Trucker Ghost Stories
Truckers Share True Ghost Stories from the Road
Truckers log thousands of hours behind the wheel and encounter everything from bad weather and treacherous roads to fatal accidents and careless drivers. However, sometimes even truckers are shocked by what they see on the road. Here are five true ghost stories from real truckers.
Knock, Knock“Last week, I had just left Gallup, NM and was driving west on I-40 near Holbrook, AZ when I heard a KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK, two times, on the side of my sleeper. It was very loud and distinct…like ONE, TWO, THREE, and then it repeated once more shorty after that. I had the radio off and was alone in the rig. Honestly, I thought ‘KEEP DRIVING!’ was the best thing to do. When I got to Holbrook, I stopped for a break but was too freaked to get out and go look. The next day, I walked around the cab and was looking at the cat walk. There is no way a human being could have been hiding back there, at 3 a.m., in 10 degree freezing winter weather, going 70 mph, without anyone noticing. I LOGGED THIS ONE AS UNEXPLAINED!” |
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A True Truck Driver Ghost StoryOn or around the year 2000, I was running a bid run from Gallipolis, Ohio, to Evansville, Indiana through Cincinnati, Ohio and Indianapolis, Indiana. One night I was headed home around 3:00 AM on route 32E., about three or four miles west of Sardenia, Ohio. I was running along about 67 mph when I passed a flat bed tractor and trailer running along about 55 mph, which was the speed limit. About three quarters of a mile behind me and still behind the flat bed truck, I noticed flashing lights coming up behind us, more specifically they were red lights. As they grew closer I noticed it was the old type that spun horizontally round and round. As anyone would know today, if its not blue, then you don’t worry to much. They grew closer and closer so thinking it was an emergency vehicle of some sort I did slow down to 55 just to be safe. The cruiser came right up behind me then crossed the yellow line and then pulled directly behind me. At this point I thought may be, I had some lights out, after all I always ran a radar detector so he could not have radared me. I turned on my four ways and started for the right berm and he followed me. Now God being my witness this really happened:
I set my brakes, turned on the dome, released my seat belt and picked up my light. I looked into my mirrors, I did not see anyone get out of the car. I opened my door and stepped out of my truck. I started back towards the car and just abreast of my drive axle I froze. I bent over looking in under the trailer and then threw my very bright mag. light all around. Guess what, there was nothing back there and thinking may be he had went off the road behind me out in the grass I looked there. There was nothing. The weird part is, I ran this road all the time and I knew it well. There was no place he could have turned around or turned off. Needless to say, I headed for the cab of my truck on the run. I jumped in my rig and took off and getting on the radio, I tried to call the flat bed I had passed and see if he saw this cop car or what ever but he didn’t answer.
Later on I asked a couple Highway Patrol cops if they knew of any cops getting killed around there and needless to say they had not and they both give me a look of disbelief. Some of my friends asked me what sort of drugs I was taking. I was not. This happened and it is a very very true story. And incidentally, this is only one of many stories of things which have happened to me throughout my life. |
The Man on Jensen Road“It was about 3 a.m., and I was west bound on Jensen Road in Fresno, CA, just before the residential area. I had slowed to about 40 mph when out of nowhere appeared this freakishly tall figure of a man in a black, buttoned up trench coat and a round, black sombrero standing on the white line of the two lane road. He must have been at least 6’7″ or 7’0 tall. My partner and I watched and he didn’t even flinch as the rig passed by. I swear, the side mirrors must have missed his head by only a couple of inches. My partner and I looked at each other with our eyes wide open and screamed ‘Did you see that?! What the fuck was that?’. I swear our skin crawled and we were both in a kind of shock. I couldn’t stop thinking about it for a couple days.” |
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Highway 666
Utah, United States
Now known as Highway 191, the route (the sixth branch of the famous Route 66) is notorious for accidents, apparitions, and just plain bad luck. Linda Dunning writes on prairieghosts.com about an incident with her husband: “He [author's husband] was alone and hadn’t seen a car for miles and miles. Suddenly, he saw a truck that looked like it was on fire heading straight for him, right down the middle of the highway. The truck was going so fast that sparks were flying up off the wheels and flames were coming from the smokestack. It scared him so bad that he pulled way off the road and walked 20 feet or so out into the desert away from his car and waited for the truck to pass him, going what he estimated was 130 miles an hour. He then got back into his car and continued on.” If you aren’t careful, hell hounds will shred your tires. A young girl walking down the road will vanish if you try to help her. If you are alone, a ghost may just take up residence in your back seat. Dunning has this to say for you advice: “Take a lot of people with you and don’t leave any space for unwanted passengers who just might decide to appear in your backseat. Pull off the road if a huge diesel truck comes barring down on you from either direction. Don’t be curious to see if there is a driver in that single car passing you in the night. Don’t look for lights floating in the sky. Hope you don’t see any young girls in white dresses. Never stop if you spot something peculiar and don’t pick up hitchhikers. Lastly, if demon dogs approach you in the night, just keep driving.” |
