Urban Legends

The Ghost Bus of Highway N9

Origin: South Africa

The stretch of the N9 highway that cuts through South Africa's vast and desolate Karoo desert is long, empty, and blisteringly hot during the day, but it's the cold nights that unsettle drivers the most.

For decades, truckers and long-haul motorists have reported glimpses of a phantom double-decker bus, painted deep red, coasting silently through the night. No engine. No lights. No driver. Just an eerie shape gliding across the horizon before vanishing without a trace.

Locals call it "The Ghost Bus of the Karoo." But some whisper another name:
"The Death Coach of Uniondale."

According to popular retellings, the ghost bus is the spectral echo of a 1950s bus crash that occurred on a moonless night near the Uniondale–Graaff-Reinet stretch of the N9. The bus had been chartered for a political gathering, but it veered off the road in bad weather, plummeting down a ravine. The wreckage was found days later. Everyone aboard had perished, all 36 passengers, their faces described as "frozen mid-scream."

No official passenger list was ever published, and theories quickly spread. Some said it was a government cover-up, others that the passengers were political dissidents or apartheid-era activists. No family members ever came forward to claim the bodies.

Stranger still, the crash site disappeared within weeks. When investigators returned, they found no wreckage. No scorched earth. Just an empty desert.

That's when the bus started reappearing.

A truck driver claimed he saw a red bus swerve off the road and burst into flames. When he stopped to help, there was nothing there, no fire, no vehicle, no tire marks.

Two tourists near Willowmore saw headlights in their rearview mirror approaching fast. Moments later, a double-decker bus passed them silently... hovering two feet above the road.

A cyclist training at dawn reported hearing bus brakes and voices chanting in Afrikaans behind him. He turned around to find himself completely alone on the road. He later said the air felt "pressurized, like something huge had just passed by."

The ghost bus is thought to be a "death transport", a spirit vessel ferrying lost souls who were denied justice. Some elders believe the passengers were murdered and cursed to ride forever, caught in a loop between the living and the dead.

A chilling proverb is sometimes repeated around campfires:

"If you see the bus and don't move aside, you might find yourself with a seat inside."

Some truckers leave offerings such as coins, cigarettes, or even bus tickets at roadside shrines near the crash zone. It's a superstitious tradition meant to "pay the fare" and avoid becoming a passenger.

While South Africa has its fair share of ghost towns, battlefields, and colonial horrors, the Ghost Bus of the N9 stands out because it combines modern fears, government secrecy, isolation, highway accidents, with old-world hauntings. It's the perfect symbol of forgotten tragedy, endlessly rolling through the desert night.

If you're ever driving the N9 alone after midnight, check your rearview mirror.
And if you see red headlights, don't stop.