I’ve always been really creeped out by horror movies and true crime books and articles that revolve around driving at night in a lonely place.
Maybe it’s on a remote stretch of highway, or maybe it’s an old country road where there isn’t another person around for miles.
Either way, it’s scary stuff and it makes you think about what you’d do if you saw something strange on the road or you encountered a terrifying situation.
And those creepy things really DO happen out there on the highways and byways.
Here are some interesting stories from folks on AskReddit.
1. Road kill.
“A fucking owl standing on the carcass of a large buck in the mountains at 3-5am.
All you see as you approach are two glowing red orbs, then slowly a becomes huge dark form standing on the edge of the road with eyes of fire. Then you get close enough and this massive fucking owl just gives you the death stare as you go past. You realize it was just a large ass owl standing on the remains of fresh road kill.
Freaked me out for the rest of the dark part of the drive.”
2. Bad accident.
“I was following a grey Toyota Tundra in a massive blizzard through Montana on McDonald pass. He was going pretty quick most of the way but must have been unfamiliar with how steep the final few miles are.
He got away from me as I slowed down to about 35. Not 5 min later I passed his tire marks in the fresh snow that went off the side of the mountain. Pulled over and looked down to see his truck upside down and on fire about 300 yards down.
Called 911. He didn’t die but was burnt up pretty bad. Sad and scary and don’t go 50 in the snow just because you have a truck or 4wd!!!”
3. Scooters.
“I had just finished driving for Uber and was driving down the access road to my home around 3am when I saw a body lying completely lifeless next to one of those motorized scooters.
I pulled over and flagged down his buddies who were drunk and kept going without realizing their friend was lying on the ground. Ambulance arrived and took the kid away, but I never came to find out if he made it.
F*ck those scooters man.”
4. Freak out!
“Not me but a friend.
After dropping me off at my house around 2 am, my friend calls me and tells me to pick 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 really, but like their was 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 from the nearest neighbor. Freaked me the hell out.”
5. Poor animal.
“A dead, butchered horse laying in the road. Someone had completely skinned and butchered a horse, took the choice pieces of meat, and just dumped it on the highway.
I almost crashed into it.”
6. Don’t pick him up.
“3am on a lonely road and I was the passenger. An old man only wearing a bra, panties and high heals was casually walking down the road.
My friend who was driving didn’t believe me and went back around. Sure enough, he saw him and we were like WTF.”
7. Better safe than sorry.
“I was on I-70 in Colorado going towards Utah, pulled over at a gas station at 8pm. Fueling up I noticed a couple of attractive women pumping gas, on the other side of the pump was the man in his late 40s, just staring at these young women without notice of anything else going on around him.
I walk inside to go grab some food for the next few hours of driving, when I come out I see both the younger women’s car and the older man’s truck are 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 pull over at yet another gas station, the young women are there getting gas and eating some food on a picnic table. Looked like they had been there for a while. I didn’t see any sign or the man in the truck but can’t say I was looking very hard for it. Well here is where it got creepy as hell….
Can’t say I didn’t stare at them a bit, I mean they were good looking women. As I am watching them leave I see in the next parking lot over some headlights turn on and it’s the same man as before…. He leaves when the women leave once again.
Okay that’s a bit weird but could just be a coincidence as there weren’t many places to pull over. I leave a few minutes later and catch up to them…now this guy is riding there ass with his high beams on.
I decided to slow down and stay a distance behind the truck. 10 minutes or so later the women pull over once again to most likely get this guy off their ass…
With a sign of relief the truck keeps going and I continue on my way. About 1 mile down the road the guy just pulls off to the side of the highway…. So I pull off a mile or so down the road again.
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 to alert them and about 15 minutes the cops pulled the guy over.
I could have just seen too many horror movies that started like this and over reacted but ya never know. Better safe than sorry.”
8. That’s terrifying.
“Driving down a 2 lane divided highway. I came up to a couple semi sand 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, felt like i was mere centimeters from death. Thought my wife’s scream would be the last thing I ever hear… And I never want to hear it again. The semis I passed all pulled to the shoulder to come check on us. Didn’t see the car anywhere.. I think they just kept going.
Had to pull into a gas station after and collect myself.”
9. On a dark road…
“A hitchhiker almost leaping out in front of my car on a dark forest road late at night. The woman literally popped out of nowhere. Had to drift into the oncoming lane. Read a police report that she ended up getting hit minutes after I drove by. She was intoxicated and running from the police. Pretty f*cking creepy.
