Well weve all heard the stories about the proverbial haunted house at the end of the street and watched TV shows that investigate haunted places. They seem to be on virtually every channel at the moment. Recently these shows have made the shift from haunted houses to haunted vehicles. Some of the stories they investigate surrounding haunted cars have been around for years and its only now that they are really coming to light, probably because of the popularity of these shows, such as Most Haunted and Ghost Hunters.

Weve all heard about the curse on James Deans car or the urban legends surrounding phantom cars or haunted highways...

Lets dig a little deeper.

Source

Most of these tales are in fact just Urban Legends, you know the ones that seem to get more elaborate the more they are passed around, just like Chinese whispers. But a few of them really do seem genuine and its hard to just shrug off the stories as just pure coincidence.

Some of the tales seem to centre around a supposedly haunted highway or certain stretch of road that has had various fatal accidents, but are these eye witness accounts just a product of their imagination? Can vehicles also record certain echoes of past tragedies just like certain ghost hunters think buildings can?

Here are a few ghostly goings-on related to vehicles, roads and even passengers...

Phantom Vehicles

There are scores of reports of phantom or ghost cars from all over the world, ranging from cars appearing from nowhere to disappearing right in front of peoples eyes.

Here are a few accounts:-

In Lanikai, Hawaii during 1982, a black car was reported by 2 witnesses, mysteriously disappearing then reappearing seconds later.

In 1995, American eyewitnesses recounted experiences of a brown 1960s car complete with bumper stickers that kept mysteriously reappearing ahead of the their car at traffic lights. Reportedly the teen driver never turned his head or indeed turned the steering wheel, even when negotiating Dead Mans Curve.

There are also two accounts of actual cars driving themselves too!

One in South Africa in 2004 occurred when a Renault rolled up an embankment and hit a fence. The witnesses told police that the car was jumping and the second, a car in Germany, mysteriously started up by itself and rammed a wall.

Another account was of a phantom No.7 bus often seen on a treacherous curve in Ladbroke Grove, which reportedly caused several accidents, one of which was fatal. However, after they straightened that section of road, both the sightings and the accidents subsided.

Source

The Ghost Car

Surrey Police were called out to the scene of an accident in 2011 on the A3 near Guildford. Numerous motorists reported a vehicle veering off the road with its headlights still blazing. However, when the attending officers searched for the said car there was no trace, no tracks, nothing! They did continue to search on foot for a while and, 20 yards from the reported scene, they discovered the wreck of a car which contained the skeletal remains of a man.

He was later identified by dental records as a 21 year old last seen on 16th July 2011.

This whole strange event left the police wondering. Had the witnesses actually seen the ghostly replay of this tragic accident on the Portsmouth to London road near Surrey?

Source

Haunted Roads

There are hundreds of reported haunted roads all over the globe. Virtually any road with crash fatalities could potentially be one. There is one particular road in New Jersey that supposedly tops the charts for paranormal activity.

Clinton road, is known for anything and everything related to the paranormal, such as witches, Satanists, the Ku Klux Klan and even body dumping grounds, where professional killers hide their victims!

Strange unexplainable creatures have been spotted roaming this desolate place, including strange monkey looking beasts and Hell hounds.

It is also known for its many ghosts too! One is the ghost of a small boy who drowned falling from a bridge near the reservoir and also two Park Rangers who died patrolling the area in 1939.

There are also reports of a few ghost vehicles, a Chevrolet Camaro driven by a girl who died in a crash in 1988, is often seen on this lonely road and vanishes when you reach the spot where she had her accident. Another is of a pickup truck supposedly appearing right out of nowhere that chases petrified drivers down to the end of the road, where it vanishes as quickly as it appeared: Sounds like the perfect spot to catch a glimpse of a ghost!

Source

Phantom Hitchhikers

This urban legend is as old as the hills. It also has many different variations depending on where the tale is told and who tells it. This is one of the most reported ghost sightings in the world and is still as popular now as it was years ago...

The story goes that you are a lone driver, happily travelling along a winding road, minding your own business (of course it has to be a lonely road and at night!) when you spot a lady dressed in a white gown with bare feet standing at the side of the road. You approach, intent on asking if you can help her, where to your horror she either promptly vanishes or more often than not, she gets into the car without a word. You continue on your journey, happily trying to make conversation but of course getting no response. You look away for a second or two, then get an awful fright when you look back and realise she has vanished from the rear seat. This is normally at the point on the road where a young girl has been killed either in a car accident or by being run down.

There can of course be a more sinister variation to the ending of the story in some cases, where at the point of her demise on the road, you have an accident which causes your death!

Source