From a New York Times review of Beyond Coincidence: Amazing Stories of Coincidence and the Mystery and Mathematics Behind Them:
A woman in Alabama decided to visit her sister. Her sister, unbeknownst to her, decided the same. They hit each other head-on on a rural highway. Both died. And both drove Jeeps. That counts as a rare coincidence, although not as rare, perhaps, as the case of Roy Cleveland Sullivan, a Virginia forest ranger who was struck by lightning seven times, or the existence of an ice dealer named I. C. Shivers.
…On the other hand, it is deeply satisfying to know that a Canadian farmer named McDonald has the postal code EIEIO, and there is at least half a screenplay in the tale of a bank robber who, hitting the same bank and the same teller a second time, escaped because the bank guard and the managers were in a back office reviewing videotapes of the first robbery.
One of my favorite authors, Paul Auster, is obsessed with themes like the one you blog about here. Coincidence, chance, accident, etc. I hear his new novel is pretty good. My favorite is _Music of Chance_.