The Ghost Van

It must’ve been 1989 perhaps 1990....

My friend Jim and I had just been to the Odean cinema in Salisbury. It was a Saturday night and it must’ve been autumn or winter, as it was 11:30pm, cold and dark, when we were driving home along the A36 dual carriageway heading towards Southampton and the village of West Dean. At the time I drove a 1972 Vauxhall Viva, which had a top speed of 60 miles an hour!

I remember driving along at a steady 50 miles an hour talking to Jim, when suddenly in the rear-view mirror I saw two headlights approaching me. I distinctly remember, even after all these years, that the headlights were square like they used to be on the old transit vans that Ford produced.

I thought nothing of it. But the headlights were getting closer and closer. Being a dual carriageway, I wondered why the vehicle wouldn’t overtake me. There were no other vehicles on the road at that time - the carriageway was clear. However, the vehicle was soon literally inches from my bumper...

Both Jim and I became concerned that this could potentially be a drink driver. I increased the speed of my vehicle to try to get away and soon reached its top speed. I remember the steering wheel of my car vibrating as I knew it was reaching maximum acceleration. A few miles outside Salisbury there’s a slip road to the left which headed towards the village of West Dean.

I remember hitting that slip road at high speed as the vehicle was still inches behind me. As we entered the slip road it was still there, and then we hit a T junction. I remember looking both ways very quickly, the road was clear and I turned left. Suddenly the lights were gone.

My first thought was "Oh God he’s turned his lights off. It is a drink driver."

I remember turning on the fog lights and Jim was actually hanging out the window with a torch to try to get some reflection off this van. However, nothing could be seen. I stopped my car and turned the engine off. We both got out of the car. We couldn’t hear anything, no engine noise. We couldn’t see any tail lights. Nothing. It was most strange...

We drove home quickly that night and spoke to our parents about it. they seemed to laugh it off. Poor Jim had to then drive home to Andover! Both Jim and I are now the wrong side of 55, but the memory of that night is like it happened yesterday.

Thank you to Ian for sharing this story. What do you think then, could it have been an irresponsible driver, or something a little more sinister?

By Ian Luckhurst

Email your own story to: luke38knight@gmail.com