Phantom vehicle

A phantom vehicle has two meanings. In legal terms for insurance purposes, a phantom vehicle is one that causes bodily injury, death, or property damage to an insured vehicle, but has no physical contact; for example, a run-off-road accident caused by a car in the opposing direction drifting partly over the yellow line of a highway [http://apps.leg.wa.gov/RCW/default.aspx?Cite=48.22.030] .

More popularly, 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.

Types of phantom vehicles

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

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.
* In 1982 two people in Hawaii reported seeing a mysterious black car which disappeared a second later and reappear again. [ [http://www.castleofspirits.com/stories01/ghostcar.html Ghost Car In Lanikai ] ]
* 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 at several stoplights. Also the witness noticed that the driver was a man in his teens and that he never turned his head and he never moved the steering wheel when the man drove around the "dead man's curve" the witness said. [ [http://www.castleofspirits.com/stories03/ghostcar.html Ghost Car in Broad Daylight Afternoon - Castle of Spirits.com Ghost Story ] ]
*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". [ [http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/News/0,,2-7-1442_1624535,00.html 'Haunted' car goes haywire: South Africa: News: News24 ] ]
*In the mid 1980s, three people in a sedan reported seeing a gray van heading straight towards them. Then suddenly the van vanished. [ [http://paranormal.about.com/library/blstory_october03_22.htm Your True Tales - October 2003 - Page 22 - The Ghost Car ] ]
*The Curse of "Little Bastard": the mid-1950s Porsche 550 Spyder in which James Dean died is said to be cursed after the accidents in which it has been later involved. [ [http://www.paralumun.com/ghostcurse.htm Curse of James Dean ] ]
*In Germany, a car mysteriously started up by itself and rammed a wall. [ [http://capetimes.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=272&fArticleId=2983411 Cape Times: Wreck ignition for 'ghost car' that started on its own ] ]
*An eyewitness claimed that an old truck started up by itself and blinked at him as he walked past an old house. [ [http://unsolvedmysteries.com/usm48179.html The Old Rusty Ghost truck ] ]
*Early 1980s - a British motorist crashed his car in order to avoid a truck that suddenly appeared coming straight towards him and then vanished. [ [http://www.bbc.co.uk/coventry/features/weird-warwickshire/local-ghost-stories.shtml BBC - Coventry and Warwickshire Features - Local ghost stories ] ]
*A Police chase video has documented a car had been driving erratically "like a man possessed" and proceeding to outrun cops by vanishing into a field that was bordered by an unbroken chain-link fence. [http://youtube.com/watch?v=PJalBPSRHfc Phantom Car Chase] ]
*The curved road at the junction of St. Marks Road and Cambridge Gardens in Ladbroke Grove was reported to be haunted by a phantom bus with a route marker "7" which caused numerous accidents, one of which was fatal. The reports subsided when the area of road was straightened. [http://www.mysterymag.com/hauntedbritain/?page=article&subID=78&artID=274] ]

Trains

*The "St Louis Ghost Train" (see St. Louis Light) is said to haunt a Saskatchewan village [ [http://www.virtualsk.com/current_issue/ghost_train.html Virtual Saskatchewan - The St. Louis Ghost Train ] ]
*Abraham Lincoln's funeral train was said to be haunted by his spirit. [ [http://www.hallowfreaks.com/famousghosts.html Abe Lincoln's Ghost Train ] ]
*The "Silverpilen" subway train is supposed to haunt the metro system of Stockholm, the Swedish capital.
*In 2000 a train in Bogor Station moving to Jakarta Cikini Station was seen without the driver and passengers. [ [http://www.sp18.com/2003/12/24/kereta_api_hantu_di_jakarta SP18 » Kereta Api Hantu di Jakarta ] ]

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. [ [http://paranormal.about.com/library/weekly/aa062899.htm Phantom Plane Crashes ] ]

Boats and ships

*Legends tell of a ghostly ship named the "Flying Dutchman" said to haunt the waters near the Cape of Good Hope.
*There are several stories of ghost ships linked to the Bermuda Triangle legends.
*The Mary Celeste is one of the most famous and documented "ghost ships"

Phantom vehicles in movies/Videogames

*"The Car"
*"Christine"
*"Maximum Overdrive"
*"Wheels of Terror"
*"Trucks"
*"Ghost Ship"
*"The Fog"
*"Nightmares"
*"The Wraith"
*"The Ghost Train"
*"The Haunted Car"
*"The Hearse"
*"Killdozer"
*"The Wrecker"
*"Blades" [ [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096936/ Blades (1989) ] ]
*, a damaged and unrepairable car often "drives" without an actual driver.
*"The Honking", a "Futurama" episode in which an evil car (Project S.A.T.A.N.) attacks robots and turns them into "were-cars".
*"Herbie" is not technically a "phantom" car, but there was an evil Herbie in The Love Bug (1997) named Horace.
*"" - at certain points (like the first left turn from Yokohane Downward's Shibaura ramp), traffic vehicles may randomly disappear if: a) the player falls behind, b) the traffic vehicle pulls away, and c) goes over a 'jump', around a turn, or gains a lot of distance. Even stranger, traffic vehicles have been reported to appear from out of the walls. However, the game's most documented incidence is another player's Ghost (during Ghost Mode) appearing from out of the finish line if the current player leads by over 200-300 meters (on average).
*"Midnight Club 3 Dub Edition Remix" During one of the optional races in Career mode, a traffic Police car and a traffic car goes around in circles with the lights off and causing racers to crash into them or into walls

ee also

*Boy Scout Lane
*Clinton Road
*Ghost ship
*Ghost rockets
*Ghost
*List of horror films
*Vanishing hitchhiker
*Wes Harrison - a vocal mimic who used his ability to "create" a ghost train in a small town as a practical joke.

References

External links

* [http://www.scaryforkids.com/ghost-car-videos/ Ghost Car Videos]
* [http://www.paralumun.com/ghostmbike.htm Motorcycle Ghost]
* [http://www.castleofspirits.com/stories01/ghostcar.html Ghost Car]
* [http://www.castleofspirits.com/stories03/ghostcar.html Ghost Car in Broad daylight]
* [http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/News/0,,2-7-1442_1624535,00.html allegedly haunted car...]
* [http://paranormal.about.com/library/blstory_october03_22.htm Ghost car (about.com)]
* [http://capetimes.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=272&fArticleId=2983411 Cape Times]
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CO9Ve03s41w Ghost Car Video]