2007-11-30T05:22:00.000-08:00

Road ghosts - Are these haunting spirits to blame for car accidents?
For centuries tales have been told of the ghosts that haunt Britain's roads. A tragic history of death and murder and the lost spirits trying to find their way home.
So-called road ghosts have caused of a number of car accidents on country lanes throughout the country and over the years have inspired tales in the press of phantom hitch-hikers, bridesmaids, soldiers and even animals.
Most cases have involved lone motorists travelling late at night, navigating their way along country lanes in poor weather conditions when suddenly a figure appears in front of them. But just as the driver believes they're about to feel an impact, nothing happens and when they get out of the car to check if the person is ok, they are unable to find a body.
One couple from Hampshire had such an experience in 1976 and were lucky to avoid sustaining serious personal injuries in a possible road accident. A woman driving though foggy Hulbert Road in Waterlooville was forced to put her foot on the brake after her husband saw a young girl appear in front of the vehicle. He called out to his wife to stop and closed his eyes at the inevitable impact but nothing happed. There was no loud thud, no damage to the car; the girl had just disappeared.
The man discussed the incident with friends and work colleagues and was told that other people had claimed seeing a girl in the same spot. The girl allegedly came from a housing estate called Leigh Park and had been killed as she tried to hitch-hike her way home from Waterlooville.
He also heard a similar story from somebody who had been stopped by a girl on the same stretch of road. The man said it had been raining that evening and was giving the young girl a lift back to her home in Leigh Park. When he arrived at the address, he found the girl had vanished from her seat, leaving only a wet imprint as evidence that she had been in the vehicle.
Bad weather appears to be a running theme throughout many road ghosts encounters and motorists travelling on the A38 Willand to Taunton Road have repeatedly stumbled across a grey-haired man waving a torch in foul weather conditions. In 1958 a long distance lorry driver claimed he met the man on three separate occasions and had given him a lift home. He said the man had a cream mackintosh and was always discussing the car accidents that had taken place along the stretch of road from the Blackbird Inn along the A38 to Beam Bridge.
On the last occasion the man asked the lorry driver to wait for him at the usual dropping off point at the bridge while he collected some cases to drop off further down the road. After waiting 25 minutes for the man to reappear, the driver decided to continue on with his journey.

Haunted Ghost Talk