There are plenty of scary urban myths around which have to do with cars. I did some investigation to find out which are the most popular enduring ones and it seems that these ones are particularly widespread…
The Back Seat Killer
Photo credit: Eden, Janine and Jim
I think I can safely say that we have all been scared witless by this urban myth at some point. It involves a lady driving home on her own. The driver of the car behind her starts acting strange, flashing his lights and trying to drive her off the road. She panics and speeds up.
When she eventually arrives home she gets out of the car and tries to get into her house. It then turns out that the other driver was only trying to warn her that there is an axe wielding maniac hiding in the back seat of her car. That’s alright then. Some people think that this urban myth dates back to a 1960s incident in which a murderer hid in the back seat of a police car.
The Headlight Flashing Murder
I had never heard of this urban myth before today but it’s a good one and seemingly rife in the US. It seems that in some US cities there is a gang initiation ritual which can prove deadly to unsuspecting motorists. The new gang member has to drive around with his headlights off. The first driver to flash at him to advise him of this fact has to be killed. It seems that there is no basis of truth in this story at all. However, I would still warn you against flashing your lights at cars with no light on them. Just in case.
Sneaky Thieves
There are a couple of different versions of the same sort of urban myth about sneaky thieves. One says that the bad guys chuck eggs at your windshield and the other says that they leave a fake baby in the path of your car. The aim of these devious tricks is the same, though; get you to stop so that they can, well, kill you. It is unlikely that either of these things will ever happen to you but if they do you should try not to panic and remember that it’s only an urban myth and it’s not really happening.
What other ones have you heard?