Hell on Wheels: Bizarre Encounters with Mysterious Phantom Drivers

The road can be a dangerous place, with weather and road conditions and potential accidents lurking beyond every bend. It can also be an eerie place at night, a place of lane lines flickering by and the only signs of life the occasional passing headlights and maybe some nocturnal animal prowling about. Yet sometimes this danger and eeriness converge in strange ways to marry and step into the realm of the unexplained and the supernatural. Sometimes it seems that something else is prowling the roads as well. 

There is a wide range of ghostly and strange phenomena out there, from hauntings to spectral apparitions, to other even weirder things. There is no common explanation for any of it, and it all swirls around beyond our understanding. One very bizarre type of phantom encounter is that of mysterious vehicles and drivers that don't seem to be firmly anchored within the world as we know it, or at least manage to evade our attempts to understand them. They cruise about on the periphery of our understanding, inviting many questions but answering few.

Some stories of phantom drivers go way back. According to Chris Woodyard, paranormal investigator and author of Haunted Ohio, in 1911 there was apparently a spate of high-profile sightings of a figure that looked like a glowing skeleton terrorizing the roads of Pennsylvania. In one article from Trenton [NJ] Evening Times it is written:

On Devil’s Bend (near Pittsburgh, PA.), a famous curve of a favorite automobile road, near this city, the scene of a dozen or more fatalities, there appeared at midnight, it is said, a phantom auto, with two animated skeletons as occupants. The siren gave out piercing toots, dry bones rattled with the levers, and brakes were jammed hard.

The mysterious auto was seen by a party of politicians who were returning from a caucus at a nearby school. They heard the report of a car coming along at a terrific rate of speed and huddled in fear, in the middle of the road for an instant. The chug-chug of the engine grew louder and the headlights suddenly rounded a curve and illuminated the pathway. Under giant trees, the auto lamps made a peculiar white light.

This caused the pedestrians to scatter. As they did so, all noticed that the skeleton form at the wheel released his grip for a moment, put a cigarette in his lips, and lit a match. As the match was applied to the cigarette the auto was seen to skid on the fatal curve, and crash against the oak trees, which creaked and groaned. Then there was a flash and all was quiet.

The party regathered and then decided to hurry to the nearest farmhouse, that of Samuel Werdle. He was quickly aroused and he and his son Jed, with lanterns, accompanied the men back to the scene of what was thought to be another fatal accident. Nothing was found at the scene of the smash. Still unconvinced that they had seen only a phantom auto, one of the investigators returned to the Werdle residence, where he telephoned to the county morgue, but was told that no fatalities had been reported from Devil’s Bend.

There were various other sightings of this phantom in the area at the time as well. Odd to be sure. In the United Kingdom, we have tales of an enigmatic phantom car from the villages of Athleague and Mount Talbot, in Ireland. In the 1920s there was frequently reported a spectral “motor-car” that went far faster than anything available at the time and which could phase through whatever got in its way. One article from the Jan. 22, 1927 edition of WMN said of this mysterious vehicle:

Witnesses in the locality state that on many occasions about midnight a mysterious vehicle somewhat like a high-powered motor-car ablaze with light dashes noiselessly through the roads. There is apparently no driver, but seated in the car are a number of white-robed figures. Walls, ditches, fields, and plantations present no obstacle to the car. The superstitiously inclined connect the visitation with a tragic occurrence in a neighbouring estate when, during the recent troubles, a landlord and his wife were driving from their homes and died of fright. Local inhabitants are afraid to leave their homes after nightfall.

What was this? Another is a mysterious car that is said to prowl about the area of Nixa, Missouri, which purportedly ran a sheriff Frank Jones off the road in 1932 to cause his tragic death, and which has on occasion also caused other near-crashes. Another one is said to haunt the NC 49, which meanders through the low hills of the Uwharries, between Asheboro and Charlotte, North Carolina. It is said that in the 1940s, this two-lane, remote road was being navigated by a family late at night when they were approached by an angry vehicle acting very aggressively towards them when a truck came out of nowhere and smashed it clear off the road to leave it a twisted wreck, killing the driver.