The Guardian Angel“In the late 80’s, Michigan had I-94 west of Detroit all torn up as they were completely replacing the roadbed. I was going into Detroit about 2 a.m., driving in the construction zone, when I saw this heavy-set elderly lady in a rain coat standing behind her car in the construction zone waving her arms for me to stop. I had almost passed the elderly lady when I saw her and couldn’t stop. So I turned around at the next exit and circled back and pulled up behind the broken down car with my four-ways on. Two heads popped up from behind the seats and a young guy came back to the truck. I told him to get everyone out of the car and I would take them to a gas station where they could get some help. He got his wife from the car and they got into my truck and shut the passenger door. Immediately the woman burst into tears and said that she had heard that guardian angels look like deceased relatives. She went on to explain that her grandmother had passed away earlier that year and I had just described her grandmother to a ‘T.’ This story still gives me goose bumps thinking about it all these years later. I can’t wait to meet that elderly lady someday. I did something right that night, for once in my life.” |
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How old is that story, bro?: Trucking tales, legends, ghosts.Everyone on the road has heard the “Legend of the Black Dog.” The black dog supposedly comes when a truck driver has been driving too long and starts to fall asleep at the wheel. He or she will see the ghoul running toward the truck, just before the crash. The apparition causes the driver to steer off the road, or into traffic, and results in an accident that kills the truck driver or an innocent person. The origins of the black dog are difficult to pin down, though in various pieces of European mythology dogs have been associated with death. Their scavenging habits may attribute to these beliefs, as well as the fact that black dogs are seen almost universally as malevolent. It’s possible the black dog legend is a throwback to a belief held by couriers of freight as far back as Egyptian times. The vanishing hitchhiker is the story of a hitchhiker who has died in a terrible accident and returns in ghostly form to the scene. In some versions of the legend, a truck driver will stop to pick the hitchhiker up and take them to their designated location. When dropped off, the hitchhiker leaves some kind of personal article on the truck, like a sweater or a book bag. The driver will return the object to the place they dropped the hitchhiker off, only to be told the owner of the personal item is a child or friend of whoever lives there and they’ve been dead for some time, due to a tragic accident on whichever road the trucker picked them up on. In the song “Phantom 309,” Red Sovine sings about thumbing a ride with a trucker who tells him to make sure the people at the truck stop he drops him off at know who sent him. When Red informs the truck stop crowd of his driver, a waiter tells him the story of a driver who died after crashing his rig to avoid a school bus full of kids at the intersection he was picked up at. The waiter tells the hiker that he wasn’t the first; the ghost of Big Joe had been known to pick up other hitchhikers over the years. Sovine also recorded “Bringing Mary Home,” in which he picks up a young woman standing by the road on a stormy night, only to have her disappear before he reaches the address she gives him. Her mother answers the door and tells him that he is the 13th man who has come to her, bringing Mary home. According to folklorists, the vanishing hitchhiker/driver stories may have evolved from earlier European yarns, usually about travelers on horseback. A version of the story actually appears in the Bible (Acts 8:26-39), wherein an Ethiopian driving a chariot picks up the Apostle Philip, who baptizes him and disappears. As time rolled on and the story continued to be told, the chariots, wagons and horseback of yesteryear became the big rigs of today. Truckers can also be the heroes of urban legends. In one such story, a nasty biker gang harasses a trucker in a restaurant. The trucker says nothing, pays his bill and leaves. One biker brags to the proprietor, “He wasn’t much of a man, was he?” Looking out the window, the owner says, “No, he’s not much of a driver either. He just backed over your bikes.” This basic plot line shows up in our favorite trucking movies like Smokey and the Bandit and Every Which Way But Loose, and versions of the story have been set in the United States, Canada and Great Britain. Rather than preach the Christian message of “turn the other cheek,” these stories encourage temporary meekness, only to strike back against the prized possessions of the tormentor. Again, there are several European legends involving the same methods, dating back hundreds of years. Reports of spirits leading truckers to safety are varied and different versions develop as they are told by different drivers. One particularly inspiring story involves a young man, fairly new to trucking, who gets hung up in a blinding snowstorm in the Kansas flat lands. Just as he’s about to pull over and stop on what