What Was That? People Share Their Creepiest Experiences On The Road

March 19, 2020 | Scott Mazza

What Was That? People Share Their Creepiest Experiences On The Road


There's something about driving at night that makes it seem like the regular rules of the universe don't apply. It feels calm, but in an unsettling way, as if danger lurks around every corner. As these stories prove, sometimes, it is. Redditors came together to share their stories about scary, bizarre, and supernatural experiences while driving, and they are downright disturbing. Buckle up for these real-life stories of people's creepiest experiences from the road.


1. Time Flies

A few years ago, I was driving alone at night through a shopping center when I noticed that everything around me seemed to suddenly be speeding up, like when you watch a YouTube video at 1.25x speed. It was the weirdest feeling in the world. Everybody was walking and moving too fast—it just didn’t look normal.

I started shaking my head and after about a minute or two, the effect started to wear off gradually. I still don't have an explanation for what I experienced that night.

On The Road At Night FactsGoodFreePhotos

2. Should Probably Stay in for the Night

After dropping me off at my house around 2 AM, my friend calls me and tells me to lock my doors. He said he saw a man standing in the middle of the road and that as he passed him the man kept staring through him. Not at him, but as if there were something behind him in his back seat. He also said he could barely make out anything about the man other than his large eyes and trench coat.

What really terrified me is that this happened on a street that only my family lives on and no one would have been out that night. Also, we're a solid mile and a half away from the nearest neighbor. Freaked me the heck out.

Disturbing Interactions With Strangers factsShutterstock

3. Face the Facts

I felt like something was following me, but I couldn't tell why. Later, I was at a stoplight and a weird looking masked face slammed onto my window with gloved hands and screamed and disappeared quickly afterward. I couldn't focus on anything else, so I had to find a hotel and sleep there even though I felt like I was still being followed and watched.

On The Road At Night FactsPixabay

4. Doing the Wave

I work at my local airport. I was driving to work at 3 AM one time and I was in the middle lane doing 70 MPH. All of a sudden, a lady came out of nowhere and ran directly at my car, waving her arms in the air. I swerved into the left lane so hard and fast that I couldn’t believe I didn’t cause any damage. I would have stopped for her, but something in her face just didn’t say “I need help.”

When I got to my lot 10 minutes later, I called 9-1-1 and told them what had happened. I never heard anything back or saw anything in the papers, so I still don't really know what her story is.

Benedict Arnold factsShutterstock

5. Now It’s a Party

Maybe too late to the party, but when I was a little kid I distinctly remember my older brother driving me someplace through a canyon. As we got near the top of the bend of the canyon, there was a dirt road that we drove up, and as crazy as it sounds about 50 yards off that road at the top of the hill I swear I saw a ring of 8-10 hooded guys standing around a fire, and next to them, there was some kind of wooden kind from which they’d hanged some dogs.

I still remember it absolutely vividly and it scared the snot out of me. My brother pointed it out and then we drove home, but I never mentioned it until a few years later, when I asked him about it, and to this day he swears he has no idea what I'm talking about.

On The Road At Night FactsPixabay

6. Ring of Fire

I was on a road trip with my wife and her kid. I believe this happened after we had passed through New Mexico and went into Texas. It was 3 AM and we had come up over a large hill. Suddenly, everything we passed was on fire. Just fields and fields of fire, one after another. It looked like the apocalypse, for crying out loud!

I had no clue what I was looking at. My wife and her kid were both completely asleep, so I had no one else who could bear witness to this. I didn’t want to wake them up because I thought they would be scared if they woke up to that kind of a scene. This went for several miles and, to this day, I still don’t know what the deal was with that.

All I know is that the whole time I was driving through, I looked like Ralph Wiggum from The Simpsons awkwardly going, “Hehe, I’m in danger!”

The Biggest Mistakes quizShutterstock

7. Join Us!

My dad is from Louisiana, so we used to spend a few weeks there every summer growing up. One night, my cousin, my brother, and I were out night fishing for catfish in the middle of nowhere. When we had caught a few and were ready to load them up and head home, it was already about 1 or 2 in the morning.

As we were driving out of the woods, we noticed a group of about 30 or 40 people staggering around the road. These people looked really pale and their clothes were all beat up and worn out. We stopped the car to watch them and see if they would pass, but they just kept staggering around aimlessly in the middle of the road.

So, we started to move the car slowly in between them. Right as we got to the middle of their group, they started to come at our car. A few of them were actually trying to get inside. We floored it and got the heck out of there fast. I assume that this group was part of a crazy cult or something. Either way, it was one of the weirdest things I have ever experienced in my life.

Weirdest Experiences On The Roads FactsShutterstock

8. Can’t Mask the Fear

I was driving through an old, creepy town in rural Missouri at about 2 AM, when all of a sudden a bunch of people started walking down the street wearing masks and holding various sharp objects. It looked like something out of The Purge. I sped up and got the heck out of there—ain’t nobody got time for that!

On The Road At Night FactsPxHere

9. Spontaneously Combust

I was on a long stretch of road with not so much as a driveway for 160 km (100 mi) in either direction. Late at night on this middle of nowhere road, there was a car on the side of the road that was on fire. And I don't mean like an engine fire, I mean completely engulfed in flames. There was not a single person or another car anywhere near it.

I hadn't even driven past a car in over an hour.

Scary Driving FactsWikimedia Commons, NathanWert

10. High, Dry and Bare

I once saw a naked dude casually walking down the street while I was driving down a dirt road at about 1 AM. I just kept driving along...

Unsolved Mysteries FactsShutterstock

11. Taking Out the Trash

There's a public park near my house, which gets pretty dark at night. I was driving home exhausted after midnight one night when I realized that someone had dragged all the garbage cans and other large items from the park out into the middle of the road to form a barricade of sorts. I'm not sure if it was just a lame prank, or if someone was waiting for a car to stop so that they could rob the person.

I didn't bother to find out. There was just enough room for my small car to slip through, so I did. Then it happened again a week later. I'm going to assume that it's just some teenagers being jerks.

On The Road At Night FactsPixabay

12. Time for Bed

A lot of people who drive for a living can tell you about the running shadows. First time I saw them I was on the tail end of 12 straight hours of driving. I was driving through the middle of nowhere, in the desert, at night. As I'm barreling along, I start to see shadowy figures running alongside my truck out of the corners of my eyes, on two legs and four.

All I can think about is the creepy stories you read online about stuff that lives out in the desert or the Asian ghost stories where if you don't acknowledge the spirit it can't harm you. So, I've got my eyes glued to the road, refusing to let them flicker off to the side. I rolled my windows up and cranked up the volume on my radio.

I drove like that for probably an hour and a half until they slowly petered out roughly 15 minutes outside of a little one light town. I've had people try to carjack me, people try to rob me after I pull over to render aid, people jump out at me on twisty mountain roads, you name it. But nothing matching that level of fear the first time I saw them.

Scary Driving FactsGetty Images

13. Signs of a Concussion

My brother and I were driving back from a festival. He was driving and he hit a guardrail and we were pretty shocked by the experience, but alive and in one piece. I took the wheel from him and I don’t know what it was but I kept seeing “foggy people”—foggy grayish people-shaped things—in the fields next to the highway the entire drive home—two hours or so.

I also kept having the feeling that someone was sitting in the backseat, but when I looked in my rearview mirror obviously no one was there. This happened all the way past midnight. The weird thing was, a few days later I told my brother and he told me he saw the “foggy people” too and he also had the feeling someone was sitting in the backseat.

Still creeps me out thinking about it.

cinlizzy

Caught Lying FactsShutterstock

14. In the Nick of Time

There’s a driver where I work who tells a story about driving through the desert in Arizona back in the 80s. With nothing around for miles, he broke down in the middle of the night. It was an easy fix—his fuel filter was clogged, so he drained it a little to free up the fuel and got the truck running about 15 minutes later.

He took off down the highway when he saw a man that was out of breath on the side of the highway that was staring at him as he passed. He said it looked like the guy had been running toward him until he got his truck running and drove away. He said if he had been there a few more minutes, the guy would’ve been able to walk up on him with his head in the engine bay.

He said the look on the guy’s face gave him chills and telling the story, it was clear that it still creeped him out.

Truckers Stories FactsShutterstock

15. Follow That Car!

I was driving down the interstate on my way to work on a Saturday morning. I was driving in the middle lane. At a certain point, I glanced at my side mirror and noticed a car catching up to me quickly. I looked over as it passed me and saw something utterly horrifying. In the back of this coupe, there was a lady banging on the window and screaming for help.

When I sped up to get a better look at them, she noticed me and started screaming again. I got behind them and began to follow. I could see him reaching back and hitting her in the face as she screamed. I called the police and told them what I was seeing as we both continued speeding down the road. As I was talking to the dispatcher,

I caught up with him and he noticed me. He then realized that I was following him. He moved over in front of me and came to a complete stop. At that point, I had no idea whether he had a gun on him or what, so I just went around him and exited the highway. Once he went past the overpass, I got back on and followed him again, but he eventually lost me as I couldn't keep up with his wild pace.

Fortunately, I had still been on the phone with the police the entire time, and they had cops ready and waiting to pull him over by this point. Eventually, they found him and pulled him over. When I passed them on the road a few minutes later, he was handcuffed on the ground and she was sitting there with the door open.

I came to find out that she was his ex, and that he had abducted her and was planning to take her who knows where. I followed them for around 30 miles, weaving in and out of traffic and going over 100 miles per hour at times to keep up. It was definitely a creepy experience, especially when I think of what he could have been preparing to do to her had no one intervened…

Instant Karma factsPxHere

16. Just Keep Driving

I was driving a truck at night through the mountains of Transylvania, coming from Odessa and heading to Budapest. The roads had been completely empty for hours and the route I had taken was rather unfortunate—narrow and twisty through mountains covered with massive trees. I was getting pretty sleepy but there was absolutely nowhere to park.

Then, just after another bend, I almost had a heart attack. It seemed like a wall of old, derelict, gothic crosses appeared, almost out of nowhere. At this point, I was already creeped out enough not to look into the sleeper to check if I'm still alone in the cab. No worries with dozing off for the next couple of hours until I reach civilization and clock off in the first bus stop or some such.

Scary Driving FactsPxHere

17. They Must Be European

Driving down a two-lane divided highway, I came up to a couple semis and went into the left lane to pass. I did a shoulder check to get back into the right lane when I saw headlights in front of me—in my lane. The car was going the wrong way. I managed to swerve into the ditch. It felt like I was mere centimeters from death.

I thought my wife's scream would be the last thing I ever heard—and I never want to hear it again. The semis I passed all pulled to the shoulder to come check on us. I didn't see the car anywhere. I think they just kept going. I had to pull into a gas station after and collect myself.

