A Ghost in Surrey and a Phantom Double-Decker

Following the spirit of yesterday’s feature on the Black Volga of Poland, we bring you two true vehicular ghost stories from just across the pond in England. The first is the Ghost Crash of Surrey, and the second is the Phantom Bus of London.

Surrey is the 12th largest county of England and is home to nearly 1.2 million people. The northeast of the county borders Greater London and is a densely packed suburban center, while southwestern Surrey is more rural and marked by quaint villages and farmlands. It is in this area that the infamous ghost crash is said to have taken place.

Back in December 2002, several times motorists called into police to report that an Audi A3 had been careening down the road and crashed into some trees on the shoulder. However, when police came to investigate, they found no Audi along the side of the road. What theydidfind was the wreckage of an A3 about 20 yards into the woods with the skeleton of a man who had been reported missing five months earlier. Locals believe that this was a true ghost story or a sort of echo of the ghost’s unfinished business that was meant to point people to his body.

Our second case is even more eerie. The case of the Phantom Bus of London. For nearly 60 years from the 1930s to the 1990s, drivers reported seeing an ephemeral, ghostly bus at exactly 1:15am that would veer into traffic, causing multiple accidents. Strangely, though the bright red number 7 double-decker was reported to have made contacted with a number of vehicles each time, there was no damage to any vehicle that could have been caused by a bus, and the massive vehicle actually seemed incorporeal to some drivers, even passing through them on more than one occasion. What’s more, there were no buses scheduled at this time at Cambridge Gardens where each sighting was reported.

Indeed, England has its fair share of ghost stories, and many seem to involve haunted cars. In our next blog, we’ll be looking at something equally mystifying and much closer to home. As always, dear readers, we’ll catch you next time, and keep it spooky!

-Trey Fennell