The chances of surviving seven close shaves with death in one lifetime and living to tell the tale are almost impossible, let alone winning the lottery on the first attempt - but a music teacher in Croatia managed both.
Frane Selak - badged the world’s unluckiest person - is a man who miraculously cheated death on seven separate occasions throughout his life, only to become a millionaire with his first lottery ticket.
Now, bookmaker Mark Jarvis has worked out just how unlikely it would be for the average person to survive each life-threatening event, as well as the chance of winning the lottery on the first attempt.
The research found that the chance of experiencing and surviving all of Frane’s seven calamities is one in 72 octillion - a 29-digit figure. For the lottery win, that swells to 12.7 undecillion - a 38 digit number.
Now 90 years old, Selak’s ordeal began when his train bound for Dubrovnik derailed and fell into a river in 1962. Though 17 other passengers died, Selak survived with hypothermia and a broken arm. A train derailment carries a 1.2% chance of being killed.
The following year, he was thrown out of a place when its door blew out at altitude. He landed in a haystack while the plane crashed. The chance of being killed in a serious plane crash is 44% - yet Selak survived, while the other 17 passengers aboard were killed.
After surviving when his bus careered into a ravine in 1966, despite a 21% chance of being killed, he switched to a car.
He experienced two car incidents in 1970 and 1973 respectively. In the first, the car’s petrol tank caught fire on the motorway. In the second, a faulty fuel pump sprayed petrol over the hot engine, causing flames to enter the cabin and burn Selak’s hair.
After 12 disaster-free years, he was knocked down by a bus in Zagreb in 1995. Despite 85% of pedestrians being killed when hit by buses, he managed to walk away with only cuts and bruises.
Undoubtedly Selak’s most cinematic death-defying event occurred in 1996 while driving along a mountain road. He swerved to avoid a UN truck driving towards him, only to crash through the roadside barrier. Leaping through the damaged door that had opened in the crash, he clung to a tree as he watched his car tumble down the hillside.
Fortune eventually smiled on the world’s unluckiest man in 2003, when he won the Croatian lottery jackpot of the equivalent of more than $1 million, or £600,000, after buying his first ticket - just as he celebrated his fifth marriage.
He eventually decided to live a frugal life again in 2010, after coming to the realisation that “money cannot buy happiness”.
The chance of both experiencing and surviving all of Frane’s seven calamities is one in 72 octillion - a 29-digit figure. For the lottery win, that swells to 12.7 undecillion - a 38 digit number.
By comparison, the chance of winning the UK lottery jackpot on the first ticket bought is one in 176 million.
Paul Graham, managing director at Mark Jarvis, said: “Frane Selak’s experiences make for one of the most incredible life stories of modern times. The improbability of it all even happening to one person, let alone surviving it, is what makes it so fascinating. It says something when you have to look up the name of a number with 38 digits.”
To read more about Frane Selak’s life, watch the video and see the statistical probabilities of the events even occurring, visit: http://guide.mjsports.bet/lotto/worlds-unluckiest-man-defied-12-7-undecillion-odds-in-one-lifetime/
More info: guide.mjsports.bet