Scary Driving FactsShutterstock

18. Not Today

We were driving from Morelia to Ciudad Hidalgo, in Mexico. Back in the 80s, there were two ways to get to Ciudad Hidalgo: the national road or the old national road, which was called Mil Cumbres, which basically means 1,000 curves. That stretch of road literally had 1,000 curves, so a lot of people would get motion sickness when on that road.

My grandfather loved taking Mil Cumbres because it had really nice views but since we had the new national road, not a lot of people used that Mill Cumbres anymore. It was dusk when we took that road back from my grandma's, which meant that we'd be in complete darkness without many other cars for a long time. 45 minutes into the drive it had already gotten really dark. That's when my grandfather started slowing down.

I was sitting in the back seat so I kind of stood over the front seat to see why he was slowing down. There was a huge downed tree blocking the road. After we turned around, my grandfather stepped on the gas pedal and I was sort of thrown back into the back seat. As we were speeding away, I could see men, very dimly—the light from the taillights was getting dimmer and dimmer—coming from out of the adjacent trees next to the tree on the road, with flashlights and guns.

We were about to get robbed. Thanks to my grandfather's quick thinking and taking action immediately, we avoided it. That was the last time I was ever on that road.

Scary Driving FactsShutterstock

19. Too Many Coincidences

I was on the I70 in Colorado going towards Utah, pulled over at a gas station at 8 PM. Fuelling up, I noticed a couple of attractive women pumping gas. On the other side of the pump was a man in his late 40s just staring at these young women. I walked inside to grab some food for the next few hours of driving and when I came out I saw that both the younger women's car and the older man's truck were gone.

I decided to hang out at the gas station for the next hour to catch a little sleep before hitting the road again. After driving for a few hours—I was speeding heavy—I pulled over at yet another gas station to see the young women getting gas and eating some food on a picnic table. It looked like they had been there for a while. As I watch them leave, I see headlights turn on in the next parking lot over. It's the same man as before.

He leaves when the women leave once again. I leave a few minutes later and catch up to them. Now, this guy is riding their rear with his high beams on. I slow down and stay a distance behind the truck. 10 minutes later, the women pull over to get this guy off their back. Thankfully, the truck keeps going--but one mile down the road, the guy pulls off to the side of the highway.

Sure enough, the women drive by and the guy is still following them. At this point, we are out in the middle of nowhere and too many coincidences have happened. I called the cops; about 15 minutes later they pulled the guy over. Maybe I just overreacted because I've seen too many horror movies that started like this, but you never know. Better safe than sorry.

Yep, they're crazy FactsShutterstock

20. There’s a Lesson to Be Learned Here

My dad was driving at night and I was looking out the window when I saw two red pinpricks in the cornfield, and they followed us. I told my dad about it and he said, in the most calm, casual tone for this situation, “Those are cornfield demons. Stay in the car and you'll be okay.” Cue me freaking the heck out when he got out of the car not too long after to check a tire before getting back in.

I'm still not sure if that was an actual thing or if he was using a situation to his advantage to teach me to not do anything stupid like that at night. Either way, it worked, and I STILL have no idea what those two pinpricks were.

Scary Driving FactsMax Pixel

21. From Cautious to Creepy

I slammed the brakes once because I saw a deer in my peripheral vision. But it got even scarier. Upon closer inspection, it was a mounted deer head on a stick in the middle of the woods. Slammed the gas again after I realized that.

Weirdest Experiences On The Roads FactsShutterstock

22. Need a Hand?

This is a story my dad told me. He was a long-haul trucker for about 15 years and is currently on shorter runs in the tristate area. He and his older brother were tag-team truck drivers back in the early 2000s when driving times weren’t as closely regulated. They drove two trucks and would switch out when their time driving was up, to hit deadlines faster.

One night, as they were driving through Arkansas I believe, my uncle was leading with my dad behind. My father recalls a giant poof of red, much like when you hit a deer in a semi. They thought nothing of it until they pulled over for the night and made a gruesome discovery. On my uncle's grill was a hand. Naturally, they freaked the heck out and called authorities.

The hand was confiscated, and it was later discovered to belong to a suicidal man who had jumped off an overpass and was disintegrated by my uncle’s truck. They still made the deadline, despite spending a day in jail. They were released when they found the suicide note in the man’s house.

Abandoned Places FactsGetty Images

23. Unidentified Object?

I used to deliver pizza and often had deliveries right at midnight when we closed. One time, late at night, I'm driving back to the store through a small neighborhood. Up ahead, I see something. It's a perfectly spherical bright and shiny thing, just hovering about six feet off the ground, not moving at all. I pull up very slowly. Still doesn't move.

I still can't comprehend what I'm looking at. It’s just a shiny, hovering orb in the road at midnight. At this point, my curiosity has overridden my fear. I'm the guy in the horror movie who dies first because I just got to know. Either I die or I get a cool story, right? So, I hop out of the car and slowly walk up to it.

I'm right in front of it and still can't understand what I'm seeing. So I reach out and touch it. It's a balloon. One of those foil birthday balloons with the streetlights shining on it making it look weird, out of context, in the middle of the night on an empty road.

Caught Lying FactsShutterstock

24. Tails From the Road

I was fetching someone from his workplace. I had to go through some fields, and some parts of the road were dark. I saw a thin, long object, wiggling at an upright position on the side of the road in front of me. Totally freaked me out. I thought I was finally experiencing something extraordinary. As I got closer, I realized it was the tail of a cow.

It must've escaped from some field and was hanging around on the side of the road. The cow itself was black with the tail slightly lighter in color. That's why I only saw the tail moving at first without seeing the whole cow.

Whole Class Laughed FactsShutterstock

25. Lingering Effects of a Movie

I dropped my girlfriend off the night we saw The Mothman Prophecies. It wasn't a super scary movie, but it had some scares. I took the interstate home. On the way, there is a curve where there aren't any lights—just a dark stretch of interstate. As I came around the bend, there was a guy in a black trench coat walking along the side of the road.

Since it was about 3 o'clock in the morning, I guess I startled him. So, when my headlights hit him, he whipped around and I swear he looked me right in the eyes. My heart instantly jumped into my throat. The whole event lasted maybe two seconds, tops, but it had my heart racing.

Scary Driving FactsShutterstock

26. Who Let the Ostrich Out?

This was the scariest and funniest moment at the same time. After working the late shift at a restaurant, I finally left at 2 AM. It was a 30-minute drive home, and I was exceptionally tired. I hit the little 24/7 truck stop just at the edge of the town for some munchies and smokes, and made the final trek home.

Encountering deer was not uncommon out there, so I was going slow, when what appeared before me, to my tired eyes, was a monster. It had a huge, round body, crazy long neck, a pointy head, and only two legs. It was right in the middle of the road and it scared the ever-loving heck out of me in that state. Thankfully, it stood there for a second.

My brain re-engaged. It was an ostrich. OK, not a monster, just an—wait, what the heck is an ostrich doing wandering around in Central Wisconsin?!? I looked at it. It looked at me. I blinked. Nope, still there. Pretty sure it's real. Finally, it trundled off into the forest. What? I grabbed my cellphone and called the tiny little police station in town—non-emergency number.

It got even weirder from there. The respondent started laughing hysterically and assured me that I wasn't hallucinating. There's an ostrich and emu farm on the other side of town. Some drunk driver felt that "turns are for losers," went through the fence, and most of the barn. There are still four animals, including the one I just spotted, unaccounted for. Wild night, man.

Scary Driving FactsPixabay

27. Bright but Not the Brightest

I was driving through an unfamiliar stretch on my way to a campground in Utah. It was pitch black, but even before it had gotten dark, the last several exits that had been marked on the map didn't appear to have any people at them. There weren't many other cars on the road but eventually, this strange vehicle came up behind me, going much faster than me.

He passed me on my left side, and as he went around me, I could now see that it was a huge pickup truck with a lift kit. The pickup got back into my lane in front of me. He stayed there for a few seconds, then suddenly swerved to the left and slammed on his brakes. He then cut back over into my lane so he was behind me and switched on his brights.

He followed me like this for some time, getting right on my rear and flashing his brights repeatedly. I started getting nervous at this bizarre and aggressive behavior. Eventually, we found a town with lots of lights and I promptly exited. I was terrified the guy would follow us, but he went on past me. I pulled into a gas station and that's when I figured out what I probably should have realized a long time before.

I had my brights on.

Scary Driving FactsGetty Images

28. Like a Deer in the Headlights

My dad used to drive for a commercial grocery store back in the day, this was probably around 1975 or 1980.  The route he drove took him past a hospital for the mentally ill. Apparently, the place wasn't known for its security, because my dad said he would pass people walking down the road in varying levels of nudity.

He said he would see about one or two escaped patients a week, and eventually, it became a pretty normal thing. He told me the creepiest part one day. He said that sometimes they would look at the headlights the way a deer or wild animal would, and he was terrified that one day they would just run out in front of the truck.

They never did though,  just stared and watched him drive by.

Hospital Horror Stories FactsShutterstock

29. Took a Left Turn to Hell

I was driving deep in the mountains to get to a retreat spot for my university club. I was the last to leave because I had to finish a few things at the university. I didn't see the tiny exit for the retreat site and kept driving deeper into the mountains. The fog kept becoming thicker as I kept driving on. I finally stopped at a massive stone bridge.

The fog was rolling through and it looked like some enormous ancient bridge to the underworld. There was no one else in sight. I had no signal on my cell phone. Then it got worse. I got out of my car and suddenly saw a hand-made grave next to the bridge. I'm talking about a makeshift wooden cross and different colored dirt where the grave was.

I got freaked the heck out and got into my car. When I tried driving, my tires slid for a few seconds on some gravel. In my panicked state, I thought some horrific demon got a hold of my car and was keeping me there. I finally drove off and got to the retreat site safely, but that place was just eerie. I still think about it some times at night.

Randoms Acts of Kindness factsShutterstock

30. Trying Out a New Walk

I once spotted a man crawling like Spider-Man INHUMANLY fast along the ground toward my car. He came off the side of the road and just sprinted at me in that Spider-Man crawl. Urgh.

20forlife

Spider-Man Movies FactsFlickr

31. Speeding Away From Danger

I was a very young woman driving home after clubbing at about 2 AM through Hollywood. I was pulling up to a stop sign on Cahuenga, about three blocks from Hollywood Blvd, when a bunch of guys began to casually stroll onto the crosswalk, coming from both sides. I hit the gas and ran the stop sign without even thinking.

They cursed and ran after me, but those boys were ready to jack me. My instincts took over before I even realized what was happening.

