earlier, leaving the vehicle in flames behind him.
Friends joked nervously that Frane should never sit beside them in a car or train. But behind the laughter was fear. How many times could a man escape death?
The Bus and the Cliff – 1990s
By the 1990s, Frane was an older man, gray at the temples but still carrying his violin. Yet fate had not forgotten him.
In 1995, while crossing a street in Zagreb, a bus struck him. He was thrown to the ground, bruised and shaken, but survived with only minor injuries.
The following year was worse. Driving through winding mountain roads, Frane swerved to avoid a truck. His car broke through the guardrail and plunged off a cliff.
As the vehicle tumbled downward, his life must have flashed before his eyes—the river, the plane, the bus, the fire. This time, he thought, it was the end.
But fate twisted again. The door flung open and he was thrown from the car, landing in a tree. His car exploded at the bottom of the gorge, but Frane hung onto the branches, trembling, alive.
He laughed bitterly that night.
"Death must be tired of me," he said.
The Reward – 2003
After so many near-death escapes, Frane Selak believed nothing could surprise him anymore. But in 2003, life gave him one final twist—this time a gift, not a curse.
At seventy-four, he bought a lottery ticket. He had never been lucky in games or money, only in survival. Yet against all odds, the numbers aligned. He won one million dollars.
Friends and neighbors called it justice from heaven. After all the times he had escaped death, now fortune itself had chosen him.
But Frane did not cling to the money. He bought a small house, helped his family, gave gifts, and lived simply. He said peace mattered more than wealth.
"I know what it means to be alive when others are not," he told a reporter. "Money is nothing compared to that."
frane the luckiest man
Frane Selak lived quietly after that, no longer chased by fire, water, or falling skies. When he finally died in 2016 at the age of 87, it was not in a crash, explosion, or tragedy. He passed away peacefully, in his sleep.
And so the question remains: Was he the unluckiest man alive, cursed to face accident after accident? Or was he the luckiest, chosen to survive again and again until fate itself grew weary?
The world called him "the luckiest man in the world." And perhaps they were right. For in the end, Frane Selak's life was proof that destiny sometimes writes stories no writer could ever invent.
What did you think about this man
Did you think no one can break this record?let wait for the next chapter