Britain's unluckiest man

Some people might describe John Lyne as unlucky. But as far as he is concerned, is the luckiest man alive. Or perhaps that should just be lucky to be alive.

In his 54 years he has had a terrifying array of 16 accidents or near misses.

He has been struck by lightning, been run over by a delivery van, hit by a bus and nearly drowned. Then there was the time a stone, propelled by a catapult, hit him in the mouth smashing eight teeth.

And that's just a taster of calamity John's mishaps. The grandfather-of-three is currently is currently nursing a badly damaged back and leg and knees after plummeting down a manhole cover.

While some might take a vow to never the leave the house again after clocking up enough accidents to cost even a cat it's nine lives, Mr Lyne remains determinedly upbeat.
Uncertain whether he will be able to work again, he is firmly of the opinion that he is a very lucky man.

'With all the bumps and scrapes over the years I have been very luck. I should be winning the lottery next,' he said. 'You've got to be positive, and I have always had a positive attitude. Everyone thinks it is just hilarious. My mates, family and wife Susan just laugh about it. I don't think there is any reason or explanation for it though, it has just happened really. I have to be particularly careful on Friday the 13ths. Things could have been much worse, I could have died, but it still doesn't worry me too much.'

Mr Lyne's mishaps cover a lifetime. When he was born, one of five children to a farming family, it was uncertain whether he would survive.

He had underdeveloped lungs and needed steroids and special care. But setting a pattern for later in life, he beat the odds.
Curiosity was his first foe, when he toddled aged 18 months into his grandmother's bathroom and took a fancy to a drink from a plastic bottle. Unfortunately it contained disinfectant and he had to be rushed to hospital to have his stomach pumped and system flushed through with water.

A year later he was rising with his grandfather on a horse and cart from the far, when he fell from the seat into the path of a furniture delivery van. Amazingly the wheels of the van passed on either side of his tiny body, as his panic-stricken grandfather looked on.

Aged 12 he got the fright of his life when was hit by lightning as he cycled home. 'A storm was building up and then a bolt of lightning hit the handle bars. I jumped off the bike an ran like the clappers,' said Mr Lyne.

Turning 14 brought a particularly bad year. First he nearly drowned, then, on Friday 13th, he fell from a tree and broke his arm. But when he went to hospital he couldn't go under anaesthetic because he had eaten too recently. When returning to hospital the following day with his mother, the bus they were travelling on crashed into a lorry. Mr Lyne broke a second bone - in the same arm.

Becoming a miner carries more than its share of hazards. Even more so for My Lyne. In his early 20s, father-of-two Mr Lyne, who lives near Doncaster, nearly lost his life twice at Hatfield Colliery.

He was inches away from being killed by falling rocks and escaped with just a few ripped nails when a colleague let go of a tub full of stone they were pulling.

On the way home from work one day he was hit by a bus - only to escape with a bruised arm.

In recent years life has been relatively peaceful until he hitting a live electricity cable while decorating - without injury.

That's not forgetting two holiday-related near misses.

He has now been off work for 32 weeks after falling through an open inspection hatch at work in one of the most serious of his mishaps, But he is determined to live life to the full.

He said: 'I have had a lot of lucky escapes and people have compared me to a cat with nine lives. It doesn't get me down. It is how it is.'