Scary Driving FactsShutterstock

32. Don’t Do It

I don’t know if this is really scary, but it definitely freaked me out for a moment. Driving home from grad lab for a couple of hours of sleep at about four in the morning—longish, time-sensitive experiment—it was not dawn yet but still pitch black. I turn a corner and suddenly, someone runs into the street right in front of my car and stops. I stop.

I wait. They don’t move. Cautiously, I try to drive around. They scream, run up and slam their hands on the hood of my car. With them so close, I realize they are totally naked and filthy. They stare at me for a moment, then proceed to run in wide circles, kind of listing to one side then the other, in front of my car.

After about two minutes of this, he lists hard to one side, far enough I felt safe quickly driving around them, very wide, on the other side that was now open.

Stan Lee FactsShutterstock

33. The Great Tarantula Migration

My mom is a trucker, this is her story. She was driving through Arizona, when she saw what she thought was leaves blowing across the road in the distance. This puzzled her since there's mostly pine trees in northern Arizona. When she finally got to the "leaves", she realized that they were actually migrating tarantulas, thousands of them.

There were so many of them, that her truck was sliding on their guts so she had to slow down. She stopped at the first truck stop, and told her co-driver to fuel up—he was sleeping at the time—because she wasn't going to step foot outside after what she had just seen. Her co-driver was pissed since it was technically his time off.

He thought she was crazy until he saw the tarantula guts and legs caked in the inside wheel well of the truck.

Animals FactsPixabay

34. Caught Off Guard

I noticed something in a ditch as I drove by. I thought it was a deer as I approached, but then my brain was like “deer don't wear boots.” I was shaking as I did a U-turn to make sure the person was alive. They were, just drunk, and other people stopped as well and emergency was called. I was very shaken up by it.

Worst Thing Found in Hotel FactsShutterstock

35. Demon Deer

I was driving with my girlfriend to visit my parents. I like to drive at night since there are fewer people on the road and I can take my time. At around 3 AM or so, we are making good time. I started getting a little drowsy and took a sip of coffee. On the road, there were no cars in sight except for a few on the side of the road. In the distance, I could make out what looked to be a hitchhiker, or what I thought was one, but couldn’t really tell due to such low light.

As I got closer, I started to notice other things and began to freak out. The person was kind of thin and tall and completely—for the most part—brown. I was right up on this thing now, and at about 20 ft (6 m), it turned around and locked eyes with me as I passed by. This was no person, and it is the most terrifying thing I have ever seen in my life. It was a deer.

Or, I tell myself it was. I have seen deer stand on their hind legs to fight, but they still have deer posture when they do. Not only that, but I was watching this thing walk for about 30 seconds from first seeing it in the distance to passing it. The posture it had was human. Standard bipedal stance—arms back, chin down.

But the worst part was the eyes, or lack thereof. In their place were two large black pits, almost like black holes. I'll never forget the stare down it gave me. The instant I passed it, I had the only panic attack I've ever had in my life. I had to wake up my girlfriend to keep calm enough to get to an exit with a large gas station a few miles away. After we pulled into the station, I had a complete meltdown.

While I don't think she believed what I think I saw, she knew that I was convinced and legitimately scared to death. But I know what I saw, and I know it will haunt me for the rest of my life.

Creepy Stories FactsGetty Images

36. Sounds Like an Episode of Supernatural

I work nights and one day I forgot my lunch at home. I didn’t have money to spend so I decided to go home on my lunch hour and eat my sandwich on the way back. I was in a hurry so I took the back roads. At about halfway there, as I was speeding and noticed a woman in a white nightdress without shoes standing in the road in the other lane.

I slowed down as I passed her thinking she was probably drunk and didn’t want her to jump out in front of me or anything like that. It wasn’t until later as I was on my way back that I started to think how odd it was. Why would someone be in the middle of the road, barefoot, at 2:30 AM? It still haunts me.

ZellRyu25

Scary Driving FactsGetty Images

37. We All Saw That, Right?

Some friends and I were driving around some rural roads, just kind of wasting time. My friend—who was driving—slammed on the brakes and I—in the passenger seat—looked up and there was this thing. I had never seen anything like it before. We stopped the car and watched as this thing, which didn't have a perceivable head, moved slowly across the road about 15 ft (4 m) in front of us.

It was creepy, to say the least. It was approximately 4’ tall and we could see its joints moving as it walked slowly with a gait similar to a giraffe. It had very skinny, long legs. Its body was about 1.5 feet round. If it had hair it was pretty short, but the thing was brown. We were all screaming, “What the heck is that?!”

We could not see any perceivable head and it was walking perpendicular to us. We watched as it slowly walked through these people's yard and behind their house. Needless to say, we were freaking out about it. When we got to my friend's house we all drew pictures of it separately and showed each other at the same time when we were done to verify that we all saw what we saw.

It was the strangest thing I have ever seen and I have not found any satisfactory explanation to this day, 20 years later.

Late Night Hikers FactsShutterstock

38. No One Messes With My Grandson

I was driving down a totally deserted highway with only two lanes and no shoulder. I hadn’t seen anyone for at least an hour, so I kept kicking up my speed all the way up to 80. I was flying down the road. As I crested a hill, I spotted another set of headlights a couple of hills down but I didn't think much of it.

Until boom, a black car hauled ass past me with their lights off. I still wasn't too freaked out until I saw brake lights and then headlights behind me. I hauled ass. I still had another 32 km (20 mi) on gravel to get to my grandparents' house. I knew the roads reasonably well, but not well enough to get off the main drag and zigzag across country roads.

I was doing 90 and so was this person, but keeping their distance. I got to the town and just hauled ass through it. I didn't stop for the two stop signs or the one stoplight. At that point, I was hoping to get pulled over. As I got about a mile from my grandparents' house, my grandpa turned on his headlights and spotlight on his truck and was driving towards me.

That's when the person turned back around. I always wonder what the heck they were doing. Like, were they just messing with me? Did they want something? I'll never know.

Scary Driving FactsPixabay

39. Be Aware of Your Surroundings

I was coming home late from a midnight shift. It was 6 AM but still dark. I had to make a left turn onto my road but needed to stop because of traffic. In my rearview mirror, I see a truck coming up and he looks like he's going too fast. I blinked my brake lights a bit to alert him, but he wasn't going to stop. This guy zooms around me to my right going way over the speed limit and nearly ran himself into the ditch.

To this day, I still don't know how he avoided missing the road sign that was there, too.

Scary Driving FactsMax Pixel

40. Listen to the Dog

My girlfriend—while we were visiting her hometown—wanted to drive by a cemetery where they buried women accused of being witches and other things. You could tell who the “witches” were by the fortress of iron surrounding their graves. We had her parents' dog in the back seat asleep—we played that dog into the ground prior to going.

She claimed that there was a point where the nicely paved road meets the old broken gravel road, where you feel a faint disturbance/discomfort/anxiety. Sure enough, as soon as we hit that exact point, the pooch immediately wakes up and starts crying unusually loud. I'm not usually into this kind of stuff, but that was pretty creepy.

ctophermh89

Late Night Hikers FactsShutterstock

41. The Tale of the Rotting Deer

I was driving home at like 10 PM—still light out—down a road that’s famous for deer running across and dying. I went past a group of deer. A couple of them were watching me and a couple of them were running alongside the road. When I looked out my window at the ones running alongside the road, I saw something that still haunts me to this day.

This one deer looked starved and its ribs were all visible through its skin. Its skin was also rotting and you could see the flesh and muscles underneath. I’m a very squeamish person and this almost had me throwing up in my car. Look out for the zombie deer in Northern Kentucky. It’s been spotted by some classmates, too.

Lost Crush FactsShutterstock

42. The Naked Mile

I was driving up a canyon at 1 AM on my way to my parents' cabin. I came around an S curve and a naked man jumped in front of me and over the guardrail. I told my parents, but they assured me it was a deer. I’m no wizard, but I can surely tell the anatomical differences between a deer and a human. Scariest thing I’ve ever seen in my life. I still can’t explain it.

Escaped Death factsShutterstock

43. A Game of Cat and Mouse

One time, I was going to my friend's house a few towns over. Most of the drive is a pretty straight road with a few stops so everyone usually goes over the limit. It's about eight o'clock and dark out and I get stuck behind a slow car. Next thing I know, he goes even slower, down to 20. I think maybe he feels like I’m too close to him, so I back off his bumper and he speeds up to 45.

Soon, he slows back down again. Then speeds back up. Then slows down again, but this time he comes to a stop—in the middle of the road. There’s no one else around. No stop sign. I say screw this and slowly start going around him, and I remember wanting to look over but as I was going by I start accelerating. Then he lays on his horn and starts accelerating, too.

So I put the pedal down even more, trying to pass him. He is still laying on his horn. I am freaking out, so I just start accelerating faster. Finally, we get up to 80 with me in the opposite lane before he slows down. I keep going, wanting to put some distance between us. Coming to the end of the road is an intersection with traffic lights.

The light turns red and the guy is still behind me. I grab an ice scraper from the backseat to get ready for him to get out and come to my truck. Thankfully, nothing happened. I turned at the intersection and he kept going. Crisis averted, but I was still shaking when I got to my friend's house.

Worst Thing Done on a Date FactsFlickr

44. Kids and Their Toys

It was about 3 AM and we were driving back to Dallas from a field party in Oklahoma. Long dirt roads, houses few and far between. As we pass a particularly broke down looking farmhouse there is a little girl standing at end of the driveway holding a headless doll just watching our car drive by. Made my blood go cold.

Creepy Kids FactsFlickr

45. Barking up the Wrong Tree

Many years ago, I was on what is called a "meet and turn." This is where a driver that is domiciled out of one city, will drive a load halfway to its destination, while a driver domiciled out of that destination will drive halfway with a load that is destined for my city. We meet in a parking lot, switch trailers and drive back home.

I had been on this run for a few months and found that I always got to the meet point about an hour before the other driver. It was a dark and empty dirt lot at about 3 AM, so I would stretch out across the seat and take a short nap. One night, about 10 minutes into my nap I was awoken by a barking dog. I tried to ignore it, but it carried on for several minutes and got louder as the dog got closer.

Soon, it became apparent that the dog was right outside of my truck barking at me. “Okay,” I thought, either this dog is Lassie and is trying to alert me to something, or else he is just a pain in the butt and I will need to throw something at him to scare him off. It is important to note that the barking had been going on for a good 10 minutes at this point.

So, I sat up and looked out my window. Standing mere inches on the other side of the glass, was a man of about 35 years old. He was a large fellow, and he was barking at me. His eyes were crazy, and he was frothing at the mouth a little—the scene really held my full attention for a moment. The sheer creepiness of this struck me.