he hopes is the side of the road, someone comes on the CB who sounds remarkably like his deceased father (who had also been a trucker) and tells him to follow the taillights, which he des, and they lead him safely to a truck stop. The guy grabs his jacket and jumps out of the truck to tell the other driver thank you, and even though there were two sets of tracks in the snow, his is the only truck around. Soldiers in battle often relate these types of experiences, either being warned of danger or directed away from danger by familiar spirits who have passed. The Vikings had tales of the Goddess Vor (meaning “careful one” or “aware”), who assisted in their conquests by warning of treachery and ill-will before it befell them. Mark Twain said, “There is no such thing as a new idea. It is impossible. We simply take a lot of old ideas and put them into a sort of mental kaleidoscope. We give them a turn and they make new and curious combinations. We keep on turning and making new combinations indefinitely; but they are the same old pieces of colored glass that have been in use through all the ages.” The same holds true for our legends and stories, which is why they continue to be told throughout the ages of time. So beware, newbies, you’re not the first and you won’t be the last to hear about Large Marge…. |
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THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE Off the bat, I didn't like the area, but had no other choice. The bathrooms were unkempt and had enough graffiti on the walls to classify itself as an inner-city truck stop, even though I was practically in the middle of nowhere. It was also a small stop, with parking for only a dozen trucks. After washing up, I purchased a new work knife, some hot food and headed out to my truck. I sat in the captain's chair and listened to the radio while I ate my dinner with the windows down, letting in the dry wind. The Mississippi River had just begun flooding, but there hadn't been any rain in over a week. The surrounding area was beginning to look like Nevada more than Arkansas. I finished my meal and cleaned up a bit. I slid out of the seat and onto the pavement as a gust of warm wind hit me. I strolled over to the dumpster, tossed my garbage inside and began slowly walking back to my truck. I fished out a filterless cigarette and leaned against the bug-splattered side of my truck and lit it with my lighter. I enjoyed the smoke as I watched the sun set below the horizon. A few more trucks had backed into spots. I spotted one guy walking out of the store with a bottle of beer in his hand, looking around nervously as he quickly strode over to his truck. The life of a trucker. Something interesting and new every day. Risking his job over one, lousy beer. I climbed back into the cab of the truck, dropped back into the sleeper berth, changed into a pair of pajamas and lay down to get some rest. I didn't bother setting an alarm. I felt sleep creep over me and accepted it as I drifted off into dreamworld. JOLTED AWAKE I awoke with the cab of the truck rocking violently, knocking the bottle of water I had placed on my "nightstand" over onto the floor. I sat straight up, fully awake and pressed the button on the truck's radio/alarm. It was shortly after three in the morning. I reached down and grabbed the bottle of water that had fallen, twisted the cap off and took a few deep gulps before wondering what had rocked my truck so violently. Then I remembered: the wind. I settled back down, got my heart rate back below a hundred and lay my head down on the pillow. The truck rocked again, knocking my ashtray over that I had set in the cup holder and once again tossing my water bottle onto the floor. I flipped on the overhead light, slid on my shoes and grabbed another cigarette from my pack. I opened the curtains, sat in the captain's chair and shut off the sleeper light. I opened the door and noticed that it had cooled down considerably. I shut off the truck, pocketed the keys and climbed down onto the pavement to look around. At this time of night, the truck stop only had lights around the gasoline pumps, and their light could not reach the truck parking area. I looked around a moment, lit my cigarette... and then noticed something. The wind had stopped blowing. I wondered what had caused my truck to rock so violently. Earthquake maybe? I knew that a few had been reported around Memphis, and I was probably close enough to have felt a tremor, but that rocking motion did not feel like an earthquake. It felt like the wind hitting the side of my truck with a strong gust. |
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THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE
Off the bat, I didn't like the area, but had no other choice. The bathrooms were unkempt and had enough graffiti on the walls to classify itself as an inner-city truck stop, even though I was practically in the middle of nowhere. It was also a small stop, with parking for only a dozen trucks. After washing up, I purchased a new work knife, some hot food and headed out to my truck. |
Suggested By: jariten1781, Photo Credit: Katherine Tompikns 9.) Driving Through Hurricane Sandy
I was lucky enough to be inside during Hurricane Sandy, even if I was without power. Reader Dukie - Jalopnik Emergency Management Asshole had to brave the storm:
Suggested By: Dukie - Jalopnik Emergency Management Asshole, Photo Credit: Getty Images 8.) This Isn't Happening'
That's what foxbody said, as his truck rolled before he knew what was going on.
Suggested By: foxbody, Photo Credit: Getty Images 7.) Who Put A Couch In The Road?
