Most shocking events in your lifetime?

[Chicken Runner61]

That is gruesome.

Seeing a ghost by a notorious suicide railway bridge very late at night, travelling in a car gave me awful nightmares for a while. It was an illuminated figure of an old lady in the middle of the road staring at me looking unhappy and petrified. I've never gone that way again after dark.

It wasn't down Millers Road was it? - Only HB & Bred's missus probably goes out that time of night?

 

[Durlston]

It wasn't down Millers Road was it? - Only HB & Bred's missus probably goes out that time of night?

Not a thread for this but that made me laugh.

No. Rocky Lane in Haywards Heath. They had to put big fences up to stop people jumping to their deaths. There was a large psychiatric hospital (St Francis) not far away which explains things.

 

[Rich Suvner]

I'll never forget the day of the Shilton (1000 appearances) Orient away game. I phoned my ex from a Worthing station pay phone (before I owned a mobile) after getting back, only to find out that she had found her mum after committing suicide. I will always wish her every bit of hapinness in her life, because she had so much robbed from her because of that sad incident.

9/11 is without a shadow of doubt the moment of utter shock shared with the rest of the world.

 

[Southern Toon]

This one is etched on my memory.

Los Alfaques Disaster

On this day in 1978, a truck carrying liquid gas crashes into a campsite, crowded with vacationers, in San Carlos de la Rapita, Spain. The resulting explosion killed more than 200 people; many others suffered severe burns.

Shortly after 3 p.m. on a hot day on the Mediterranean coast of Spain, a 38-ton truck carrying propylene gas, used in the manufacture of alcohol, was traveling on a small, winding road 120 miles south of Barcelona. The truck, owned by Cisternas Reunidas, may have been on this coastal road instead of the nearby turnpike in order to avoid paying a toll. For unknown reasons, the truck crashed into a cement wall. (Some witnesses report seeing a fire on the truck before the crash.)

Down a hill from the cement wall, 800 people, mostly families on vacation from Germany and France, were camped out near the beach in tents and makeshift bungalows. The truck, carrying 1,500 cubic feet of pressurized liquid gas, plunged down the hill and exploded in a massive fireball. Flames shot up 100 feet into the air, killing many people instantly. The resulting crater was 20 yards in diameter. The huge fire and explosion also caused the camper's portable gas units and cars to blow up. Few of the survivors were wearing any protective clothing other than a bathing suit and many of them suffered horrible burns.

The timing of the disaster also contributed to the high casualty toll. Coming just after lunch, many people had not yet returned to the nearby beach. In all, 215 people lost their lives. So many German citizens were involved that German officials arranged for an airlift of doctors and equipment from Stuttgart to assist in the relief effort.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K37kNwt1nyk (Opening scenes not nice)

 

[bn1&bn3 Albion]

Best friend from primary school being murdered.

Team mate from football dying from a disease he picked up from the hospital after beating cancer.

 

[Chicken Runner61]

Come to think of it The 2008 Tsunami was pretty horrific on film and also watching the Japan one sent a shiver down your back

 

[Brian Potter]

For me it has to be the murder of Derek Wood and David Howes. Most of you will probably not recognise the names, but they were the 2 Royal Signals Cpls who were cornered, dragged from ther vehicle and then savagely beaten before being executed on waste ground after they got caught up in an IRA funeral back in 1988. I knew both of them as they were serving in the same squadron as me at the time. The live feed form the army 'copter viewed by us back in Lisburn was truly truly harrowing. Many grown men wept openly as they helplessly watched their brothers in arms cruelly dispatched. As always at this time of year, when I stand on parade at my local war memorial I think of them and fight back the hurt inside.

 

[glasfryn]

many of the incidents above but the one that sticks in my mind was the killing of Jack Kennedy in Dallas it stunned everyone in the house to silence my mum cried for days it seemed as though all hope had gone for a few weeks

 

[W.C.]