Gently, and making an absolute minimum of sudden movements, I reached down and started my truck, then slowly pulled away. He chased me, much like you might expect an angry dog to, barking all the while. Needless to say, it played havoc with my power naps from then on.

Heartbreaking Things FactsWikipedia

46. Just Popping in

I forgot where we were going but it was my mother and me driving back home from somewhere far away. We had stopped at a light or something and I was tired and was about to fall asleep. That's when I hear my mom scream and I look up to see a coyote that looked like a wolf sticking his head through the car window and then it just left.

My mom and me laughed it off and were like what the heck and just put the windows up.

Late Night Hikers FactsFlickr

47. That’s Just Ghost Rider

Hopefully this doesn't get buried, but once when I was around 20—36 now—I was driving to meet up with some friends. It was a Saturday morning, around one, so there weren’t too many cars out. As I make a left at the end of my street, a car had made a left from the main road onto the road I was on, so we are on a straight path to pass each other.

As the car was coming up, I noticed the driver had an unusually white head, as in white, not white person. As we passed each other, we were both driving slower, and as I got up next to the car, it was a skull. At first, I thought it was a mask, but the skull turned and looked at me. When he did, his eyes were wide open and then he opened his mouth at me.

Scary Driving FactsShutterstock

48. Owly to Bed, Owly to Rise

I had traveled for about five hours to attend a family event with lots of people who I hadn’t seen for over 20 years. I had my 5-year-old son with me, but my husband had to stay home because of work. My crazy drunk and stoned hippy aunt came up to me at one point and randomly said, “I see you’ve got a nice owl on your shoulder protecting you!”

Umm...okay, love. See you again in another 20 years. Lay off the bong. Driving home, it’s about 2 AM and I’m in the middle of nowhere, still at least two hours from home. My kid is asleep in the back and I start to slip into some little danger naps. So I pull over at a rest stop, thinking I’ll jump out, have a quick cigarette and get right back to it.

I get out of the car and just standing there a meter away from my door is a big white barn owl. Umm...what the heck, right? Definitely a creepy thing to see. I have my smoke while this thing just stares at me, not even blinking. Amazing. I get back in the car and decide to have a quick sleep before I start driving again. Better safe than sorry, right?

Maybe the owl is trying to tell me something. Maybe it’s 2 in the morning and I’m just slightly delirious. About half an hour later, I wake up to this terrible banging, scratching noise. I open my eyes and see that this owl is on the bonnet of my car, right in front of me. It’s jumping up and down, flapping its wings and banging into the bonnet and the windscreen.

Ok, what the hell, mate?  I get out of the car to go shoo it away. When I look out my window, there’s a man right there, staring at me through the window, smoking a cigarette. I still don’t understand how it happened so quickly, but I just locked all the doors right away, started the car, and began to back out of my parking spot.

The man jumped at the car, trying to open the door and punching at the window. I just drove out of there as fast as I could and sped down the highway until the adrenaline wore off. Then I pulled over, had a bit of a cry, and finally realized that I could call the police. Nothing ever came of it. They never found the man, and I think they thought I was a bit insane anyway.

As if there was really a strange man in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the night. I was probably just dreaming, overtired, or imagining things. But I’ll forever be grateful to that big white barn owl. Thanks, buddy!

Strange Family Traditions FactsPxHere

49. Going Off the Air

Very early one winter morning, I was driving on a two-lane road that runs through my little country town to get to a radio show I was supposed to be hosting. I'm doing like 60 mph and, all of a sudden, I look to my left and see a pale face literally right next to me up against the glass of my window. I was seriously spooked and thought I had seen a ghost.

I looked in the rearview mirror, and there was nothing but darkness. When I got to the radio station, I couldn't stop thinking about what I'd seen. I decided to take a look at the local news. As soon as I did, I saw that a man had been hit by a truck at the same exact spot where I had been no more than 2 or 3 minutes after I had driven by.

I quickly realized that the face I had seen was a man who was trying to kill himself by hurling his body across the road in front of my vehicle--but he didn't quite make it. The next car driving in the opposite direction got him. I called the police and told them my story. I asked them to tell the unfortunate driver about it so that he wouldn't feel as guilty, knowing that this guy had intentionally killed himself and that it wasn’t his fault.

The dude's truck was totaled and I have no idea if he ever found out about my part of the story. I definitely hope he did. I can’t even imagine the trauma that going through something like this can cause—and I’m grateful that I did not have to find out.

Weirdest Experiences On The Roads FactsShutterstock

50. False Alarm

I was driving with a friend to an Ultimate frisbee tournament in North Carolina and my GPS decided to route us through some back roads, including this random dirt road that was supposed to be a shortcut that would cut off a decent chunk of our travel time. It took us through a couple of larger farms. At one of these, we encountered a couple of kids on dirt bikes, who were probably about 10 or 11 years old.

They waved us down and told us that we shouldn't be there because it was private property. The kid got all proud when he went on to say: "My daddy shoots all trespassers that come through here." That was fun. I thanked him for telling me and kept on driving because it was a public road and we were almost done.

We ended up finding out that the kid was full of it, because his dad was working in the front garden when we went by and he just waved to us nicely as we passed.

Weirdest Experiences On The Roads FactsShutterstock

51. Ghost Riders

Not sure if I've ever told this one before, but this is my dad's story. Just to explain, he is ex British Army—so he is not scared of anything and is also super practical. He became a lorry driver in about 1975 I think, and this was not long after he had started. This happened at about 5 in the morning on a summer's day. It was a bit misty and bright like it tends to get early some mornings, and he was heading out of London on the A3.

He's driving his lorry, and up ahead was a young woman in her early 20s in a long blue dress standing by the side of the road. It must have been before the A3 was dueled when all of the barriers were put up. So my dad sees her and thinks she must be waiting for a ride to work. Just as he's about to go past her, she suddenly jumps in front of his lorry.

He immediately slams on the breaks—sure that he must have hit her. However, he didn’t feel a bang and, when he got out to take a look, he was unable to find her anywhere. A couple of cars stopped to see what was going on. Dad shakily explained, and the drivers kindly offered to stay while he looked for her under the lorry. He looked, and she was still not there.

Other drivers looked and found nothing. No body, no blood, no sign of anyone ever having even been there. They all freak out for a bit, and then decide that leaving as soon as possible is a great idea! He can't explain it to this day. He knows that she was there and that he hit her. He spent the rest of his driving career avoiding that route.

Truckers Witnessed On The Road factsPixabay

52. Help Is On the Way

One time, I was driving home late at night in the rain and went through a state park. There was nobody on the road at this point except for me and one other car coming from the opposite direction. Out of my peripheral vision, I see that other car go off the road and do a Dukes of Hazzard style maneuver into a tree. The girl had hit some trees head-on.

Her car was totaled and the scene looked deadly. Her front was wrapped around a tree and one of her wheels was rolling down the road. I stopped. There was no movement or sound for almost a full minute or so. At this point, I'm screaming to see if she's alive. Eventually, she moves and starts crying. I get to her be still. Her face is covered in blood and it looks pretty bad.

I flag someone down for help. He keeps her calm and talks to her while I go summon the fastest available emergency service to come to that area. She ended up being okay. She did have a few bruises though, as well as a nice cut on her head that made her look like a monster. She didn't remember me at all, but had fond memories of the guy who I flagged down to help. I know all of this because I ran into her later in a grocery store!

Worst Thing Found in Hotel FactsShutterstock

53. If You Break It, They Will Come

One time, I was driving alone on a country road late at night. This woman standing at the side of the road stopped me and asked if I could come and take a look at her car, which she claimed was parked just around the bend. I asked her what was wrong with it and she just kept telling me to come and look. Then I just had this weird feeling that something was horribly wrong.

Extremely creeped out, I just apologized and drove away. She stood there staring at me the entire time I was driving away. I’m glad that I didn’t listen to her—who knows what she had waiting for me around that bend…

Reactions to Rejection FactsPxhere

54. Good Cop, Bad Cop, Gruesome Cop

I went to India for a visit one time and my taxi driver was falling asleep at the wheel. I jokingly asked him if he wanted me to drive instead and, to my surprise, he actually said yes. So I decided to give it a shot. About 10 minutes into this journey, we see a police officer down the road stopping the flow of traffic. I thought I was about to get into big trouble.

Nope. As it turns out, it was just a dismembered body wearing a police uniform. When we drove by, we saw it close up. I'll never forget that horrifying sight.

Duke Of Wellington factsShutterstock

55. Highway to Hell

My wife and I were driving on the highway and she honked at a guy in a big truck who had been repeatedly drifting more than halfway into our lane. She was merely trying to get him to pay attention to the road rather than his cell phone, so as not to endanger the people around him. His reaction was bone-chilling.

He began by speeding up, getting in front of our car, then slamming on his brakes. He did this over and over again for the next mile or so, slowing us down to just 10 miles per hour while others were flying by at 70.

Employees should have been fired factsPixabay

56. Developing a Cult Following

I was coming back home from a trip to Michigan when I saw several groups of people at different times walking down the side of the road wearing matching, cult-like robes. The first time was in a town, the second on a highway, and the third in a park. Each time I passed one of the groups, the members all started staring at me.

Truckers Witnessed On The Road factsShutterstock

57. Leap of Tragedy

I saw a dude jumping out in front of vehicles on the highway a couple of years ago. The cops were called, but the dude ran off before they got there. They didn’t end up looking too hard for him—as I’m pretty sure he was just hiding in the nearby ditch, yet they never found him. Anyway, fast forward to a few hours later. It’s night time.

My friend is driving his family into town for dinner when this same crazy man LEAPS out in front of him just as another car was coming in the opposite direction. The shock dazzled my friend and, unfortunately, he was not able to react in time to have avoided the disaster. Needless to say, he hit this man going at 100 kilometers per hour and smeared him all over the highway.

My friend is still suffering from horrible trauma to this day as a result. It’s unsettling to think that I had seen the same dude attempting to hurt himself a little earlier that very day, yet barely anything was done to make an effort to catch him in time and get him some help.

Weirdest Experiences On The Roads FactsShutterstock

58. Shooting Star

I once saw a meteor falling out of the sky while I was driving down the road late at night. It was probably around 10:30 at the time, and so it was very dark out. I suddenly saw this bright light in my peripheral vision, and I thought that it must have been a single firework that someone had set off for some reason.

Then I looked up, and saw a bright green ball shooting across the sky. I was immediately overcome by fear for a split second. Thoughts like, “I hope I don't die right now from a warhead strike or a huge meteor crash” began to quickly flash through my head. It fell across the horizon for what seemed like forever before it appeared to burn up.

