The Dead Zone of I-4 Near Orlando Florida
I am rarely superstitious and not a big believer in ghost stories, but reading this report from Orlando on a stretch of Interstate 4 near Orlando, Florida gives me the willies. There have been more accidents on a small stretch of highway that passes over the graves of 4 yellow fever victims from the 1800′s than the rest of I-4 combined.
Add to that there have been many reports of people seeing apparitions on the very same stretch of road makes me think twice the next time I drive through that area.
Since 1963, nearly 2,000 accidents have been reported on a stretch of Interstate 4 in Central Florida located between Daytona Beach and Orlando, the report said.Over the years, people have reported seeing strange things on the stretch of road, according to the report.
“People are claiming to see all kinds of things — orbs floating across the highway, apparitions on the side of the road hitchhiking, phantom trucks, you name it,” book author Charlie Carlson said. “There are dead people beneath interstate 4.”
Local 6 reported that the road where the crashes happened cradles the graves of a family of four.The graves date back to the 1880s and a settlement called St. Joseph’s Catholic Colony, the report said. One of the German families fell victim to a yellow fever epidemic.”It is two adults and two children buried on the very spot that has been shrouded in mystery,” Holfeld said.
“They are still there,” Carlson said. “In fact, when I-4 came through in 1960, the graves were roped off and marked for removal but they never removed the graves. Instead, they dumped fill dirt on top to elevate the new highway.”
“Twice I have seen four orbs cross I-4,” Christensen said. “They’re earth bound and they feel that their lives were taken away from them.” “There were more accidents per year in such a small quarter-mile section of highway than all the other sections of highway between Daytona and Tampa,” Carlson said. via WKMG Orlando.
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22 Responses to “The Dead Zone of I-4 Near Orlando Florida”
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The Florida State Highway Commissioner should immediately take action in exuming the graves of this family and have the State officials place them in a proper burial site ~
Also having a respectful public ceremony to honor them, as well as all those victims who’ve died from accidents on that spot ~ have a memorial/monument for the family gravesite and another memorial for all others lost there…
Seems like a reasonable and fair request, does it not?
No wonder!
Being raised in Tampa, I’ve driven I-4 plenty. If you’ve even done so ONCE, you will understand the number of accidents is due to the fact it’s full of cars that speed. That’s it.
Brenda
When 2,000 people have been victims of automobile accidents in one particular area over many years ~ I question that something needs to be done to prevent such loss. (having been claims Mgr. for an independant auto insurance agency some 20 years ago)… it makes one wonder, however, why the Highway Dept. of the State of Florida, has not done something to remedy this obvious problem. Is police presence or enforcement not happening there enough??? I don’t know…
I do find it fascinating that people have seen orbs and such, however, even if I don’t necessarily believe in that kind of phenonomon, it may exist ~ perhaps, by giving this family a proper burial ~ it may bring resolve and attention to the matter ~ exuming their bodies, and the repair to the highway will slow down the traffic quite a bit, not to mention give the Highway Dept. time to plan a new strategy for better safety ~ time for the highway engineers to come up with a plan ~ 2,000 lives lost, is way too much ~ speeding? perhaps… so, why not do something about that!
I am a believer of life after death and that is why I don’t think that spirits would intentionally harm others. I would like to see this road, could it be there are some issues with the highway and it’s dynamics? And if you look at the car that is in your pic, it must have been really moving. Did someone die in that accident and that is their spirit in the photo?
My stupid question? Why did they put a road over graves?
I wondered the same thing~! Mis Underestimated ~
How exactly DID the Highway Dept. GET AWAY WITH THAT??? not a stupid Question what so ever!
I’m wondering the same thing!
(it really is very disrespectful for someone to desecrate a grave with a MAJOR Highway running right over it, wouldn’t you agree?)
I think the Florida of the 60′s was so dominated by developers and greed that respectful behavior was not even considered.
I would love to see a judge or legislature make them rebuild that part of the road and move the bodies to a proper burial place.
_Tom
proper respect should be shown for these dead.it is only right,and correct thing we can do,besides slow down.
I think there are several people ready for the rubber room motel. Ghost aren’t killing people, bad drivers are. We have two roads in the area that share a high number of crashes. One has the most crashes per mile traveled and the one we are responsible for (fire/rescue) has the most fatalities per mile traveled. Just a few quirks in the road design combined with drivers that think the route number is the speed limit. No mystery there.
