IS A GHOSTLY VICTORIAN GIRL RESPONSIBLE FOR ROAD ACCIDENTS?

Oldnall Road haunted by a Victorian girl?

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.”

Source: DailyExpress