Turns out it landed a full state away from where I was. No one got hurt, but it was definitely copper because it was glowing bright green. The three cars ahead of me had all pulled over just as I did, which I didn't notice until I pulled back onto the road. It was seeing these other people react to witnessing what I just had that solidified what had happened for me.

It was seen falling from the sky in many of the surrounding three states. This was in the Midwest, and it landed in Minnesota.

Things They’ve Seen But Can’t Explain factsPixabay

59. Big Girls Don’t Cry

I was heading south on 95 late at night, going from New Hampshire to Massachusetts. I see headlights on the side of the road, angled to face north-east. I thought “it’s just some dumb cop that forgot to shut his lights off.” Just as I’m completing that thought, the car in question comes speeding right at me.

I literally thought that it was all over for me, and it was the scariest few moments I’ve ever been involved in. I felt completely helpless and I knew there was nothing I could do about it. I was in the far left lane of the three-lane road. Just as the car crossed into the second lane, I could see the driver clearly for the first time.

It was a young girl who was crying her eyes out. Just then, the passenger who I hadn’t noticed until this moment grabs the steering wheeling and turns the car towards the south. I swerved as far as I could into the median and, luckily, we somehow narrowly avoided hitting each other. All of this took place in a matter of just three to five seconds, but each individual moment felt like it lasted a lifetime.

I have no idea if this is really true, but the narrative I have created in my mind to explain the incident is that they were two teens going through a breakup, and she had become suicidal as a result. Maybe he was complicit but changed his mind. I’ve told this story out loud maybe twice in my life. It was the scariest moment of my life.

Weirdest Experiences On The Roads FactsShutterstock

60. A Semi Intelligent Creature

I drive a commercial vehicle, and typically semis and I get along very well. I don't drive an enormous truck, but I do know how hard it is for those guys to do what they do. So, I usually try to help when I see one by giving them a lot of space, helping them change lanes by moving to the left to kind of block traffic so they can get over, and whatever other little things I’m able to do.

The other day, I'm driving down the road and I'm passing a semi who's in the right lane. He's tailgating the pickup in front of him so bad that if he had been any closer, he'd have been riding shotgun. As I pass him, I can see that he's messing around on his phone, which is incredibly illegal for commercial drivers. As I'm passing him, he starts to drift into my lane, so I give him a little honk.

It was nothing obnoxious, just a little “Watch out, I’m right here!” kind of thing to let him know that he was about to hit me. His reaction was utterly terrifying. He jerks back into his lane, and then immediately starts coming back into my lane. He was intentionally trying to either intimidate me or to push me off the road.

Now, I drive an 8-tonne truck-hauling hazmat, which is basically a pickup with a box on the back--so my truck basically takes up the entire lane and there was very little space between him and me to begin with. I eventually get past him, and make it over into the right lane. He passes me, probably going about 80, which is very fast for a semi.

He gets in front of me, cutting me off within about a foot, and slows down. Okay, dude, cool, you're a jerk, you got me back. Eventually, the two-lane road turns into three. As he starts getting further away, I slow down just to try to get away from him until he finally vanishes off in the distance for a while. Eventually, though, I catch up to him again.

I'm in the far right lane, and here he comes barreling up the middle lane. As he's passing me, he whips his trailer into my lane, intentionally trying to hit me again. I jam on the brakes and just let him go. This was all because I politely honked at him when he came into my lane and almost hit me. Thankfully, the vast majority of semi drivers are great people and nothing like this jerk I encountered—and here's a useful tip for driving when they’re nearby.

If they are ever trying to merge over in front of you and you're going to let them, flash your lights to signal to them that they can clear your vehicle. It's incredibly difficult for them to judge if their trailer will clear your front end with mirrors alone, especially in heavy traffic. Usually, they'll flash their hazards or brake lights to say thanks. It's actually a lot of fun.

Either way, just drive safely out there, people! Don’t be that guy!

Weirdest Experiences On The Roads FactsPixabay

61. My Little Ponies

I live in a rural part of the United Kingdom. Just after graduating university, I was working part-time at a remote castle in the middle of nowhere. It was around 2 AM and I was driving home across a moor. I go over a hill at one point, and come across a herd of ponies just chilling in the middle of the road. I couldn’t believe my eyes and almost had a heart attack.

Thankfully, I managed to successfully pull on my emergency brake just in time. Crisis averted!

Weirdest Experiences On The Roads FactsShutterstock

62. Goodbye, Cruel World!

I once encountered a big cougar running next to my car as I was driving along. Just as I was starting to get nervous about it, it suddenly decided to die by suicide and run right under the side of a moving vehicle. Rest in Peace, Mr. Cougar. I hope you’re in a better place now.

Creepy Hiking FactsPixabay

63. A Rude Awakening

The scariest moment that I ever lived through on the roads was the time when the car that was two cars ahead of me missed his attempt to take an exit and crashed directly into a concrete barrier head-on, spinning straight into the car that was right in front of us. Both cars were totaled before my very eyes. Luckily, my car was somehow not touched or affected at all.

Nevertheless, just witnessing this was enough to make me never want to drive distracted again in my life. I am now constantly aware of the fact that a single careless moment could do so much irreversible damage, that it’s never even remotely worth the risk.

Weirdest Experiences On The Roads FactsShutterstock

64. London Bridge is Falling Down

One time when I was maybe about 13 or 14 years old, I was coming home from a hockey tournament with my parents on the capital beltway in Washington, DC. In the opposite lane, I saw a car swerve, flip, and go over a bridge into the water. I called 9-1-1 the second I saw it, and the call screener said that they had just received a phone call about it and were already dispatching.

I really wonder what happened to those people. This incident was a memory that I somehow partially suppressed for a long time, but I distinctly remember the car and what it looked like--as well as how frightening it was to see it go over the bridge.

Weirdest Experiences On The Roads FactsShutterstock

65. Something No One Should Have to Go Through

The most unsettling thing I have ever experienced while driving was the time I passed by a house as it was burning down—with the family watching and crying outside. The fire trucks and ambulances were arriving just as I was going by.

Bedlam FactsFlickr

66. That’s Probably a Bad Sign...

Back in Missouri, I once saw a van try to exit the highway about 50 yards past their exit. They tried to cut across a grass divide at 70 mph, failed, took out a massive exit sign in the process, and eventually swerved back onto the highway. The van was even sideways at one point, and I have no idea how it managed to avoid rolling.

About a mile down the highway, the van starts smoking. My guess is that this was due to radiator issues, or something of that nature. This did not deter them either. They still continued driving along and even passed another two exits before finally getting off the highway. I'm guessing that they missed their destination—that is, along with all the subsequent people who didn't realize that their exit sign was no longer there.

Weirdest Experiences On The Roads FactsShutterstock

67. Nice One, Deer!

The most horrifying thing that I ever saw on the road was also, in a dark way, one of the funniest. My ex and I were driving across several states, when he pointed out a "Caution: Deer" sign. He jokingly said, "Warn me if you see any flying deer!" It was near Christmas, and I found it kind of silly and cute. A few hours later, after sunset, we were driving near Indianapolis when, all of a sudden, we got passed by a Miata going way over the speed limit.

As he zoomed by, we saw a deer come out of nowhere and practically dive right into him. He hit it, and the deer immediately got thrown way up into a utility pole. It hit the pole and started spinning while flying through the air. The sight of that enormous animal hitting that pole was nothing short of gruesome, as was the sound of the crash and all the blood that came along with it.

We drove on in silence for about a minute before my ex says, "Told ya. You gotta watch out for those flying deer!" I REALLY needed that laugh.

Nicest things strangers have done factsPixabay

68. This Is Just Not Your Day...

My friends and I were once chased down the freeway by a man in a fit of road rage. We finally evaded him by pulling into a Taco Bell parking lot on the corner of the city’s busiest intersection. Right when we got in, I kid you not, a huge wolf showed up out of nowhere and started standing right beside our car so that we couldn’t get out. It was not a fun day…

Arya Stark factsPixabay

69. Starting the Day Off Right

Early one morning around 6 AM, I was driving through the twists and turns of a mountain valley on the highway with a friend. We were just having a casual chat in the car, and nobody was on the road at that time of day—let alone on this highly remote and quiet part of the highway. All of a sudden, I took a quick peek in the rearview mirror and saw a car coming not fast, but FAAAAAST.

It seemed like they had no plans of changing lanes to pass us, and they were coming in way too fast to stop in time—so I told my friend to watch out for the oncoming car because I was seriously afraid that we were about to get crashed into. At the very last moment, the car behind us suddenly swerved hard into a ditch. It disappeared into the deep ditch and then reappeared, jumping about 4 or 5 feet into the air toward the highway at about 100 km/h or so.

As if it was nothing, the driver then sped up again as soon as he passed us and we quickly lost sight of him. That’s right, within seconds of narrowly escaping death, they had no problem with zooming down a narrow road at 140 km/h. My friend and I were absolutely shocked, and neither of us could say a word for at least 2 or 3 minutes.

We assumed that the driver must have fallen asleep and woke up to see us at the last second, just in time to swerve towards the ditch. The shock was probably what made him speed up immediately after the incident. It was a crazy, surreal experience, especially because there was not a single other soul around for miles aroundnot even after that.

Weirdest Experiences On The Roads FactsWikimedia Commons

70. Deerly Beloved

One night, I was driving back home from work at about 1 AM and there was a pretty big truck driving right in front of me. The sky was clear until, all of a sudden, a fog rolled in out of nowhere. This was a fairly common occurrence for my area, but something just seemed off about it this particular time. Then, as I'm passing through the fog, I see blood droplets starting to appear on my car’s windshield instead of the water droplets that I would normally expect to see.

I had no idea what was happening. Then, to make matters worse, fur and guts started to rain down onto my car. At this point I was confused, to say the least. Apparently, the large truck in front of me had crashed into a deer, and I was the guy who was lucky enough to get caught in the aftermath of it. I had to drive home with bits and pieces of deer all over my car. Not fun.

On The Road At Night FactsFlickr

71. I’m Not Pulling Your Leg

Parents went to drop my sister off at the airport at around 5 AM so it was dark out still. I see cars swerving and trying to avoid something. All of a sudden, I see a freaking leg flying. A leg. Not attached to a human. It's honestly the sickest thing I've ever seen. All I could say was—was that a freaking foot?!

We get to the airport and I see a state trooper. I tell Dad to pull over, so I can tell him what I saw. This man was nonchalant about it. Meanwhile, I'm freaking out inside. I don't think he believes me.  As we're heading back I see a couple of cop cars pulled over where I saw the leg. I keep checking the news and trying to find information online.

