Emily Brown
Driving on a quiet road in the dark can be scary enough as it is - the last thing you need is a pair of mysterious lights to appear with seemingly no source.
But if you're driving along Snow Hill Road, north of Chuluota and Taintsville in Seminole County, Florida, you better prepare yourself for this exact sight.
It might seem easy in the moment to dismiss it as a late-night jogger wearing a head torch or a car that took a turning you didn't know was there, but the reality is that people have been seeing mysterious lights in this area for decades.
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According to local historian Jason Byrne, who spoke about the lights with ClickOrlando, the earliest reports of the so-called 'Oviedo Lights' go back to the 1960s. Since then, witnesses have claimed to see the lights around midnight, zooming south towards the bridge over the Econlockhatchee River.
Sightings are said to become more common during the winter months, but the lights always disappear without a trace.
Byrne described the sight, explaining: “From a distance, it resembles an oncoming car, but as it approaches, witnesses say its light is as bright as a freight train and never separates into two lights, as would car lights.
“Its tint takes on a discernably bluish hue as it starts to wobble slightly and then disappears promptly as it crosses the bridge, never making a sound.”
Unsurprisingly, the reports of the lights have been a source of intrigue for nearby residents over the years, with many spreading rumors about the sights and driving out to the area to try and see them for themselves.
Byrne continued: “You drive out there and sit in the middle of the night — drink beer or whatever teenagers do — and look for these legendary light. So there’s literally generations of people who remember going out there, taking a date or taking some friends in search of these ghost lights.”
Many of the spooky stories surrounding the lights are unverified, including that of a Cub Scout who lost his troop while walking with a lantern, a teenager killed by an oncoming vehicle while running across the road, and a woman who found her boyfriend 'clawed to death' after he left her in the car when they ran out of gas.
The only story Byrne has been able to verify is one of a 17-year-old boy named Norbet Hyman, who went to the bridge in 1963 to set off fireworks with friends.
“After they were done shooting out the fireworks, one friend ran to get the car. The other friends walked ahead back toward the main road,” Byrne said.
Unfortunately, the driver didn't turn on the car lights, and Hyman was struck and ultimately killed by the car.
“Whether you believe it’s the root of the actual ghost story — and this kid is ‘haunting,’ if that’s your way of believing — or whether you just think that it’s the root ghost story that kicked off all these other stories, that’s, I guess, up to the reader,” Byrne said.
However, there could also be another, much less supernatural explanation for the lights: swamp gas.
In the marshy areas near the Econlockhatchee bridge, it's possible dead vegetation has broken down into highly combustible methane, which could potentially ignite and cause flickering blue flames in the air - creating the kind of light that many people claim to have seen.
But if it's a choice between swamp gas and ghosts? Ghosts is definitely more interesting.