It was not long after this that this stretch of road gained a reputation for having a very fast, very aggressive phantom car that would pull up behind other drivers at high speeds. Most cars would pull to the side to let it pass, and as it does they would notice that it is a vintage, 1940s style Ford, which even more oddly doesn’t seem to have a driver. This Ford would swerve and veer around like hell to completely freak out other drivers, before dissipating into thin air as if it were never there at all, leaving one to wonder if this is the phantom remnants of that long-ago crash.

A strange series of events began to unfold in the U.S. state of Ohio in the early 1950s, along a stretch of road known as Route 40, which is little more than a rural, narrow two-lane road. In December of that year, a trucker by the name of Roy Fitzwater was roaring down the route near Vandalia, Ohio, when he saw something he would never forget. According to Chris Woodyard, author of Haunted Ohio, the man would say of his encounter:

It was spitting snow and freezing rain, and very dark one night three weeks ago. I dimmed my lights when a car approached. When the car got about 200 feet from me, its light went out entirely. Then a little light flicked on inside and I saw this thing. It was horrible looking. It scared me. I jammed down my throttle and got out of there fast.

Soon other reports were coming in of what appears to have been the same thing. Some reports mentioned that the car glowed green, or that the driver was a glowing skeletal figure. In one report, some truckers claimed to have actually crashed into the phantom car, only to have it going veering off into the night, apparently unscathed. Before long, the Highway Patrol was under the impression that the driver was some deranged masked lunatic in a glow-in-the-dark painted skeleton suit, and in the meanwhile reports continued to come in. One article in the The Times [San Mateo, CA] at the time would say of the phenomenon:

A phantom skeleton is stalking truckers along the western Ohio stretches of U.S. Route 40. Truckers report actually seeing a masked motorist who wears a skeleton suit that glows in the dark. For some time they have been keeping their experiences to themselves, not wanting to draw a horse laugh from police. But they soon found more than one driver wasn’t seeing things after conversations in roadside eating spots. The phantom, according to the stories, likes to show up on the highway on stormy nights. He has been at it since before Christmas and almost was caught once when three truckers closed in at the Route 40 span over the Stillwater River. The phantom’s favorite trick is to approach a rolling truck from the opposite direction, dim his lights normally, then put them out completely. All lights go out about 150 to 200 feet from the surprised truck driver, who then sees a dim light come on inside the car. The sight of the phantom driver is described as “horrible looking.” 

In March of that year, what was now being called in the media the "Phantom of Route 40" would apparently taunt police by writing a letter to Sheriff J. Arthur Shuman of Clark County. In the rambling letter, the phantom boasted that his car could go over 135 m.p.h, outmaneuver any other car on the road and that it was fully decked out with “radar and sonar and some other equipment I don’t even know the name of.” The phantom also mentioned having his car equipped with “an automobile television screen so I can spot a patrol car three miles away,” before daring the authorities to catch him. In the meantime, the mysterious stranger was still out scaring truckers and drivers alike, and one odd report from The Repository would read:

The “Phantom of Route 40,” a hard-driving spook who enjoys scaring truck drivers, popped up again today—this time behind a green smoke screen. Rex and Tom Weaver, brothers of St. Mary’s, said they’ve seen all they want of the garishly-clad ghost who appears like a will o’ the wisp on western Ohio roads. The Weavers reported they were driving on Route 40 near McCartyville when a car passed, then suddenly stopped in front of them. “We skidded to a stop and ran up to cuss out the crazy fool who was driving the car,” Rex said. When we got there, the darn thing actually began to fill up with green smoke.” He said there was a man inside the car with “a wild-looking striped suit on.” “He began laughing like a maniac,” Rex added, “Then roared away in his car.” 

As this was going on, the phantom stepped it up a notch by calling a switchboard operator and merely saying “This is the phantom… Route 7 tonight,” before hanging up. Police arrived at the location to find no one. However, the phantom was not done yet. He was now being seen all over the state and seemed to be getting more brazen, with the skeletal glowing figure even sometimes spotted standing on the hood or the running board of the car as he sped along. In another report, the figure, with “a mask in the shape of a skull and crossbones” stopped his car to get out and do a dance before careening off into the night. The car was often said to have acceleration, speed, and maneuvering capabilities far beyond anything available at the time. More bizarre reports said he could vanish at will in a puff of green smoke.The phantom was never caught, and we are left to wonder just what was going on here.

