UK NEWS

GHOST OF CHILD BLAMED FOR STRING OF CRASHES

PARANORMAL: The ghostly girl has baffled locals and terrified drivers late at night

Monday May 19,2008

By Geoff Maynard

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THE number of late-night accidents on a country road appeared quite baffling.

Even imaginative locals at The Why Not Inn nearby could not come up with a plausible explanation.

Now investigators into the paranormal think they could be on to something – a ghostly apparition which motorists say appears to them during the dead of night.

The spirit spooking them is apparently of a young girl in Victorian dress, and she is being blamed for a whole series of crashes and frightening near-misses in recent years.

The strange experiences take place on Oldnall Road, between Wollescote and Cradley, in the Halesowen area of the West Midlands, which locals say has now become an accident blackspot.

The mystery is being investigated by the Parasearch group whose chairman David Taylor said: “Reports have been coming in suggesting that the ghostly figure may have been the cause of several accidents. It is one of those roads where a lot of people seem to have accidents.

“Although the drivers who have reported the sightings didn’t actually crash, they were close to it because they had to swerve around the apparition and up on to the pavement. There have been some serious incidents, so maybe they had seen the same thing.

“There could be a logical explanation. It could be an optical illusion of some sort.

“But the road is a straight stretch between two built-up areas. For 22 years we have run a group who investigate claims of the paranormal. Most of the time there is a logical explanation but I haven’t found one in this case.

“The image that drivers say they see is of a small girl, between the ages of three and five, wearing Victorian clothes.

“We are trying to find out any stories locals might know which might explain who she could be.”

Local resident Jimmy Lahn, 54, said: “I wouldn’t be surprised if this ghostly figure has something to do with all the accidents we have had on this road.

“It is an accident blackspot – and maybe now we know why.”

Emma Jordan, 21, who works at The Why Not Inn, said: “There have been a lot of crashes recently around here. I was thinking it was quite strange to have so many in a short period of time.”

A West Midlands Police officer said: “There was a crash in November and a woman was taken to hospital after another last July.”

GHOST OF CHILD BLAMED FOR STRING OF CRASHES

20.05.08, 10:10am

A friend of mine sees no end of weird apparitions when he has had a few bevvies !

Sounds good though doesnt it ?

• Posted by: EmperorMing • Report Comment

FREDQUIMBY

20.05.08, 9:31am

I actually drove along the Stocksbridge bypass recently. This road is now full of cameras to cut the speed of the drivers. It has a strange feel to it as though the camber is wrong in parts.
I saw no ghosts though.
But the hooded monk thing is strange.
I actually saw a hooded monk once as I was driving along a country road. One moment he was there and the next he was gone. It looked like the grim reaper that you see in pictures.
Very very scarey it was too. It did slow me down and I never really told anyone .

• Posted by: marigold • Report Comment

STOCKSBRIDGE BYPASS

20.05.08, 8:54am

Google "Stocksbridge bypass" .

Victorian children dancing ring-a-ring-a-rosy

a hooded monk

and a proven blackspot for fatal car accidents

• Posted by: fredquimby • Report Comment

YES I HAVE HEARD ABOUT THIS STORY

19.05.08, 11:33am

As i am from the midlands.
If any one is interested in the paranormal, visit the city of Derby.
You will be taken around the most haunted place in England, by the lovely charming man, from the Most Haunted .
He is a local Derby shire man.

• Posted by: sophialoren2 • Report Comment