In October, 1957, Hugh Watson Reid and experienced lorry driver from Livingstone in West Lothian, was driving his articulated vehicle with a 32 ton load towards Carlisle. In a fully detailed letter, he admits the night was misty, though visibility was `not all that bad at approximately 40 feet`. He emphasises the fact that he is neither religious nor imaginative, and despite his experience, still finds ` the ghost thing` unbelievable. Just as he reached a left-hand bend in the road, near Sark Bridge, at the junction with the A75 to Annan, a middle-aged couple walked in front of his lorry. He slammed on the footbrake and the `dead man` to brake the trailer and switched on the hazard warning lights. Outraged at their gross stupidity, he jumped from his cabin intending to provide them with some good advice about walking aimlessly across a main road at 10.45 at night. However, as soon as he reached the road he realised the weird-dressed pair had vanished. The man was wearing a `High Tile Hat, short double breasted jacket and tight trousers, whilst his companion was in a crinoline ankle length gown and a large hat of the sun bonnet type`. This is not the sort of clothing one would expect a couple to be wearing in October in the 1950`s. They could not have jumped clear of the vehicle in time for they were strolling across the road, quite casually arm-in-arm. For a second Hugh feared they might be under his cabin, but, thankfully, there was no sign. An extremely thick and impenetrable hedge borders the road at the spot and nothing other than a heavy vehicle could break through that. Hugh drove to Carlisle that night, more than a little disturbed by his experience. However, he was to learn, months later that he had not been the only witness to the sudden and potentially dangerous manifestation. Other night drivers have experienced an identical incident at the same spot. Perhaps that driver is the owner of a ghostly car which also travels the same road at night with dipped headlights, and then suddenly disappears. One couple and their two children were nearly killed when this phantom vehicle seemed to drive straight at them before vanishing, as they landed in the ditch. Local police, frequently called upon to investigate reports of the dangerous and maniacal driving of the vanishing car, have stated that there is no question of reflection from a driver's own headlights and are still unable to offer any rational explanation for the haunting, except accepting that it exists.
� Andrew Green