Meet Frane Selak, the Luckiest Man in the World
CROATIA – Frane Selak is renowned as the luckiest man in the world due to his extraordinary life experiences that seem straight out of a movie. His remarkable story begins in 1962 when he survived a train derailment that resulted in the deaths of 17 passengers. Frane managed to swim to safety with only a broken arm and hypothermia as injuries.
The following year, while traveling from Zagreb to Rijeka, the door of the plane he was on detached, causing the aircraft to crash. Nineteen passengers perished, but Frane was found unconscious on hay with no physical injuries. In 1966, he survived another tragedy when a bus he was riding fell into a river, resulting in four fatalities, while he emerged unscathed.
Frane’s luck turned again in 1970 when the gas tank of his car exploded. He sensed danger and exited the vehicle moments before the explosion, narrowly escaping death. In 1973, while fixing a broken fuel pump, his car caught fire, but he managed to extinguish the flames on his clothes by rolling on the ground.
After a quiet period in the 1980s, Frane made headlines again in 1995 when a bus hit him in Zagreb. Though injured, he survived yet another close call. His final accident occurred in 1996 when a truck collided with his car, causing it to flip and crash into a tree, allowing him to jump out just before it exploded.
In addition to surviving these harrowing incidents, Frane struck it rich in the mid-2000s by winning the lottery in Croatia, with a prize of US$800,871 (approximately PHP44.8 million). He bought a luxurious home but sold it in 2010, opting for a simpler lifestyle with his fifth wife, Katarina. According to PEP.ph, Frane passed away on November 30, 2016, at the age of 85, having used part of his winnings for hip surgery and building a shrine to the Virgin Mary as a testament to his gratitude for his remarkable life.