Nighttime is really its own special world, even in the 21st century where we are, generally, aware that there aren’t monsters hidden around every corner in the shadows. But that doesn’t mean that the darkness is somehow just as enjoyable as daytime if you have to spend a lot of time in it.
Someone asked “When driving at night, what is the scariest/most unexplainable thing you’ve ever seen?” and netizens shared their personal horror stories. So get comfortable as you scroll through, upvote your favorites and be sure to add your own thoughts and experiences to the comments below.
When I was about 19 I was driving on a two lane road after work around 11pm. No other cars on the road and suddenly this guy in a red shirt on a bicycle swerved from the side of the road right in front of my car. I hit him. Felt the impact. I was yelling “OMG ” over and over and got out of the car to see how badly he was hurt. Only I didn’t see him. I couldn’t find the guy. No bike. No red- shirted guy, no dent or blood on my car. I searched the ditch with a flashlight. A couple people passed by while I was looking in the field for a body when a sheriff’s car pulled up. I told him what happened. He said I didn’t hit anyone. Told me that about 15 years earlier a young man in a red shirt was hit by a car while riding his bike right there. He died instantly. Deputy told me that every couple years someone driving thru there believes they’ve hit a red-shirted bike rider. I’d hit a ghost.
Edit: first, thanks for the award kind Stranger! Yes, this is a true story; it happened about 40 years ago and it still creeps me out. To this day I don’t like driving at night.
I was driving to work, chatting on the phone with my wife to pass the time (6-8 hour drive out to the base from our home) and ahead of me was somebody riding a motorcycle. The road we were on was generally straight (Mojave desert) but had some unpredictable curves because of the road loosely following a broad wash/lake bed (like we’ve discussed, Mojave’s desert.) the person ahead of me was going between 70-90 MPH and seemed generally familiar
With the road. But, then they just sailed straight over the edge of a 45 mph curve going about 80.
I made some reactive, disgusted sound, and hung up with my wife. I immediately pulled over, called 911 and put them in my pocket, got my trauma kit, and put on gloves. I was talking to the dispatcher and explaining what had happened when I step over the bank and see, to my surprise, not a crumpled body in the sage. But a young guy, mid twenties. Picking himself up off the ground about 75 feet ahead of me and 15 feet below. He’d been launched from the motorcycle which was in terrible shape about 30 feet from him. I told him to stay still and went through a quick evaluation. He was basically fine, but super rattled (ended up
Having a broken collar bone and a mild
Concussion).
Anyway, it’s not a ghost story. But I was absolutely certain I’d just seen a person die. And was completely shocked to find him in fine form if a little shaken up.
When I was 16 I had a junky convertible 1989 Capri. I loved that car. One night I was driving the backroads home out in the middle of nowhere Missouri. Top down, enjoying the night air. I dove under some low hanging trees and heard a weird SLAP noise from the backseat. Turned around to see a huge black snake frantically slithering towards the safety of under my seat. I nearly wrecked. I hate snakes and even though this rat snake was 100% harmless I was panicked. Pulled over screaming and called my dad to come de-snake my car.
I never road with the top down in the country again.
I was 19 driving home from my then bf house and stopped at a red light on the very edge of town (like city lights behind me but corn fields and shelter belts ahead of me) because it’s like 2 in the morning I’m the only one sitting at the red light. I saw something moving in my peripherals and because of my location I thought it was gonna be a deer. I turned my head and locked eyes with a man maybe in his 50s creeping towards my car. When he saw that I saw him he froze and it was then then that I noticed he had a tire iron. I ran the red light and sped out of there.
This happened to me when I was 20 years old and my car was about a year and a half old. I was driving home from work at about midnight, coming through residential streets. The boulevard that I was on was four lanes with a cement divider that had plants in it along the way. I was halfway through an intersection, and my car stalled. My foot was on the gas, and suddenly the car was dead. Luckily, they were no other cars that I could see, so I brought my car to a stop, put it in park, and started it up with no problems.
Then I looked up.
Coming straight at me we’re headlights. Someone had turned from a side street and instead of going across the median to turn left going down the correct side of the street, they had turned left into my lane thinking it was only a 2 Lane Road.
Had my car not stalled when it did, I would’ve plowed head first into that car. In the five years that I own that car, it never stalled again.
While driving across Luisiana on I10, I saw a flying car.
There’s a bridge that’s about 40 miles long on that road. There was no other car in sight. And far ahead of me on that bridge there was this car about 8 feet above the road. It was kind of bobbing as it flew.
It was a very dark night. All I could see was it’s tail lights. I tried to convince myself it was just a trick of perspective. It just looked like it was higher than the road.
It was freaky, and scary. I was slowly gaining on it, so I slowed down.
I eventually speeded up, telling myself I was stupid being scared of it. Couldn’t really be a flying car. Not a ghost or something.
As I slowly creeped up it was definitely about 8 feet above the road.
As I got closer I finally saw. It was bring hauled on a flat bed truck like a wrecker. The truck had no tail lights, so I guess the truck driver turned on the car’s tail lights .
It gets spooky at night down in those swamps.
Later edit after some replies.
I was wrong, it’s not 40 miles long.
It’s 29.2 miles long.
Atchafalaya Basin Bridge I10 Louisiana USA.