Moving again into the 1950s, there was a somewhat similar case that occurred in the state of Illinois. According to cryptozoologist and researcher of the unexplained Loren Coleman, in his book Mysterious America, the phantom driver in this case first appeared on U.S. Highway 66 near Joliet, Illinois, late in May of 1952, when two drivers came forward with strange stories to tell. In both cases, the witnesses described a mysterious blue vehicle that had driven up alongside them, after which some unseen person within had fired upon them, wounding one of them. 

This would appear to not have been an isolated incident, as more reports began to come in of the same phantom driver. On June 2, Edward Smith of St. Louis, Illinois, was driving just south of the Sangamon River when something pinged off of his car. When he pulled over to see what was going on, he apparently saw a man jump from the bushes to run over to a large blue car and speed away. It was speculated that a .38 caliber bullet had caused the crease in Smith's back window. More shootings would follow from this mysterious blue vehicle, and by June 8 there were 10 reports of such attacks all up and down central Illinois. Coleman writes of the mayhem:

State police and sheriff's deputies set up roadblocks along a seventy-mile area and even employed the services of a low-flying airplane in an attempt to nab the gunman - all, however, to no avail. On June 10th the phantom, as if to thumb his nose at those so desperately trying to stop him, chose as his fifteenth target a Marengo squad car. Police officer Lawrence Brown, who had been patrolling the streets at dawn when the incident occurred, chased his assailant's car at speeds up to 90 m.p.h. but could not overtake it.

The same day, though, State Police Chief Thomas J. O'Donnell was telling reporters, "We have not relaxed our search and we are investigating every case but we are not convinced there is a phantom gunman or that any shots were fired in most of the 'shooting incidents' reported. We have yet to find anyone who saw a gun or who could give anything definite about the description of the sniper. On the other hand, we have a maze of vague and conflicting information that does not add up to the conclusion that one gunman is causing all these reports.”

In the meantime, the phantom continued his spree, shattering windshields and denting up cars with a range of different caliber bullets, and by some reports even stones and fireworks. In some cases there were attacks from widely different areas at the same time, suggesting that either this phantom could teleport, or that copycat crimes were going on. In some cases the car was not blue, but rather black or dark green. This would go on until late June, when the attacks suddenly stopped and the phantom dissolved into the cracks of history. To this day no one knows who it was or what they wanted. What was going on here? 

Also from the 1950s are stories of a ghostly car said to terrorize a stretch of desolate road in Kent County, in South East England. The car was usually described as black and of a very old-fashioned make and model but was said to have the speed, handling, and capabilities of something far more advanced. While a driver was usually not seen to be present in the vehicle, which seemed to be driving itself, there are other reports of a fog-like wraith said to be its driver. One report from October of 1950 said of such an account:

Driving through Hildenborough at 7 a.m. on Sunday, a motorist observed another car parked by the roadside in a deserted spot. He saw the shadow of man outlined against the mist, in the driving seat. He got out of his own car and shook the other car violently but the huddled figure did not move. Tonbridge police were told but on investigation, they could not find a car on that particular stretch of road, and now take the very material view that the silent driver was waiting for the mist to rise before proceeding.

One of the most well-known phantom cars originates in the former Soviet Union and involves a phantom black vehicle that has come to be known as the Black Volga. Tales of this spectral vehicle go back to the 60s and 70s, when an intimidating jet-black Volga limousine with white rims, tinted windows, curtains, horns on its rear-view mirrors, and often described as completely spotless or with the ability to accelerate way faster than a normal car, was said to roam about all over the Soviet Union and in some cases even Belarus, Ukraine, Poland, and Mongolia, terrorizing locals wherever it went.

The tale goes that the phantom Black Volga would appear from seemingly out of nowhere to pull up to people, mostly children, and abduct them. Anyone who tried to interfere in this dark business or to even come too close was said to either drop dead on the spot or within 24 hours of the encounter, making the mysterious vehicle a sight that instilled great fear in anyone who laid eyes upon it. In some stories the car is said to be completely impervious to damage as well.

