dodged a bullet

Verb

dodge a bullet (third-person singular simple present dodges a bullet, present participle dodging a bullet, simple past and past participle dodged a bullet)

1. (idiomatic, informal) To have a narrow escape; to avoid injury, disaster, or some other undesirable situation.
   • "We have all these thousands of bill payers trying to dodge a bullet, trying to shift costs and pay less."1989 December 7, Milt Freudenheim, “Scramble on Health-Care Costs”, in New York Times, retrieved 06 Mar 2014