This year's earthquake, tsunami and (ongoing) nuclear disaster here in Japan this year. Natural disasters are always shocking but the scale of this one and how close to home it was really affected me.

 

[Deleted User X18H]

It wasn't down Millers Road was it? - Only HB & Bred's missus probably goes out that time of night?

Not a thread for this but that made me laugh.

No. Rocky Lane in Haywards Heath. They had to put big fences up to stop people jumping to their deaths. There was a large psychiatric hospital (St Francis) not far away which explains things.

Of course if you knew anything Brighton you'd know Millers Road didn't have a bridge. But nice to know you seem to spend most of your lives thinking about us. Ahhh!

 

[Seagull on the wing]

Born just before WW2 so I supposed I was off to a bad start from the beginning,every disaster since then has made a mark on History....

 

[BRIGHT ON Q]

9/11 and Princess Di are the ones i just stood in disbelief.
The tsunami on Boxing day was probably the worst though.

 

[Norman Potting]

In the grand scheme of things 9/11 for sheer size, the facts that it played out virtually live on TV as it happened, I was at a team event with my workmates so it was a "shared" experience and also the affect that it had and will still have for many years on those directly involved and others who were nowhere near it (I guess most of the world but specifically those who serve in Afghanistan).

On a "micro" level taking a phone call from a good friend very early one morning around 30yrs ago . Him "really sorry to ring so early", me (jocularly) "you will be", him "my dad took his own life yesterday".

 

[Return of the Rev]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fi1mtsIs1i0 shook him up

 

[Alex Alex Dawson oo! oo!]

Seeing my cousin Kevin shot and shortly afterwards die; he was 17, I was a year older (1972).

 

[Austrian Gull]

Many alread mentioned but John Lennon's killing really shocked me. Had never seen my mum so upset before.

 

[Braders]

7/7 , 9/11 and Princess Di are the most obvious , but the Baby P stuff makes me the most angry

 

[Brovion]

I'm probably going to go for John Lennon as well, given my age and the part The Beatles had played in my life. Dunblane runs it very close though, and if it had been pre-Hungerford I might have gone for that.

I know it's only one death and things like 9/11 or natural disasters such as earthquakes kill thousands, but as someone once said "One death is a tragedy, a million deaths is a statistic". It might be bit blunt but it does sum up how we have a certain 'cut-off' level - you can't mourn a million people a million times more strongly than you can mourn one.

 

[Falkor]

9/11 7/7 and Dunblane

also have to say the two Tsunami in Thailand and Japan made me upset.

 

[Gritt23]

James Bulger.

The big world stories - 9/11, Chernobyl, etc were obviously huge, but this is the one that truly SHOCKED me personally. Just couldn't, and still can't, comprehend the mindset of two young kids capable of what those boys did.

That's a very good shout. That whole story was just horrific, and beyond any comprehension whatsoever. It changed my view of the World like few stories can. I never imagined for a minute that ANYONE could be that vile and evil to a helpless little child, but for it to be 2 children themselves, just seemed impossible.

The CCTV picture of them walking James Bulger out of the Mall is etched on my mind, and yet it still looks like it should be the picture of innocence, not just of James, but the two boys with him. How could THAT picture have turned into the horrific events that followed. Just unbelievable, and I still can't get my head around it.

Then it's the whole series of events around it. I can't imagine being the family of any of the 3 boys involved. As James relatives, the anger and fury and devastation would be so incredibly hard to live through, and I'm not sure I ever would. But then, what do you think if you are a parent of Thompson or Venables? Nature or nurture, I think I'd be horrified beyond belief that either my actions or my genes, or a combination of the two has created that. Then again, maybe if you think like that, you do NOT create either of those monsters.

Then, what to do with them, as every bone in my body says a death penalty for such crimes, but .... they are children themselves, that is just not on the agenda at all. But life? Do they grow up into bigger stronger monsters, or do we all change so much from the people we were at their age, that such a penalty is also inappropriate.

Everything around that case was just horrific, and shook my beliefs in my fellow man to it's very core. Horrific.