One harrowing 1960s report from Ukraine told of the mysterious black car pulling up to two young girls, after which the doors opened and the two were seemingly sucked into the vehicle as if it were a vacuum cleaner. The witness, a middle-aged man, ran to their aide and pried the driver’s side door open, notably not dropping dead like the lore suggested he should. When the door was open, the witness was able to see that indeed there was no one behind the wheel at all and that the front of the car was completely empty. That was about all that he was able to ascertain before there was allegedly a blinding white flash and the man woke up 24 hours later with a terrible headache.

Throughout these spooky incidents, no one was ever able to see who was driving the car or cars, and this led to rampant speculation over who could possibly be behind the wheel. Some theories claim that the victims were killed so that their organs could be sold on the black market. Others pointed to a shadowy group trying to sow social unrest, while others blamed government agents, Satanists or some other dark cult. Many locals went as far as to claim that the Devil himself was driving the Black Volga. In recent years there have even been suggestions that it was none other than the men in black themselves on some nefarious, no doubt UFO-related mission.

Considering that the Volga was an extremely expensive luxury vehicle at the time only driven by the most affluent, it was thought that whoever was in there was wealthy and/or well-connected. After the 70s, accounts of the mysterious Black Volga dropped off considerably, so it is hard to ascertain how much truth any of the eerie stories hold if any at all. What was the Black Volga? Was it as has variously been speculated some possessed car powered by a mysterious force, the KGB, black market organ dealers, a secret organization, the men in black, Satanists, demons, or even Satan himself, or is it all government propaganda, fear-mongering, or merely an urban legend? No one really knows, but the tale has sown terror throughout the area. A more modern version of the Black Volga from the same region involves a black BMW or Mercedes, often described with horns coming out of where the rearview mirrors should be. The car is driven by a mysterious man who will ask for the time, only to kill the person when they approach or whisk them off to who knows where.

A very weird account comes from Kailua, Hawaii, in 1982, and was posted on the site Castle of Spirits. The witness claims that at the time she had been out with her visiting cousin just cruising around the area along a stretch of lonely beachfront road at Lanikai. There were no other cars out at the time, but at some point, while driving along this road they looked back and the witness would say:

Behind us loomed a huge, black, very shiny car. I can only say it was completely out of place and had so suddenly appeared that we were both shocked into silence. We turned from the rearview mirror and looked at each other, not saying anything but both with our eyes wide and the unspoken question between us. That took all of a second, then we both turned our heads to look out of the window, and the car was gone! There was NO WAY that car could have gone anywhere, there were no cut-offs or turns or even driveways the car could have ducked into, just one long narrow road, even if there had been a place for the car to go it hadn't the time, this had all happened in a second. I honestly don't remember what we did or said next, we just got out of Lanikai as quickly as possible. When I think back on it now, I can't remember having seen any driver of the mysterious, black car.

More recently still are two accounts given on the site Your Ghost Stories. The first comes from August of 2006, and supposedly takes place in Sunland, California. The witness says that he and a friend had been driving along the isolated Big Tujunga Canyon Road when they had a very bizarre encounter. At one point the witness says that they stopped by his friend’s house to pick some things up, and as he waited outside in the car there would be some weird happenings indeed when he noticed the indistinct shape of a car speeding down a sharp turn in the road with no headlights on. The witness would say of what happened next:

It is a notorious highway for being treacherous for careless drivers even during daylight hours. No one can possibly drive without headlights. Yet, to my utter astonishment, I began to barely see the shape of a car coming down the road, around the bend in front of me, without any headlights (or any lights of any kind at all)... My first thoughts were that this person must be desperate to try and get out of the canyon like this, maybe they had trouble with their car's lights but were still attempting to drive this impossible way, or perhaps they were hunched over the dashboard or something. I couldn't believe it, and I watched it drive right by my car. When it passed by, directly parallel to the side of my car, I looked to see who was driving and I saw that no one was in the car! It was moving very slowly, and without any sounds of a motor or wheels, and like a silhouette, practically see-through. It looked like an old and greyish-colored 4-door sedan-type vehicle. I kept just staring at it in amazement and looked back to see if maybe it even had rear brake lights. No, it did not either! Then it disappeared like all the other cars, into the darkness of the highway.

