Phantom vehicle

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A phantom vehicle is a supposed ghostly or haunted vehicle. No such phenomena have been scientifically verified and no research on this topic appears in the peer-reviewed scientific literature. However, many people find such stories fascinating and they are common in urban legends and entertainment.

In more detail, phantom vehicle is a term describing two types of phenomenon: either a ghostly apparation of a vehicle of some kind (usually involved in fatal car crashes; the same vehicle mysteriously reappears and disappears at the spot where the accident occurred); or a vehicle that is haunted by the spirit of a person (usually the former owner of the vehicle) which sometimes appears in the passenger seat as a ghostly apparition or appears in the rear view mirror. In the latter example, the witness could often look in the backseat of the vehicle but find nobody there. Such vehicles are often claimed to be acting strangely.

Another kind of a phantom vehicle is one that suddenly appears out of nowhere at high speed and disappears. This type of phantom vehicle (mostly cars and trucks) is reported to be driverless or is driven by a ghost of the owner of the vehicle. Witnesses often claim that they see such vehicles disappearing at spots which a normal vehicle could have crashed into.

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[edit] Types of phantom vehicles

Phantom Vehicles can be ghosts of almost any form of human transportation, usually cars, trucks, trains, and ships.

[edit] Cars and Trucks

There have been many reports of ghostly cars and trucks. A majority of these sightings come from rural backroads, empty highways and desolate dirt roads. Many of these sightings take place at night.

  • A farm in the Midwest was reportedly being visited by a phantom sedan[1]
  • In 1982, two people in Hawaii reported seeing a mysterious black car which disappeared a second later.[2]
  • In 1995, an eyewitness saw a brown 1960s car that had bumper stickers, the witness passed the car but it mysteriously reappeared ahead of the witness's car. Also the witness noticed that the driver was a teenaged boy and that he never turned his head. [3]
  • 2004, In Cape Town, South Africa, a Renault sedan mysteriously rolled up an embankment and hit a fence, despite the fact that the handbrake was engaged and the engine was off. Some say the car was "jumping". [4]
  • In the mid 1980s, three people in a sedan reported seeing a gray van heading straight towards them. Then suddenly the van vanished.[5]
  • A mid 1950s Porsche 550 was said to be haunted by the spirit of James Dean.[6]
  • In Germany, a car mysteriously started up by itself and rammed a wall.[7]
  • An eyewitness claimed that an old truck started up by itself and blinked at him as he walked past an old house.[8]
  • Early 1980s - A British motorist crashed his car in order to avoid a truck that suddenly appeared coming straight towards him and then vanished.[9]
  • There were frequent reports in the 1930s of a large ghost London Bus in Ladbroke Grove at the junction of St Mark's Road and Cambridge Gardens. There was never a visible driver or crew, though the internal lights were on. It took the blame for several crashes on St Mark's Road, leading the road being straightened. After this lengthy work, the bus was never seen again.[10]

[edit] Trains

  • The "St Louis Ghost Train" was said to haunt a Saskatchewan village [11]
  • President Lincoln's funeral train was said to be haunted by his spirit.[12]
  • The "Silverpilen" subway train is supposed to haunt the metro system of Stockholm, the Swedish capital.

[edit] Planes

  • In 1997, eyewitnesses claimed they saw a single-engine plane crash. But when the coast guard searched the waters off Connecticut, they couldn't find any wreckage or bodies. Also none of the airports reported any planes missing.[13]
  • The engine of a Spitfire were sometimes heard in the skies over Kent in the 1950s; apparently an echo of the Battle of Britain that occurred in the Second World War[citation needed].

[edit] Boats and ships

Main article: Ghost ship

[edit] Phantom vehicles in movies

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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