A dad wheeling his son to playgroup and a waitress chatting outside a cafe must take evasive action as an out-of-control car careers onto the pavement. An off-duty firefighter has a collision on the ski slopes, and two students on their way home from college witness a train explosion.

A young man is thrown from his vehicle and lands in the middle of a busy motorway after a tyre blowout in the fast lane, and a lorry driver captures the whole thing on a dash cam. A passer-by comes to the rescue of a woman on a sinking canal boat, and a young dad cycling home from work dodges death at a roundabout.

A young man hiking in the Cumbrian hills falls 200ft, and mountain rescue workers and an RAF helicopter come to his rescue.

Two motorbiking brothers collide, and four children playing in a park are at risk when a huge tree falls.

Two best friends on a holiday fishing trip are lost at sea, and their wives fear the worst. An elderly bedridden man is trapped in a house fire, and a neighbour risks all to rescue him.

A couple are celebrating their wedding anniversary on a luxury fort out at sea when one is severely injured. Coastguard and lifeboat crews rush to her aid. And a lorry driver has seconds to save his life as an insecure load on another truck hurtles towards him.

A frantic mum calls 999 when her seven-year-old daughter suffers a cardiac arrest, a microlight pilot loses power at 4,000ft and must dodge power cables to land, and two pals on holiday escape their hire car as it goes up in flames.

A 12-year-old boy falls from a clifftop on to concrete sea defences. His father arrives at the scene to find emergency workers battling to save his son. And two British adventures are trapped in the ice off Alaska in a bid to cross the Bering Sea.

A retired policeman comes to the aid of a young man after his car careers off a ferry and sinks in the harbour. A climber falls in the Cairngorms, but bad weather makes rescue difficult, and a British pilot must evacuate his plane after a massive engine explosion on take-off.

An amateur racing driver loses control on the track. His car somersaults towards the crash barriers, his safety cage fails, and he is left hanging upside down from the car. Plus a young mum dials 999 suspecting her baby has meningitis, and a runaway bus heads down a hill with passengers still on board.

Nick tells the moving story of a police motorcyclist, responding to help at an accident, who crashed and became the patient himself. Plus a conservationist describes what happened when he was attacked by the very elephants he campaigns to save.

The story of an 11-year-old boy who survived a cardiac arrest in a swimming pool, plus an unsuspecting woman who was sandwiched between two cars, when one skidded on ice, and a motorbike rider who crashed into the back of his friend's vehicle and went careering over the handlebars.

The tale of a cyclist who survived two heart attacks in a week, and a lorry driver whose vehicle overturned and caught fire after he was forced to swerve to avoid another motorist. He lived to tell the tale, thanks to the bravery of another trucker who pulled him out of his burning lorry.

The story of a young man kicked in the head by his girlfriend's horse. Plus the remarkable tale of survival of a British diver lost at sea off the Australian coast for more than 22 hours.

Featuring the story of two close friends bodyboarding off an Australian beach, one of whom has to go to the aid of the other when a great white shark attacks. A motorist risks her life to save a family when their car bursts into flames following a motorway smash, and a woman survives when part of a huge tree crashes on to her car in a storm.

Nick Knowles presents stories of people who have been on the brink of disaster and lived to tell the tale, all captured in recordings from the time, including how two little girls dialled 999 and saved their mum after she fell from the loft. Plus the stories of two cousins climbing a sea stack when one plunged 60 feet onto rocks and a trucker who came face to face with another lorry as he went round a bend on the same side of the road.

A fishing trawler is sinking off the Shetland Islands, and one of the rescuers discovers his close friends are on board. Plus a little boy is trapped in a tumble dryer - the family's dog alerts his mum - and two brothers are on the Swiss ski slopes when one vanishes 60 feet down a crevasse.

A worker in a remote location is trapped under his dumper truck when it topples and rolls on top of him, a racing driver's brakes fail, sending him somersaulting along the track, and a couple on their way to a birthday celebration overtake a super truck which fails to see them, sending them 40 feet over an embankment.

A family break down on a busy road with no hard shoulder, and a lorry driver fails to see them. Plus a speedboat trip nearly ends in tragedy when the vessel is swamped by a wave, and a grandad out mountain biking with a friend takes a tumble in a remote location. A mountain rescue team go to his aid.

A couple become lost in a blizzard while hiking in the Scottish Cairngorms, and a man has a lucky escape when a car crashes into a bakery shop front as he is about to enter. Plus a mum tells how she was saved by the quick-thinking actions of her young daughters when she collapsed while driving.