Turns out it was a homeless lady that was walking on the highway. It was a hit and run. Her body parts were found in different places. The article was two paragraphs long. That's it. No more information. But I swear, I saw a suitcase with a foot too. I can't remember too well, but to this day, it still bothers me.

Embarrassed manPixabay

72. No Warranties in Space

I was driving back from a family event with my girlfriend around 2 AM. Everything was going fine until I looked at the moon. I actually stopped driving and pulled to the side of the road to get a better look because I couldn't believe it. What did I saw that made me do that? It looked like the moon was cracking.

There were no clouds over it and the sky was clear. My girlfriend saw it too and it was horrifying because for a moment, I thought the world was going to end. And then everything was fine, the moon looked normal like nothing had happened. When I got home I immediately searched online to see if there was something about it but there was nothing.

I told a friend about this but he obviously didn't believe me so I haven't told anyone else then.

On The Road At Night FactsPxHere

73. The Villain In Your Own Story

I was driving home from a friend’s late one evening—probably around 3 AM. The town I live in and grew up in has a reputation for being a racist area thanks to a few high-profile incidents and a reasonable amount of racist idiots living/having lived here in the past. As I approached the town, I was going round a roundabout when a car joins, ignoring my right of way and cuts me off a bit.

It was a trash bit of driving but I’m reasonably good at not letting that get to me. What was mildly irritating though was given how keen the driver was to get out onto the roundabout in front of me, he then drove about 5mph below the speed limit on the way into the town, and like I said it’s late and I just want to get to bed.

About a mile later, we reach the Main Street of the town which has many turn-offs and I’m still sat behind them. They pick one of the quieter turn-offs which is the one I usually use to get home. At the end of that street, they can go left or right and still end up at the other end of the housing estate. They choose right, which is where I need to go.

Then they have a few turn-offs in both directions before hitting another main road. They choose the quietest turn off, I presume thinking I’m following them and wanting to see if I actually am or if I’m just making my way into the main road. Unfortunately for them, they’ve turned onto my road. They’re crawling along it at this point, obviously slightly worried.

The driver probably thinks I’m still pissed about being cut off and I’m following him for some sort of revenge. So they decide to pull in and let me pass. They indicate and pull across a driveway which just happened to be mine. I had to pull alongside and open my passenger side window. The driver opens his and there are 2-3 black teenagers in the car all looking slightly terrified by the pretty big skinhead—not by choice—white guy who has been following them and now pulled up alongside them in the middle of a quiet estate in an area known for being racist.

The look of relief on his face when I said “Sorry mate, that’s my driveway you’re blocking there” was pretty hilarious. Poor kid was scared but somehow in trying to get rid of me, made a series of road choices that convinced him he was about to be murdered.

Instant Karma factsShutterstock

74. Indigo Fumes

My dad was heading to his hometown from his college. Now he left later than expected so it was basically pitch black out. Right before you get to his home town, there is this straight road through some trees with a couple of turns. He is driving through this part and notices a flash of light in his mirror. He looks closer and realizes it's a car tailgating him with their lights off.

He is kind of startled and presses his brake some to light up his rear end and confirms there is a car there. In response to this, he floors it—he had a top of the line Camaro at the time—and is speeding down this road. He goes a bit and slows back down and looks in his mirror, the car is still there. My dad is confused as heck right now. Then the car pulls out and starts creeping towards his window.

My dad looks out his window and see a black hearse full of smoke lit purple. He is freaking out now. The hearse drives in front of him and lets out the smoke making my dad basically blind. He puts on the brakes and when the smoke clears the hearse is gone. This isn't unexplainable though. We found out later that a local won a tricked-out hearse and gave it giant mufflers and stuff to make it quiet, and would drive on that road freaking out drivers.

On The Road At Night FactsPixabay

75. Strawman

One cold October evening me and my partner were heading out to a small village in the Midlands to pick up our first puppy together. Inevitably we got lost and ended up on country lanes in pitch black dark, when seemingly out of nowhere came a few houses, a pub, and a row of shops. We thought great, we can stop and ask for directions.

But, then something happened. In the faint light of our headlights, we spotted what seemed to be somebody sat, propped up against a wall. On closer inspection, it seemed to be a stuffed effigy, which was creepy. We got back into the car and continued, this was where it got super freaky... The whole village was covered in scarecrows.

Some sat on benches, some in shop windows, almost as if the village was populated by these terror-inducing puppets. It turns out to be a festival of sorts in a town I believe called Feckenham. Where villagers make the scariest/weirdest looking scarecrows they can and leave them out for one weekend a year. I live relatively close but had never heard of this.

Terrifying at the time, I can tell you.

On The Road At Night FactsPixabay

76. No Shirt, No Shoes, No Explanation

Driving around 1 AM thru a dirt road, a naked dude was walking by with only shoes on him.

Science quizShutterstock

. Too Close for Comfort

I had something creepy happen to me a few months ago. I was driving home after seeing a play with a friend of mine, so it was probably around midnight. Also, I live in rural America, so there weren't any streetlamps or houses for the majority of the drive. I was driving over this bridge and saw a car sitting on the side of the road turned on.

I wasn't really concerned about it because it's a common spot for cars to pull off, even if it was kind of late. As I passed the car, I looked in my rearview mirror and saw that they had pulled out behind me. Again, I didn't really think anything of it...until they began to tailgate me hard. While that behavior isn't unheard of, it tends to be rare since the road is curvy and a hotspot for deer.

I kept driving for a bit with this car right up on me which caused me to feel frustrated, confused, and strangely paranoid. Then, the car's headlights went out abruptly while I was nearing the end of a stretch of road surrounded completely by forest. This made me freak out because it was still super close behind me. Then, the car sped up and went around me, but almost immediately slowed down to a standstill in front of me.

At this point I was so afraid, so I sped up, went around the car, and drove way too fast to get home and then sprinted inside and locked the door. I didn't notice the car around my house, but I still feel worrisome about the entire ordeal and wish I knew why someone would drive like that.

On The Road At Night FactsFlickr Gregg O

77. No Witnesses

When I was a kid, living in Charleston, SC, my dad took me and my brother to a boat landing on a creek, right off of the Intracoastal Waterway to shoot off some fireworks we had left over from July 4th. This boat landing was up in the sticks in a place called Wadmalaw Island—very sparsely populated and pitch black at night.

When we pulled in the parking lot of the boat landing, around 11 PM, There was a 20-ish foot powerboat nestled against the dock. The only people there were several guys wearing white boots and loading the back of an SUV with boxes from the boat. There was also a sports car, not sure what kind. We instantly got the heeby-jeebies, turned around and hauled ass.

About 30 seconds later, there was a car speeding towards us in the rear-view mirror. We were already going 80mph because my dad was convinced it was smuggling-related, and it was gaining very quickly on us. We knew we couldn't outrun them—my dad drove an '81 Audi Fox—so before we went around a curve in the road, we killed the headlights and pulled into the driveway of someone's house, ducked down and waited...and that car that was chasing us flew by.

It must have been going 100mph, easily. We sat there for a few minutes and saw the car going back to the boat landing. Things could have ended very differently. In other words, me, my dad, and my brother witnessed a delivery of illegal substances, got chased, and barely escaped.

Bizarre People FactsShutterstock

78. Are You Feeling It Now, Mr. Krabs?

I was driving very late at night through a pretty big park in NYC but not Central Park. Now, this was after an all-night film shoot for one of my friends in college and I had been up for a very long time. As we were driving past a recreational building with the pool I see a person(?) galloping on all fours like a crab. They were moving so fast and I thought I had just been imagining it, but when I got home my boyfriend at the time who was sitting in the front seat asked me if I saw the crab person.

It was super spooky, and I just can't explain it.

Yep, they're crazy FactsPexels

79. No Gentleman On the Road

I was a teen, and my mom and I were going to pick up my dog from our dogsitter and family friend who lives in a very rural/woodsy area. It wasn't that late, maybe 8 PM, but it was pretty dark, because that's Finnish autumn for you. We turn off the main road and take several turns onto roads that get progressively smaller.

After about three of these turns, mom starts panicking that the car behind us is following us. I turn to look, but mom stops me and is all "Oh my god no, don't acknowledge them!" I roll my eyes and try to calm her down, but she insists they're following us and is scared they're going to assault us since we're only two women.

Amazingly, they keep taking the same turns all the way to the last tiny dirt road. Mom is freaking out at this point and I'm pretty much playing on my phone, refusing to engage in her paranoia. Our dogsitter, a huge 6'2” tall guy, is waiting in the driveway and his brother is also doing yard/woodwork nearby. Mom pulls up and the car keeps going straight, so I finally see there are four young men in it.

Mom starts telling the dogsitter about the "situation," while I stand there rolling my eyes. We stay in the driveway talking for about a minute before the car speeds by in the opposite direction. At this point I finally realize we could have actually been in danger; why would they have followed us to the middle of nowhere only to turn around as soon as they saw we weren't alone?

After that, I've taken my mom's concerns more seriously.

Grinch FactsPxHere

80. Grunt Work

We were driving down the mountain from a campsite on an old, dirt road, headed for town. It was Fourth of July weekend, so we had gone camping, and headed home just as it was getting dark. We go around a bend in the road and our headlights pick up on something HUGE hunkered down in the bushes on the side of the road about 30 feet in front of us.

We slow down and we're trying to figure out what it is, because it's moving. We let the truck crawl until we're about ten feet away; that's when our headlights pick up one very large eye. A bull moose stands up from the bushes and tears across the road in front of us, making that weird, grunting noise they use when they're grumpy.

On The Road At Night FactsMax Pixel

81. It’s Free Real Estate…But at What Cost?

We were on a cross country camping trip in the summer and we had been camping every night for 2+ weeks in different campgrounds every night. We were using a AAA guidebook to find the best campgrounds and they were almost always full of people. We read about one that was very well rated, and FREE!

When we got there, it was late at night and we drove through looking for a good campsite. Problem was, we didn't see a single other person anywhere there. Dozens of spots, all empty. It was heavily forested and with it being so dark out and nobody else being there we all got a creepy vibe. I was only 12 or so, but I was begging my parents to not stay there because I was so creeped out.

My parents agreed, and we went somewhere else. Never found out why it was empty or what the deal was, but I've never been that creeped out before for seemingly no reason.

On The Road At Night FactsWikimedia Commons Bobjgalindo

82. Big Red Dot

Was driving home on a long and lengthy road at around 3 AM. Saw a weird light that was blinking in front of me. I get closer and realized it was an SOS signal, and me, being the curious dumb person, I am getting closer and start to slow down. I realize that something may be a bit wrong, as the light is getting substantially closer without me moving much.