A couch is one of the last things you'd expect to see in the middle of a road, and Takuro Spirit - Trans Camry didnt' see it until after he'd hit it.
Suggested By: Takuro Spirit - Trans Camry, Photo Credit: Michael Mol 6.) Just Hold It
Sometimes it's better to just hold it in rather than risk the unknown like Moves-Like-Senna did:
Suggested By: Moves-Like-Senna, Photo Credit: Andrew Bowden 5.) Truck FireThe stars aligned in the worst way possible for reader High Road. His truck "caught fire and started a 1500 acre wildfire." The truck backfired going into low gear which and ignited because of a leak in the gas tank. Suggested By: High Road, Photo Credit: High Road 4.) Check Your GPS Before You Set Off
Be sure you know which way you're going, otherwise you could end up in great danger like bobrayner did:
Suggested By: bobrayner, Photo Credit: Dwilliams851 3.) Code Brown
This story from PNW20v is why companies like Volvo are devloping airbags that work outside of the car:
Suggested By: PNW20v, Photo Credit: allen watkin 2.) 'You Are Going To Die Tonight'
Those are six words you never want to hear shouted at you while you're driving. Reader phimuskapsi did, and lives to tell the tale.
Suggested By: phimuskapsi, Photo Credit: State Farm 1.) Don't Drive Tired
If you've ever been tempted to drive tired, OneFastPuertoRican's story will scare you straight:
Suggested By: OneFastPuertoRican, Photo Credit: Saoirse Alessanrdo |
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The Most Haunted Roads in the World |
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When we think about something being haunted, we think of asylums, homes, prisons and cemeteries. However, there is another place that can be haunted, and there are plenty of examples around the world. It is roads, and some roads have more spirits and ghost stories than most apparent haunted houses. So, what are the haunted roads that you should be aware of in your travels? No matter where you go it seems, on any continent, you are going to come across a road that locals and visitors cite as haunted. Here are just a few. The M6
According to several surveys, the M6 in England is the most haunted road in the entire land. The road itself has existed in one form or another for roughly 2,000 years and was even used by Roman soldiers during the Roman occupation of England. Not surprisingly, there have been Roman soldiers sighted along the road, walking through traffic, along with a truck driving against the flow of traffic, and a ghostly woman who is very distraught and hitchhiking on the road for eternity. It just gets getting creepy though for those who are on the road, especially at night. Many motorists have reported seeing eyes looking at them from the bushes around Manchester, which is where there was a serious mining disaster many years ago.
Tuen Mun Road
In Hong Kong, you will find the major Tuen Mun Road, which is the most important road on the island and in heavy use. However, it is not just living people who use this road, but the dead as well. There have been many accidents on this road, an immense amount that makes it one of the most dangerous roads in the world. Locals blame the many accidents on the ghosts of the region who will appear out of nowhere in the middle of the road. This will cause the drivers on the road to swerve out of the way, and getting into a serious, sometimes fatal accident. What is making matters worse is that the number of ghosts continues to grow as more and more people die on the road. In many ways, the road is like a zombie virus, killing and adding to its undead ranks and killing more through ghosts appearing out of nowhere in front of drivers.
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Stocksbridge By-Pass
Located in England, where we have the M6, we also have the Stocksbridge By-Pass, which is a small road that is the site of many haunting in the area. One story tells of a security guard who was watching the cameras along the roadway and he saw a group of children playing near the road. Not only was this odd because it was late at night, but the clothes the children were wearing dated from many years ago. Going to investigate the situation, the security guard found that the children were gone and there were no traces of anyone being there in the past few days at least. The ground was muddy and there were no footsteps at all in it, which naturally caused the security guard to get a bit freaked out at the situation. It was not just the security guard who experienced this either. Workmen who were staying at the worksite over night could also hear children singing in the night, which itself would be a terrifying experience when you know there are no children around. The appearances do not end there though, another security guard saw a person dressed like a monk standing on the bridge. Thinking the person was going to commit suicide, the police were called but they dismissed the monk sighting as a joke. Eventually the police did go to bridge and found nothing except a very cold temperature in the area, even though the evening was warm and they were in their car. Then, a figure suddenly appeared beside their windows with no head, legs, or arms. The cops tried to get away but their car would not start until the figure disappeared.
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Bloodspoint Road
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A229
Going back to England, we have another haunted road. This time it is the A229 going from Kent to Sussex and it is one of the most haunted roads in the country. Many drivers have reported seeing a woman in a white dress appearing in front of their car. When they stop the car, just before hitting her, she will disappear. Most people believe the woman to be Judith Langham, who was killed on the road on her wedding day in 1965. She is not the only ghost here though, including a hitchhiker who can be seen hiking near a well-known pub in the area. When the hitchhiker gets into the car, he will tell you all the things that have gone wrong in the world and how he will make them better, but once you reach a certain spot on the road; he disappears from the seat to start this short journey all over again.