Also rather strange is a case from 2011, in the U.S. state of North Carolina. The witness in this case says he was driving home from work one afternoon on a beautiful, sunny day. Although the road was “smack in the middle of nowhere,” it was such a clear day that he would not have had any sort of sinister or scary vibe from the road, however, all of this would change rather quickly. As he approached one of the few intersections along the route, he claims that he saw an antique car coming up off of one of the farm roads, which he described as brown and from the 1930s. He passed the car and said he was admiring the restoration work that must have gone into it, with no feel of the supernatural at this point. However, he would explain:

After about a quarter of mile, perhaps a half mile, I looked in the mirror and was surprised to see that the car was no longer there. In most cases and in most places this would come as no surprise, but here, the middle of nowhere, there was no place the car could have gone. I came to place where I could turn around and back tracked to see if the car had fallen into the deep ditch, really the only place it could go. I found nothing.

 In the ensuing years I've seen the car on the same road several times and every time I've seen it it disappears. This is not to say I've actually seen the car vanish, but I'll be watching the car, my attention is called elsewhere and when I look back the car is gone and there is no place it could have gone to. I've told several people and nothing. I've looked for the car parked in a yard or open barn and again nothing. My wife, who does believe in ghosts, thinks I'm seeing a ghost car. I have no explanation.”

What in the world? In other countries we come to Australia, which also has its reports of phantom vehicles, especially in an area near a town known as Kaniya. Here there is said to be a spectral car that tears along the roads at great speed only to vanish into thin air without warning. One incident from 2012 allegedly happened to three MotoGP race car drivers heading from an event at Phillip Island, Victoria back to their hometown in Adelaide, South Australia, a journey of about 560 miles, meaning they would drive all night in shifts. At the time of their incident, one of the drivers was asleep in the back while the other two were awake in the front. It was about 4:30 AM, and they were between the towns of Nhill and Kaniva, and the witness would explain:

I’d only seen a handful of cars between Horsham and Nhill, So I was surprised when I saw a car way off in the distance behind us, It was catching us up too. I was surprised at the speed this car was catching up, I was already going over the speed limit by 30 Km/h, I estimated it going probably 160 Km/h. Nathan suggested it might be the Police, So I dropped back to 100 Km/h, Kinda futile I know but at least we’d know if it was a copper.

Eventually the car caught us up, But just sat behind us. There was no streetlights being country Australia so neither Me nor Nathan couldn’t accurately identify the car, But I did notice the headlights on the car were very old, Like what you’d find on a Model T Ford or Brum, If you’ve ever watched that TV show. They were round and fairly dim. By this stage, We’d worked out it wasn’t a Cop. But why wasn’t it trying to overtake us? It was a single lane each side, two-way road. So there was plenty of room to pass. And I hadn’t seen a car going the other way in about half an hour. An overtaking lane approached us, So Nathan suggested I move into that lane so the car behind us can overtake. I move into the lane and guess what? The car followed. I then slow down to 80 Km/h to try and convince him to overtake, But he doesn’t, he just stays behind, Although now I can’t see his headlights at all. The car is that close to ours.

The two increasingly worried men decided to open their windows to see if they could discern anything from the vehicle’s engine noise, but were surprised to hear that, although they were tearing along at 80 mph and the car was mere inches from their bumper, they could hear no noise at all emanating from it as if it were completely silent. The witness would go on to explain:

Back at 130 km/h and the car is still behind us, Matching our speed. Still inches away from our back bumper. Both Me and Nathan were freaking out a bit now. Why wouldn’t the car pass us? Why was he driving SO close? We were approaching Kaniva by this stage, There’s a big streetlight right on the edge of the Town and then streetlights all through the main street. Finally we’d be able to identify the car! We pass through the streetlights and look behind us, The car had stopped following. Right before the streetlight. It had simply stopped in the middle of the road. We still couldn’t work out what kind of car it was, But we didn’t want to turn around and find out!

