The Road of Non-Starting Cars

If you park your car on Percy Road in Gosport, don't expect to be able to start it again. Residents of this road claim that "unknown forces" are preventing their cars from starting. They have to push their cars a few yards up the road before they'll start:
Wayne Dobson, 38, first discovered the problem when he came home from work, parked up as usual and tried to use his remote immobiliser to lock his V-registered Land Rover Freelander, but got no response.
When he later tried to start the car, he found it was completely dead. However, when he pushed his car a few yards up the road, it started again without complaint. After talking to his neighbours, he discovered they had experienced exactly the same problem. Mr Dobson said: 'It's all a bit Mulder and Scully. It's just these few car lengths outside our houses, and it started only at the end of last week. None of us can think of anything that would cause it.'
To me the problem is so obvious. Inner earth dwellers must be directing an electromagnetic pulse beam at exactly that spot, thereby causing any electrical system, such as a car starter, to become inoperative. What else could it be? Well, maybe it's just coincidence that their cars haven't been starting. But that theory isn't nearly as interesting. (via Fortean Times)

Places

Posted on Tue Aug 15, 2006


Comments

Maybe it's just those British cars. Someone should try starting a Chevy or Ford at that spot.
Posted by Captain Al  on  Tue Aug 15, 2006  at  06:01 PM
I'm sure some how this wouldn't have happened if Bush wouldn't have invaded Iraq......no wait Global warming!
Posted by Lonewatchman  on  Wed Aug 16, 2006  at  05:55 AM
I had the same problem in front of the house of my father in law. There was spot that made the car temporarily dead as a dodo.
We found more spots in the ten years we have the car now. And it is a common problem with immobilizers that uses radio instead of infra red. Just keep pushing till he wakes up.
Posted by Unfairly Balanced  on  Wed Aug 16, 2006  at  10:01 AM
In one department where I work, the staff were having a lot of problems with their computers, cell phones and watches. They found out that there was an MRI machine one floor below.
Posted by Don Sucha  on  Wed Aug 16, 2006  at  01:12 PM
C'mon guys, you Know it's the evil aliens among us who are preventing our cars from starting. That's so they can have a little more time to stalk and EAT us!
Posted by stork  on  Wed Aug 16, 2006  at  11:06 PM
"Remote immobilisers"? Are we talking about those little keychain thingies that you press the button on to lock up your car?
Posted by Accipiter  on  Thu Aug 17, 2006  at  01:18 AM
I got it - a defibrillator for cars! Oh wait, that's jumper cables. Ah, well...
Posted by stork  on  Thu Aug 17, 2006  at  10:43 AM
One of my students told me about a place near his home in the state of Durango, Mexico, called the Valley of Silence. Cars don't work there, you can't receive radio or TV there-- in fact nothing electrical will work in this valley, and no one knows why. It's out in the middle of a completely waterless desert, so nobody lives there, either.

So far, I haven't had time to go to Durango state and check this out, but if you ever had a week to kill, it would be interesting to investigate this claim.
Posted by Big Gary  on  Thu Aug 17, 2006  at  04:43 PM
If this were actually true, wouldn't the government have laid claim to the property so they could investigate the phenomenon and its possible use as a weapon?
Posted by Charybdis  on  Fri Aug 18, 2006  at  09:10 AM
It's underground aquifers emmiting ionized radon through kinetic inerference due to sunspots. Duh... you guys need to read more... allow me to suggest "Electricity: A Passing Phase", by I.B.Shocked. Very illuminating. For a more current view, try: "AC/DC, Who's More Plugged In?", by Ohm Migod. Both of those works get my volts.
Posted by Hairy Houdini  on  Fri Aug 18, 2006  at  09:23 AM
This sounds like someone drumming up publicity for an episode of Doctor Who - The 11th episode of the 2nd season 'Fear Her' contians this exact issue.
Posted by Toby  on  Sun Aug 20, 2006  at  05:33 PM
Department of defense, FBI and NYPD CSI, have been working on this problem for 3 years and recently CSI:NY released an episode about these problems. It is caused by antenas that were on the twin towers that were transfered to the top of the empire state building.
Posted by Mike  on  Fri Oct 30, 2009  at  02:29 PM
I have had the opportunity to consider that urban legend by myself, living in the area and having to go there, and I propose a much simplier explanation than telluric stuff...

the area is quite poor AND has bad roads (even by UK standards...)
so there is a relative proportion of old cars much higher than average, having to sustain particularly jammed traffic, in a very dense area (with many, many cars on the road )resulting in a average ratio of failure/mile much higher than everywhere in the region.

And as everybody witnesses ridiculously intense traffic jam (main touristic attraction of Gosport) as well as broken down vehicules every morning and afternoon, it takes no more to create a urban legend.

Which, im this case, is not actually a legend : there are there, on a 1mile-long section of the road, a highly unusual number of broken down vehicules.
Posted by Frenchyarnaud  on  Tue Feb 19, 2013  at  07:00 AM
Commenting is not available in this channel entry.