Florida's Haunted Highway
Monday March 24, 2008 8:20 AM
There is a quarter-mile stretch of Interstate 4 in central Florida between Daytona Beach and Orlando that is known as the "The I-4 Dead Zone." How does a highway get a nickname like this? It's haunted, of course.
Interstate 4 is one of the most traveled roads in Florida. While mediums have claimed that a family of four fraught with bitterness is buried at the site, the nearly 2,000 accidents that have occurred along this small stretch of roadway since the mid-1960s certainly enhances the possibility of a curse — or just a poorly constructed section of the road? There are far more accidents per year on this stretch of highway than all of I-4 between Daytona and Tampa. Regardless, people have been claiming to see strange things at this very spot on I-4 for several decades — everything from orbs cruising over the road, to hitchhiking ghosts and phantom trucks.
The family's grave, two adults and two children — German immigrants living in a village called St. Joseph's Catholic Colony — dates back to 1880 when a yellow fever epidemic took their lives. During the construction of Interstate 4 in 1960, the graves were originally roped off for removal. Instead of being transferred elsewhere, they were covered in fill dirt and that section of highway was built over their bodies.
Local 6 news station released a photograph of an alleged apparition standing beside a totaled vehicle but later reported that the photograph was likely a hoax. Still, the number of claims coming from drivers over the years and the disturbance of the family's grave makes the legend of The I-4 Dead Zone a bit intriguing.