Interestingly there is said to be a ghostly 1940s-era big rig truck said to haunt the same roads near Kaniva. Indeed, according to a news report in a 1951 edition of the Argus newspaper, the mysterious truck even managed to run a truck driver clear off the road after it came heading right for him only to pass through as if nothing was there. The reports would say, “There was no crash. The maniac truck fused briefly with the big diesel outfit, passed through, and out.” It’s hard to say if this phenomenon has any connection to the ghostly car of the same area, but Kaniva seems to be a fairly scary place to drive at night either way.

There are more recent accounts of ghostly phantom drivers as well. According to Reddit poster KiwiiKat, they had not one, but two encounters with something like this. The report reads:

This just happened to me for the second time, the first time being a few months ago, and it was on the same stretch of road. Each time I had someone else in the car with me witness it, and each time was a different person. Essentially, it's dark out and I am the only car on a mostly flat, but some smaller sloping hills-type road. I ALWAYS stare at oncoming traffic/look for lights on the telephone wires, especially when it's dead of night, because if they don't turn off their high beams, I don't either. So I purposefully watch them from the second I see them til the second they drive away, in a high beam game of chicken. Point being, I did not take my eyes off these cars for even a second.

It's always over a small hill, where you'll see the headlights and the reflection off the wires, then they'll disappear behind the small slope, usually to resurface seconds later.... except these times, they didn't. There were no side roads and it was in a mostly flat field area, the same area both times. There was no time for this car to even turn down a side road if there was one to turn down. It's as simple as oncoming headlights were there, they got lost behind the slope, and once I reached the peak of the slope there was absolutely no car to be found. Vanished into thin air. I am so baffled by this. I'm glad this second time my friend was with me, because I told her about it the first time and she didn't believe me. The look on her face was priceless.

Another such account comes from Reddit user myfakename68, who had a strange encounter of which they say:

“It was Thanksgiving and my mom had everyone over for dinner. Both sides of the family. My one grandma didn't drive so she came with my aunt and uncle. After dinner everyone left. My grandma wanted to stay longer to chit chat, so Dad offers to take grandma home. It was only 15 miles away so it wasn't a big deal. We chit chat, etc... when Dad notices that it is now snowing really hard. We lived in the "snow belt" in Ohio with lots of "lake effect" snow. When it starts to snow bad... you know it's time to get your butt moving and then get off the roads. We bundle up grandma, and my mom suggested that I go with my dad so I could help him get grandma into the house, help him stay awake while driving (he was fine), and I am sure to get me out of the house so she could have some quiet time after such a long day.

We head out and it is snowing HARD! Not a slushy snow but heavy big flakes. Grandma didn't live that far away, but we are talking country roads here and the snow was piling up and the roads were a little dicey. There was (is) one area on the way to Grandma's where the main state route goes down a very steep grade and then quickly up an equally steep grade. The car barely made it up! We get grandma home. As the weather is quickly getting worse Dad said we need to get back on the road. Dad was truly worried about getting back up/down that steep grade and decided to take the back roads. "They might not be plowed, but there isn't any hills or grades." We head out of town.

Now, these back roads are back roads. Very country, hardly paved, lots and lots of Amish houses. No street lights and no stop lights. It is DARK! These roads are fairly straight and there is only one intersection with stop signs. No turn offs and side roads. There are plenty of trees! Big maples and other tress as well as lots of brush. Very thick. One side of the road is woods the other side is a high "wall" of dirt and rock.