I hope she’s alright. I can’t imagine what the driver that hit her was thinking.”
10. OH MY GOD!
“When I first started learning to drive I was working for my dad, and one day after work he asked if I wanted to drive home, I was like alright! So I got on the highway headed for home, and while driving, I looked in the rearview and a guy on a crotchrocket was coming up behind me, I thought nothing of it I was sure he would pass or slow down.
I look ahead again and a few moments later I hear this sound, like metal scraping against the ground. I look around and then look back into the rear view, and the bike was on its side, spinning down the highway, and behind it I could see the biker on his back, legs and arms flailing kind of like a baby on its back in a crib, then I watched as he dissapeared under the vehicle behind him.
I was so freaked out driving after that I didn’t want to drive for weeks following the incident. Then eventually got over it. Still I can see the guy in my mind just sliding along the ground flailing about then being swallowed under another car.”
11. Scary stuff.
“I was driving on the expressway around 2am and a semi hit a car and it went into the median. The car basically folded into itself and was beyond smashed. I can’t imagine that person survived.
It was incredibly sad and terrifying to see.”
12. About to get jacked.
“I was a very young woman driving home after clubbing, about 2 am through Hollywood. I was pulling up to a stop sign on Cahuenga, about 3 blocks from Hollywood Blvd., when a bunch of guys begin 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.”
13. Close call.
“Driving home one night from my fiancé’s house, normal night on the Florida highway.
It’s pretty dark, not too many lights, cruising at around 75 headed over a slight hill, just big enough that you can’t see the other side.
Get to the top and start making my way down the hill, and very suddenly in my headlight view I get a giant construction vehicle with all of its lights TURNED OFF, AND PARKED IN THE LEFT LANE OF THE HIGHWAY.
I really, seriously, pray to god that no one hit that parked construction vehicle (it was one of the ones that digs up dirt I think?) on the highway that day. I very, VERY narrowly avoided smacking right into the back of that thing.
I don’t know how the Cherokee I was driving at the time handled the sharp turn I made into the right lane to avoid the vehicle. Needless to say I was very nearly dead.
Immediately called Florida highway patrol and told them about it. I hope they got to it before someone got hurt, and I REALLY hope someone at that construction company lost their job. Because they could have killed multiple people.”
14. Funny/scary.
“Scariest and funniest at the same time.
I was working at a restaurant as a cook. We did full menu till 11:00 PM, then apps and burgers till 1:00 AM. I tended to pull the solo night shift, because I would walk out the door at 1:05 AM and the kitchen was stocked, clean, and perfect.
It was a long night. Stupid FoH kept sending back food orders after 1:00 AM, I didn’t leave till 2:00 AM. 30 minute drive home, and I was exceptionally tired.
I lived in the boonies of Wisconsin, at the time. A good 5km outside of town, which was 500 people, 2 churches, and 9 bars. I hit the little 24/7 truckstop just at the edge of that 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. This crazy long neck, a pointy head, and only 2 legs. Right in the middle of the road. Scared the ever loving fuck out of me in that state.
Thankfully, it stood there for a second. Brain re-engaged. It’s an ostrich. Ok, not a monster, heh, just… an…
What the fuck 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).
“So… I’m really tired, so please laugh at me and tell me to go home and sleep and ignore the call… but I’m pretty sure I just saw an ostrich on Highway xx just outside $town.”
She started laughing hysterically, then assured me that:
No, I’m not hallucinating.
There’s an ostrich and emu farm on the other side of town, guy raises them for the kitch places in town for meat.
Some drunk driver felt that “turns are for pussies”, went up, over the berm, through the fence, and through most of the barn.
There’s still 4 animals, including the one I just spotted, unaccounted for.
Where are you exactly, and which way did it go so we can round it up?
I gave her the info, finished the last few miles home, and died in bed. Wild night, man.”
15. This is crazy and sad.
“Someone I knew locally came across a jeep that had just crashed into the ditch on a highway at night, flipped on it’s top, wheels still turning kind of thing.
He was the first on scene so called 911 and ran down into the ditch. The driver, who was badly mangled, had been tossed from the car and was dying. This guy held him and the driver died in his arms.
The weirdest part of it all was that he found out the next day that it was his cousin, but he hadn’t been able to recognize him.”
Shudder…
Now we want to hear your stories!
In the comments, please tell us about the creepy stuff you’ve seen when you’ve been driving at night.
Thanks in advance!