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The Ghost Story of Haunted Roads
The story of a haunted road in comes from a resident of the city. He is an Asian, male University sophomore. He told me the story in March at a very late hour. Among friends discussing plans to one day explore some supposedly haunted areas of the state, the storyteller spoke of a “rumor” he had heard from one of his college friends. The “late hour” previously mentioned is noteworthy since it affected the way the urban legend was told. There were four of us in a diner, eating at a time when most restaurants had been closed for hours already. Thus, we were all a bit tired, including the storyteller, who blamed the combination of hunger and the time of day for his lack of presentation skills. For example, he would eat and talk and restate certain parts.
He started by describing that the haunted road was “somewhere in the city, I think it was Marriott Road. Like the hotel, ya know?” He claimed that the road was close by because his friend said so. Later, we looked online and found a nearby street named Marriottsville Road. The storyteller continued by saying that the road is haunted because when you drive there at night, when the sun has completely set, the area seems to be pitch black. Even with headlights, it is supposedly unsafe due to the darkness that shrouds the pavement. He said that the trees there are so tall and the vegetation so thick that they “practically cover the road and form a tunnel around it” to block any light from entering.
Not only is the road a dark one, but there are two more supernatural elements to it. The first is a barn off the side of the road. The storyteller said that noises have been heard from the barn. When people go to investigate the noise, they eventually get close enough to hear whimpering animals. The sounds get louder until, as the storyteller claimed, “They sound more like screaming than whimpering.” At this point, any would-be investigators run away from the site of the barn.
Furthermore, there is an even more terrifying aspect of the road. As already described, it is hard to drive there. The darkness is just part of the difficulty. The road also has many turns and curves along with steep hills. At this point of the story, the teller used lots of hand gestures to help us visualize the severity of the road’s twists. He waved a flat hand like a rollercoaster to show us that driving there would be fun, but in a scary way. However, if one drives too quickly over the seventh hill, a ghost appears. This ghost is actually a monster-truck-like vehicle with extremely bright headlights. The ghost is supposedly that of a victim of a car crash. My friend said, “It was a driver who liked to be reckless, but bit off more than he could chew by racing along the road.” Therefore, he gets jealous of other people speeding and tries to run them off the road.
The urban legend clearly includes many typical elements of scary stories. There is a scary forest, a chilling building, and although the truck is a vehicular paranormal being, it is basically a ghostly figure. I could not find any stories about Marriottsville Road (although oddly enough, there is a “Marriottsville Road 2” off of the main road (“marriottsville road, Ellicott City, MD 21042”)), but there is a more well-known story regarding a road with seven hills. One website states,
“There are seven hills behind Historic Ellicott City, which is said; Supposedly, if you hit the seventh hill at midnight, you will be chased by a demon car that appears out of nowhere. Again this is a myth, and I don't suggest anyone try this! People have lost their lives on this road” (“Historic Ellicott City, MD – Haunted Ellicott City”). Unfortunately, the above story is not talking about the same road since Marriottsville Road is not that close to Historic Ellicott City. Perhaps the two stories were similar enough to get grouped together. Despite the lack of text regarding Marriottsville Road, when I asked other friends from Ellicott City about a haunted road, they recognized the story. Some say that there is no barn or truck, others say that the truck was driven by two teenage girls, and many purport that it is not a named road that is haunted, but rather an unlabeled road near Marriottsville Road. Even so, they all agree that there is a haunted road north of route 40.
Clearly, the face-value moral of the story is to not be reckless. This rocky road is one that can attract thrill-seekers, but the moral of the story is that if one is careless, then a negative turn of events will occur. In this case, a supernatural automobile ensures one’s doom if he or she decides to have some fun by trying to cheat death. Also, the part of the legend concerning the barn plays upon fears that curiosity is not always a good trait and how one might be punished for it. This is consistent with a theme regarding exploration. There is a facet of the story concerning nosiness and snooping around. In the legend, explorers are penalized for their curiosity by getting scared away.
The summation of so many typical urban legend elements (a dark road, a scary forest, a frightening building, a supernatural being) is also noteworthy. It shows how urban legends can sometimes get more elaborate through word-of-mouth. The story of “Seven Hills Road” is a separate, distinct legend about College Avenue (Lake 180). The addition of the truck suggests that people tend to accept stories surrounding roads as a collective message because they all show society’s fear about driving: getting lost, crashing, losing control, and even aggressive drivers
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