We are driving and dad is concentrating intensely on the road. Me too! It is pitch black and the only light is from our headlights. We are the only folks out on the road as there are NO tire tracks in the snow. We are both quiet and concentrating when from behind we are almost blinded by headlights that just appeared! They were far back but we had been on the road for some time, and it was odd how they just appeared. We keep driving and this car is quickly gaining on us. They are driving FAST! My dad is maybe going 20-25 mph and now and then pushing it to 30. This car was going WAY faster than that! Before we know it the car is right on our tail! They have the brightest headlights and I remember putting my hand over the passenger side mirror to block the light. After this went on for a very sort period the car makes a swerve to go around us. I look out the back seat windows and noticed that the car was a big vintage muscle car... maybe a Chevy Nova? Chevelle? Not sure what the type was but it was certainly a vintage muscle car. As it starts to overtake us (and this all happened within a matter of seconds... ) I glace over and see that there are three people in the car. It almost seems like the car is lit from the inside. It's not glowing, but you can see right in. Maybe the dome light was on? In the backseat center was a guy with shaggy hair wearing what looks like a buckskin jacket. The driver was also a shaggy haired young man. He was leaning close to the steering wheel arms almost wrapped around it. In the passenger seat was a young woman. She was wearing a big floppy hat... and she was laughing! I could tell she was laughing because she seemed to be rocking in her seat and leaning forward towards the dashboard. As they are right by Dad's side of the car the guy in the back seat looks over at us. He really doesn't seem to notice us or care. Just a blank expression. It seemed a little odd at the time because you usually can't see into a car like that at night, so I do believe that the dome light was on. As they get around us my dad says, "What an asshole! He's going to get killed driving like that!" They pull in front of us and slow down a little as I'm sure they noticed there were no tracks in the snow to follow! They tap their brakes once and then take off. Dad is actually pretty thrilled because now we have some tire tracks to follow so he speeds up, but the other car pulls ahead. We can still see the taillights and are following. We see them stop at the one intersection and go straight! We do the same and keep following the taillights and tire tracks. The other car drives over a little rise and we follow. We are only a few feet behind... 50-75 feet. We drive over the rise and... nothing! NOTHING! No car, no tire tracks... no lights... NOTHING! Just a empty snowy country road. My dad slows down a bit and says, "What the hell... where the... where did the car go?" We see nothing! The car could not have crashed because now with dad driving slow again we can see that the woods is NOT disturbed. Besides that... there are NO tire tracks going towards the woods! There are no turn offs and no side roads. We'd been down these back roads many, many times and we know for a fact there are no turn offs and side roads. In this area also there are NO houses, so no driveways to drive into. We keep looking left and right and nothing... the tire tracks just vanished over that rise and the car did too. We didn't talk the rest of the way home. I'm sure we were both thinking the same thing..."what the hell!" When we make it home we tell my mom. She is stunned too and when she sees how shaken my dad is she believes us.

Years later I learned that my father went back the next day (while Mom and I were shopping) to check the roads/woods. There were no signs of any accidents and no signs of the car being local to the houses. My dad was really shook up and even looked in the newspapers to see if any accident had occurred over Thanksgiving. He finally broke down and called the local fire and rescue to report a possible accident. He's not sure they actually checked but they did call him back to say they found nothing. So... what happened? How or why did a big muscle car with three young people in it vanish on a snowy country road... and if the car was REAL where did it go? If it was a phantom car? Why? Why then and why there? To this day I'm still freaked out. We've traveled that road many times and nothing odd ever happened again. Whenever I return to Ohio I always make sure to go down that road (as it's actually gorgeous with the trees). Nothing strange has ever happened again... but that memory is always there.

What was going on here? Lastly we have a report from Reddit user faithlysa, who had quite an odd experience. They say:

I am from Wisconsin. I was traveling on the Vietnam War Veteran Memorial Highway from Manitowoc going towards Whitelaw out west. I had an encounter with a phantom car. I was driving and I'm a very observation person. There was a normal space of cars behind me and the next time I look in the rearview mirror I see two glares like headlights reflecting from off the back of my vehicle, they were nearly bumper to bumper to me. They came out of nowhere. I drive about 5 more minutes and they are still bumper to bumper. I'm just trying to get home and my small toddler is in back. Only the two of us. I felt threatened but it didn't feel like an asshole driver, it felt like something not from this human plane. So, I'm still keeping an eye out just too make sure they don't pull anything risky and I keep my eyes on the road, eyes on the rearview hoping whoever or whatever it is backs off. Then almost 10 minutes pass and I am still doing the switching from looking in front and back. Still there. And the next look, they are nowhere to be found and the car behind me is almost a mile away from me. Normally if a car takes a turn in the dark, you will see their headlights veer off by the reflections. I did not see that.

Here we have looked at a strange selection of spooky tales from the road that seem to defy explanation. Were all of these people simply imagining it? Was it just misunderstandings and misinterpretations? Were these examples of some pranksters just messing around? Just what was going on here? Whatever the case may be, it seems that sometimes the road can be more dangerous and creepier than one might imagine.