He Escaped Death Seven Times and Won a Million at 76 — This Is the Luckiest Man in the World

After a lifetime of fatal close calls and a financial windfall, one man ultimately found contentment in the simplest of things: love, gratitude, and a modest home.

Frano Selak, a retired music teacher with a bizarre history of surviving the impossible, lived through everything from train wrecks to a midair disaster and fire-filled car crashes. At 76 years old, he won the lottery. And then, years later, he stunned the world again by doing the unexpected.

In 2010, The Telegraph detailed all the wild events of Selak's life. It began in 1962, during a train ride from Sarajevo to Dubrovnik. Without warning, the train derailed and plunged into an ice-cold river.

Seventeen people drowned after the horrific crash. Selak somehow made it to the riverbank, suffering a broken arm, bruises, and a dangerous case of hypothermia. It was a miracle survival, but the first of many.

In 1963, he boarded a plane for the first time in his life. It would nearly be his last. The door of the aircraft suddenly opened mid-flight, and Selak was thrown from the plane. Nineteen people died in the incident, but he landed in a haystack.

Just three years later, in 1966, he was riding a bus when the vehicle veered off course and crashed into a river. Four passengers drowned. Selak, once again, swam to safety.

By 1970, he faced danger again. While driving along a freeway, his car caught on fire without warning. He jumped out just in time before the fuel tank exploded behind him.

Then in 1973, he faced flames again. A broken fuel pump leaked oil over his car's hot engine. This made it burst into a blaze, with flames shooting through the air vents and burning off all his hair.

The 1980s gave him a break, but in 1995, tragedy tried to strike again. Selak was hit by a bus in Zagreb. Though badly shaken, his injuries were not serious.

Then came 1996, which was perhaps his most cinematic brush with death. While driving a Škoda through the mountains, a UN truck came barreling toward him. He swerved, lost control, and broke through a crash barrier.

As his car began to plummet down a 300-foot cliff, Selak jumped from the vehicle toward a tree and watched it fall without him. This marked his seventh survival.

In 2007, this life took a different but no less astonishing turn. He purchased his first lottery ticket and won £600,000, which was approximately $780,000 at the time. With inflation, that would be worth well over a million dollars today.

He also married for the fifth time that year. Speaking to The Telegraph, he quipped, "I guess all the earlier marriages were disasters too."

But despite the money and media frenzy, Selak soon made another decision that shocked those around him. He gave most of it away.

He sold his private island luxury estate, transferred the majority of his winnings to family and friends, and returned to a frugal lifestyle in his hometown of Petrinja, Croatia.

But, Selak kept just enough to fund a hip replacement surgery to live the rest of his life comfortably beside his wife and to build a Virgin Mary shrine, as an act of gratitude for the divine luck that had spared him so many times.

"All I need at my age is my Katarina. Money would not change anything," Selak expressed. "When she arrived, I knew then that I really did have a charmed, blessed life. I never thought I was lucky to survive all my brushes with death. I thought I was unlucky to be in them in the first place."

Selak’s life quickly circulated online, capturing the imagination of millions around the world. In 2014, an animated YouTube video was uploaded by creator David Ransom, dramatizing all the bizarre, fatal close calls. The 3-minute clip has been viewed over three million times in the 11 years since it was released.

But Selak was not amused.

"The Americans have no idea," he allegedly said to a Zagreb outlet. "They drew a moustache on me and mixed up all my accidents. Maybe they will earn big money, while I live on a pension. At least send me a thousand dollars."

At the time, reports claimed Selak was considering legal action. Ransom even expressed a willingness to speak with him and correct any inaccuracies. But the BBC was unable to reach Selak for comment, and no public resolution ever followed.

Ultimately, Selak died in 2016, and although some of the events of his life have not been independently verified, his stunning story lives on.