Idiom

If you have a narrow escape, you survive a dangerous situation, but only just.

For example

• He had a narrow escape when he fell off his motorbike. If he'd fallen off a second earlier, he would have been killed by the truck that had just passed by.
  
  
• Ken nearly lost all his money in the stock market crash, but he made a narrow escape thanks to a friend who told him to sell off his shares the day before it happened.

Source: English Club