I stop about 20 feet away from the light and notice a figure that seems to be running towards me with the light. And when it was about 10 feet away, the light went out, and there was no sign of it. I turned my high beams on, went in reverse to get a better view, but nothing. I have never been more confused/scared in my life.

On The Road At Night FactsPexels

83. Man of Mystery

Once when I was 19 years old, I got off work early, at about 3 AM. I always took the back roads to avoid dealing with highways and really it was almost a straight road directly south of my job to get home. There aren't any street lights and once you go about two miles it turns into a dirt road with a few four-way stops.

On this night, it's foggy and visibility is crazy low so I'm only doing about 30 miles an hour. As I come up to one of the four-way stops, there's a house tucked back from the corner with an old lamppost in the middle of the yard, basically halfway between the intersection and the house. I had been intentionally looking for this lamppost as it was a good indicator of how far I'd gone down the road as the fog was very thick and I was a bit nervous about it.

I stop at the intersection and look over at the lamppost and see a figure standing beside it. Just standing there. At 3 AM on a foggy night. Goosebumps from head to toe and the hair on the back of my neck stood straight out and I immediately felt unsafe. The figure never moved as I drove through the intersection, but the rest of the trip was dirt road with high rows of cornfield on both sides.

I'm doing 30mph, terrified, heart racing, just KNOWING at any moment that figure is going to walk out from the cornfields into the road and I'm going to be murdered. Nothing did happen, and I made it home just fine, but to this day it still gives me chills thinking about that figure.

On The Road At Night FactsPexels

84. Why Waste Good Food?

In 1994, my mom and I were driving from Colorado to Montana for my uncle’s wedding. I was 4 years old and sitting in my car seat in the passenger’s seat. We were in a fairly nice white rental for the trip because our family car definitely couldn’t make the drive. It was after midnight and dead quiet on this stretch of forest-y highway with no lights or houses.

We were in between towns somewhere just before the Montana state line. My mom was going about 70 mph on one of those thin, winding roads without a care in the world when bam: a gigantic buck was standing in the middle of the road. She swerved, but the huge antlered thing jumped the same way, causing us to plow into it.

Its body spun down the right side of the car, knocking off the mirror and denting the heck out of the door all while releasing a barbaric forest animal death cry that was unlike anything I’ve heard since. My mom was obviously shaken, and sped off because A: what if it’s still alive? And B: we have to find a phone and report it, right?

It took us about 20 minutes to get to the next town and find a bar. My mom ran in with me, both of us frantically crying, and all these burly men jumped up to help my mom—I assume they thought one of us was injured or in immediate danger. My mom relays the events through tears and then they all look at each other ask, “Well... did you keep it?”

My 5-foot-tall 105 lb. mom tells them that no, she did not drag a buck with trophy-size antlers into the car with her 4-year-old. They all started high fixing and asked her for the closest mile marker to where she hit it because “That’s good meat.” My mom used the bar phone to call the cops and when she gave them the same story, they also asked if she kept it for meat.

She figured country people in Montana are starving weirdos and that we should push through because we only had a few hours of driving left. We got to my uncle’s house around 4 AM and immediately went to bed. Just after 7 AM, someone starts banging on my uncle’s front door like they have metal fists. It’s the cops. They had gotten about two dozen calls in the half-hour since the sun came up about “a murder car” in my uncle’s driveway.

It’s our white rental, dotted in deer fur and absolutely CAKED in blood from the grill to the trunk with the right side of the car looking like a crunched-up tuna can. We had no idea we were driving around in a nightmare-mobile. My mom is horrified and tells the cops about the deer, her call to the cops a couple of hundred miles away, and how scary it was.

The cops looked at my mom dead in the eyes and asked her if anyone had claimed the deer for meat. We’ve not been back to Montana since that trip.

Worst Thing a Guest did factsShutterstock

85. Unwanted Delivery

This happened to me three years ago. I used to throw newspapers for the Kansas City Star. And if you know anything about modern-day newspaper delivery, it isn't anything like little Timmy throwing a small bundle in the morning before school for his lunch money. I threw 1,500 papers a night. Yes. One thousand and five hundred freaking papers.

And you do it at night. Night as in, pick your newspapers up at midnight and throw until 6 in the morning. You have to roll them yourself, stuff ads in them, the works. It is a terribly arduous job but pays well above minimum wage when you have a large route like I had. Anyhow, one night I am throwing newspapers in a little place called Holt, Missouri.

It’s about 45 minutes from Kansas City limits. I am throwing these out my window when suddenly I realize the same pair of headlights keeps passing me. It’s too dark out in the middle of nowhere to make out the vehicle well, but it was no doubt an SUV or Suburban. I stopped my car and watched it as it rolled past me and went a good quarter mile down the road before, sure enough, it makes a large awkward U-turn back around.

It does it a few more times before I finish my papers on that stretch of road and turn around. This road was a completely flat and straight road for several miles with no light pollution. Only a few driveways for farmers and what have you that live out there. As I am driving back I realize the blinding headlights of the vehicle pestering me are no longer moving towards my own.

They are stopped in the middle of the road. With barely enough room to pass, I lay on the horn and scream a few choice words as I fly past them. I will forever regret doing that. I was under the impression it was just a couple hillbillies drunk and wanting to start trouble. Even going 50 mph past them and going a ways down the road, I heard their tires screech and the engine rev.

Whatever it was, they had it supped up. Quickly, the situation turned freaky. Very, very, freaky. They get on my tail within seconds. They ram my back end and the unmistakable pop of gunshots goes off. They shoot several times, one bullet busting out my back window and whizzing past my head. In a panic, I did the only thing that came to mind and screeched Tokyo drift style into a farmer’s field adjacent to his gravel driveway.

The truck follows but seemed to hit something hard and went careening past the driveway into the other half of the field. I gun it down to this guy’s house. I have never met him before. Perfect stranger. I haul ass out of my car and begin banging on the door like a madman, hoping and praying I don't get shot by either the person(s) in the killer mobile or the farmer I am waking up.

The vehicle isn’t very far away from me when almost every light in the house turns on at once. The vehicle screeches to a stop and pulls around. I see that it is, in fact, an old-style Suburban, with massive wheels and no license plates. I almost got Deliverance-d. A large burly man wearing nothing but some boxers and several other guys greet me at the door, one brandishing a rifle.

In the end, it all worked out. By chance, the man was getting married in the morning and all of his buddies were over for his bachelor party. Thank God not all of them got blackout drunk. I filed a police report, yet nothing ever came of it. No other reports ever came of a beat-up Suburban with no license plates. I started carrying my pistol in my delivery car after that.

My vehicle had seven bullet holes and the back bumper was missing. The thing that messes me up the most is we NEVER found my bumper. Just, poof. They ram it, it disappeared. Maybe they took it as a souvenir. No doubt, for a second there I really thought I was going to die.

Halloween Scare Stories factsShutterstock

86. A Little Village, a Little Odd

About six years ago, my family and I moved from the West Coast to the Midwest. Dad and I drove while my mom and younger siblings flew. Dad was driving the U-Haul and I was driving the van that we had at the time. We stopped for dinner around 8 PM and realized we had about 6 hours of driving left and decided to push on through.

GPS took us a very weird way and had us exit on a rural route highway instead of staying on the interstate. So we are following this little windy road for what seems like forever. It’s just past midnight when all of a sudden, we are in this little town. Everything seems old and the houses feel like they are 10 feet from the road.

There’s not a SINGLE street light in this town so the only light is from our cars. Later, we get to the house and my dad doesn’t say anything about the town, so I assume it was my mind playing tricks on me. A few days later I tell the story to my mom and she tells me dad told her the exact same story but thought since I didn’t mention it that it must have been his mind playing tricks.

I’ve tried to find this town again on many occasions and I have never had any luck.

On The Road At Night FactsPxHere

87. Field Trip

I cannot drive for medical reasons (blindness migraines triggered by flashing lights). I do, however, use Lyft/Uber a lot. I always do the rideshare/pool options, because I'm cheap and don't care. I was on my way home late from the Arsenal bar in LA, and it's on the other side of the hill from where I live. We took the canyons back home.

Of course, the phone dings with "So-and-so will be joining your ride!" No biggie. I'm sitting in the front seat because the back was already full. We drop those people off and go to pick up the new person. She gets in. Doesn't talk but doesn't pull her phone out either. Now, we're arcing up through the canyon, and it's dead quiet and dark.

Not too many other drivers out, and not a lot of homes. The girl finally pipes up and says "You can let me off here." The map does show her destination is there, in the middle of a pitch-black empty field. The driver asks her, "Are you sure?" in that tone of voice that says, "Ma'am, if you get murdered I get a one-star rating."

"Let me out here." So, poor guy, he does. Pulls over, goes to get out to open the door for her, but before he can even get the seatbelt off, her door is open, and she's gone. I mean, gone. Gone, gone. I don't know if she took off in a dead sprint and we missed her or if she dissolved into the mist. All I know is that the back passenger door was open, there was suddenly no girl to be seen, and we were in the middle of an extremely creepy canyon road that was somewhere between Sunset and Laurel Canyon and both the driver and I were just super, super done.

I finished the ride in silence, got to my house, and went in without daring look behind me. Slept holding onto my cat.

On The Road At Night FactsPixabay

88. Unexplained Flying Photo Op

Not scary, just unexplained. A few years ago, I was driving home and as I was exiting the freeway I saw this lit object bobbing around in the sky. It was fading from green to white, like some LED lights do, and was bobbing up and down in a figure 8/infinity symbol pattern. My first thought was that it was a hang glider with lights on but considering how it was practically over the freeway and it was dark that seemed unlikely.

As I pulled off the freeway I turned into a Target parking lot and drove to the back trying to keep it in sight and noticed the car in front of me was doing the same, and the passenger was trying to film it. I pulled up next to them and we exchanged a brief “Hey are you seeing what I’m seeing? Yeah? Cool.” By the time the car stopped the glowing thing had disappeared—I have no idea what it was!

I don’t think it was anything like a UFO an alien spacecraft, but I’ve certainly spent a lot of hours thinking about it. This was before drones got popular and easy to buy.

On The Road At Night FactsPixabay

89. Nothing Gets Between Him and His Calvins

This was more bizarre than anything else, but a week ago I was coming home from work on a pitch-black state route when the edge of my headlights start lighting something up on the side of the road. As I'm getting closer, I just see this skinny dude posing with his hand on his hip, wearing nothing but a black thong or briefs, something draped over his shoulder, and what looked like a person in a drug rug or a large Baja-striped bag laying in front of him.

Ohio is an odd place at times.

Really That Stupid factsPxHere

90. The Final Neigh-Say

I was once driving down some country roads across Saddleworth Moor late at night in the dark. Saddleworth Moor was used by the infamous Moors Murderers in the ‘70s to hide the bodies of their victims—one remains unfound. Up ahead of me was a stationary vehicle, in the middle of the road. Lights still on.

Starting to think all sorts...anyway, proceeded up to the car slowly and saw the most horrific sight, a horse had bolted from a nearby field and been struck by the car, it was on the windshield, blood everywhere. Horse and driver were both dead.

Really That Stupid factsFlickr worak

91. The Writing on the Wall

I was driving in Detroit and a cool pink Cadillac or some other vintage American car came up behind me. The driver was very aggressive, speeding up and slowing down, trying to pass inappropriately. Eventually, they went for the pass, they didn’t have enough space and I had to swerve off to the side. I guess I continued driving now with this driver in front of me.

They brake checked me a few times before speeding off and I had a chance to read the license plate on the car, which said: “RIP KIM.” My name is Kim.

Lawyers Share “I Rest My Case” FactsGetty Images

92. Ask Him for Fashion Tips That Slim

I was driving home around 2 AM, and in the distance I see this tall, unnaturally skinny creature leaning towards the road. I can’t see any arms, just two legs and a very skinny, long body. I'm absolutely losing my mind thinking it’s an alien or monster because it was too skinny to be human and it didn't have arms!

When I was just about to pass the creature, I finally saw the rest of it. Turns out it was a hitchhiker wearing a light-colored shirt and jeans. He was wearing a dark jacket which had camouflaged his arms and a lot of his body.

On The Road At Night FactsPixabay

93. Wheels of Despair

While working one night, was called to attend a head-on car accident with three people killed. The driver of one vehicle wasn’t wearing a seatbelt and the force of the impact had embedded his steering wheel in his forehead. His best mate was in the seat next to him and was conscious and making the most horrific shrieks. Will never forget that image or that sound.

Portrait of surprised man.Getty Images

94. Bloody Coincidence

Was driving with some friends at around 2 AM, rainy cold night, along a winding section of road with a steep drop off to the river below on one side. We pass a small pull-off and notice a car with no lights on. As we drive by we catch a glimpse of a person standing next to it, and as the headlights hit him we see his shirt is covered in blood all down the front.

We don’t stop but turn around and drive back slowly. I roll down my window as we approach, and he just stands there, blood all over his shirt and pants. His car looks fine, couldn’t have been a crash. Out the window, I ask if he’s ok, and over the pounding rain and roar of the river below I hear the most distant and sorrowful “I’m fine.” Gave me chills, I don’t reply and slowly drive off as my buddy calls the cops.

About half an hour later we drive by again and there is an ambulance and a couple of cruisers, turns out the guy slit his wrists and was going to jump off into the river, cold rainy and pitch black. Scary where your mind can take you...

On The Road At Night FactsPxHere

95. Don’t Go Into the Light

A couple of friends and I were coming home from a late afternoon/night hike a few weeks ago, and we decided to pull over near a run-down rest stop, so my friend could use the bathroom and the rest of us could stretch our legs. It was maybe 8 PM, and it was winter here, so it was pitch black. This area is just thick trees and bushland, so there’s no houses or campgrounds or whatever around.

I believe there used to be, but they moved the campground somewhere else because it’s on the side of a mountain and it was too dangerous. As we were all getting back into the car, I felt sort of...uneasy. I didn’t want to mention it because I didn’t want my friends to make a big joke about it, but someone else spoke up and said they felt uncomfortable too, and that we should get out of there.

We all agreed and as soon as my friend started the car, these lights flickered on in the middle of the trees. We kind of stared at them for a moment—I want to say there were six or seven of them. Two of them were higher than the others, and then the rest were in a line below them. They kind of bobbed, like somebody was holding a torch or something, but they were way brighter than a torch.

We started reversing out of the car park, the car still facing these lights, when suddenly they just sped at us through the trees. I don’t know how to explain it, it looked like they were zooming towards us super-fast. We were terrified, and my friend just flung us out and got the hell out of there. I’d have just told myself it was people in the woods, except when we were driving down the road at 60km/hr, we could still see them trailing behind us in the trees, keeping pace.

After a couple of seconds, they just disappeared, and the rest of the way home was uneventful as ever. We have absolutely no idea what that could have been. As far as I know, you can’t get vehicles into the area since it’s overgrown and dangerous, and I don’t know that any person can keep up with a car like that. I’m not a big believer in aliens and UFOs and stuff but to be honest, if you told me that’s what we saw, I wouldn’t be surprised.

afraidFlickr

96. Head to Head

My friend and I used to go drive around our little country town at all times of the day; we'd chat, listen to music, and just sort of drive around for no real reason. One night, we decided we were bored and that we should just take a drive around the back country roads and just chill out. The roads were just two-way, one lane each, with a speed limit of 45-55, I think.

So, we pull out from my parents’ house and start cruising down a normal road that we take. We pull up to the normal 4-way stop and then keep heading out toward the country where the road gets a little bit rougher. On top of this, because it's actually out in the country, there isn't really any light aside from either the moon or the few houses that you pass on the way out.

So, on the way out, I start getting this really weird feeling. I've driven this road tons of times before at night and I've never had this feeling before. It felt like a stone in my stomach along with some chills that were going up my legs and my arms. Around the time that I started feeling this, there was a car coming toward us going the opposite direction—we were maybe a mile or so away from one another, probably a bit more than that.

My friend and I were still just talking and not really paying much attention to the car coming toward us. As it got closer, I remember feeling particularly uncomfortable and the conversation between my friend and I just sort of stopped abruptly. The car that was coming toward us was basically right in front of us at this point and it was about 2-3 yards in front of my car before it flipped its headlights off and veered into our lane, aimed directly at my car.

This was all split-second; backcountry road, pitch black, and headlights coming toward us just cut off completely. I, by some miracle, managed to swerve to the right, not too violently, to get out of the way. My friend and I were shaken. I checked my mirrors and just saw the car flip its headlights back on and continue driving from the way we came.

I think my friend and I had 5-6 smokes between us on the drive home and we decided to cut the drive extremely short because of this weird stuff. I still have no valid explanation other than maybe it was some drunk dude in a car just messing around with us. Even writing this, I still get heavy chills. It was pretty wild.

On The Road At Night FactsPexels

97. Thunderstruck

I was driving through Kansas on I-70 at night once when I hit one of the craziest thunderstorms I’ve ever seen. It was so bad that the road started flooding a bit, so I had to pull into a service plaza and wait it out. That’s when the creepy part happened. As I was sitting in the truck watching the storm, a series of lightning strikes were followed by a blackout.

Suddenly, a massively bright light started moving around behind the clouds, too slowly to be an aircraft but too fast to be part of the storm system. It moved up over the hills and trees before crossing directly overhead, then disappearing just behind the service plaza. If anyone has any thoughts on what in the world that might have been, I’m all ears. The memory still bugs me, as I’m not prone to conspiracy theories or crazy outlandish beliefs at all.

Truckers Witnessed On The Road factsShutterstock

98. Pinch Me, Please

I was about 7 years old living with my mother, we were deep in the country visiting my aunt who owned a drinking establishment. Since it was morning and her bar wasn't open, I was allowed inside. We left shortly before she opened and while driving home from this curvy back road there was a car stopped on the road.

It didn't look like anyone was inside the car, but we stopped anyways to see if someone needed a ride. I remember vividly the two people inside the car were looking away from us towards the mountain, we asked if they were okay and both individuals turned towards us and had eyeballs the size of fists, they looked like something straight out of a nightmare.

Huge eye sockets and eyeballs staring straight into my soul. She hit the gas and we took off, I don't think we went under 60 until we were almost home. I asked her about this recently thinking it was a bad dream / childish memory...She started to cry saying she remembered it all. I'll never forget those giant eyeballed monsters.

People Share The Weirdest Thing They Can't Explain Factswikia

99. Tampering With the Evidence

I remember once I was heading into town to get some food with a couple of friends. We were about halfway down the mountain when the car in front of us just swerved out of nowhere. She somehow completely swerved into the other lane and was facing back toward us for a second before going backward down a steep embankment and flipping upside down.

She disappeared into the darkness. We were all in shock and stopped driving right away. We didn’t know exactly where she could have gone and it was almost impossible to tell how steep it was. I definitely suspected the worst about this poor lady’s fate. We slowly make our way down there and find that her car is perfectly upside down.

It didn't even look damaged and she was just sitting there in her seat upside down and texting. We all tried to help get her out, but she wasn't ready to come out just yet. It took us a little while to realize this, but she was inside collecting all her beer bottles to hide from the scene. She was also yelling at us not to call emergency services.

When we did eventually get over to her and open her door, we were greeted with an overwhelming beer smell. Eventually, the police showed up. The woman was not seriously injured in any way, but she did get arrested.

Really That Stupid factsPixabay

100. Saved a Life

About 20 years ago, I was driving south on a major interstate, which was relatively empty at 2 AM or so. At one point, in the “narrows," the retaining walls on each side get very high as the highway snakes underneath overpasses. Out of nowhere, a young woman jumped down from the retaining wall onto the highway and directly in front of my car.

I hit the brakes hard, came to a complete stop, and nearly slammed into her. She looked up, ran to my passenger door and got in looking terrified. She looked between 16 and 20 years old, long blonde hair, and her clothes looked a little dirty. Not homeless dirty, but like she'd fallen down a few times. “I just need to call my mom,” she said.

I tried to calm her down and began moving back down the highway and behind me about 50 ft (15 m), I see another figure jump down onto the highway out of my rearview window. I didn't mention this to her and she didn't look back or see the other person. I sped up and went about four or five exits south. She kept saying over and over, “I just need to call my mom.”

This was before it was normal for people to have cell phones, so I told her I would take her to one of the 24-hour grocery stores and she could call her mom. I asked her if she needed money for a payphone, what was wrong, etc. She said nothing other than, “I just need to call my mom.” I pulled up to the grocery store and stopped.

She got out quickly, but not running, then ducked into the grocery store. She didn't say a word to me or look back. I pulled into the gas station across the street and called 9-1-1 and told them the entire story and let them know the young woman was inside the grocery store and gave a description of her. I have no idea what happened.

I don't know why she did that, what happened to her, who the figure behind us on the highway was—nothing. Really made me super uneasy. I think I did the right thing. I would have tried to do more but she seemed really fragile emotionally and somewhat afraid of me—I’m a guy—so I wanted her to just be able to get to where she needed to be.

Scary Driving FactsGetty Images

Sources: , , , , , , , 8, , , , , ,


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