Brenda; I have driven to Florida and have been on that part of I-4 several times – didn’t like it. Its been a few years, but even back then, I had wished they had better lighting along that highway. Travel safe all of you out there. I was a volunteer firefighter for 20 years and have responded to far to many fatal car accidents. Slow down and be careful!
Miss UE,
Well, you have to have respect for the dead AND living to care whether or not you desecrate a grave. Want a true and disgusting story?
Our family farm was broken up during a NASTY estate settlement. The executor happily sold the parcel adjoining ours to the local Methodist Church and never did bother to ask if we wanted to buy it. There was a civil war graveyard on the property that myself, my husband, and several friends took the time to restore. About 6 months after the sale, I came home to see the hilltop had been scraped flat by heavy equipement. I raised hell, and I mean HELL at those people demanding to know where the bodies and old handcarved stones went.
Know their answer? They said they were cleaning up an old aluminum dump! Really??? Land was in our family 100 years and I can promise you that hayfield did NOT have any dump there. I went over the fence at night with a flashlight and found all 14 stones in the other corner of the 15 acres laying on the ground. My husband got in contact with the loader operator who did not wish to discuss it because…these are his words…”seeing those bones coming up out of the ground, and watching those church people toss them into the back of that pickup truck like they were trash was the most unnerving thing I’ve ever seen on the job”.
A “church” will be built on that site soon. I hope if haunting is real, it is VERY haunted. I’ve called the church myself and they refuse to take my calls. Sad, very sad.
Brenda
Oh yeah, there are no laws in Virginia protecting such family gravesites on private land. If that graveyard in Florida under I-4 was on private land, I can bet there is not a law on the books to protect it. Check yourself, I’ve done all I can do from local police to FBI and the county offices. NOTHING can be done to save a graveyard on family land that is sold. Those graves become the ‘property’ of the new landowner. I am 100% on this in VA anyway. Trust me, I’ve tried to get the church charged with ANYTHING for 2 years now. NOTHING can be done…nothing!
Brenda
Hocus Pocus nonsense. Have driven over that bridge many of times. No ghosts. There is probably something to do with Lake Monroe water temperature, (This is actually part of the St Johns river system), the electric plants, air temperature, etc.
I – 4 in general is very bad. There is an accident daily at the John Young Parkway near Orlando proper and its from bad drivers not ghosts.
Sorry, not buying the local ABC story, nor the ghosts, etc.
Very bad driving from Daytona to Lakeland and very congested all the time in I-4.
But it is sweeps week……… and the news reporting emmy goes too……………
First of all, did anyone happen to notice that the picture is of a highway w/ double yellow lines instead of an interstate??
Secondly, I live less than 10minutes from the said Dead Zone and I have often joked that the St. John’s River bridge is possessed because if it’s going to happen it will happen on the bridge…I can assure you that it’s nothing more than just a joke…I never even knew the history of the Interstate before I moved here and started calling the bridge possessed. I attribute it to the fact that people are drawn to Lake Monroe. The traffic always slows heading East on I4 there because the view of Lake Monroe is breath taking. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that distractions are dangerous on an interstate.
As for the talk of cell phone interference one only has to look West a few hundred yards and see why…again, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist
As for the graves, do you know how many people died in the early years of this country and how many of them never even received a burial…if you believe in God then you know that the spirits of these people are with the Lord not in the grave…if you don’t believe in God then there was no spirit to begin with…hmmmm…makes you wonder why people care more about the dead than the living.
I drive over the bridge 5-6 days a week and there is no strange vibe…except for that “ooh look at the pretty water” vibe.
Well said Amy. Lake Monroe is very nice and the angle in which the SJR Bridge crosses it does give way to some nice views.
Now if you had been a Wolfy’s all day partaking in a few libations and then claimed “you saw something”, maybe someone would believe in you. (ha, ha)
funny skyboxx….
Good post re: the view being more of a problem than the supernatural.
Finally, there are many weird natural occurances. I’ve been told that in the desert, one can be walking towards you and literally appear to be walking away. NOT magic, NOT ghosts…just a natual occurance. MUCH more cool than thinking a spirit was acting naughty.
7
It’s funny that all the sudden I-4 is getting this ‘spooky media’ attention. For the 23 years I’ve been in florida, drivers on I-4 have spooked me more than anything else. My worse ‘road rage’ events have taken place on I-4. From bastards tailing me at 90 mph flashing their lights to get out of the way in their Jag’s to smoke bellowing rusted out ford’s trying to get nowhere in a hurry. The stretch from I-75 to around Winter Haven area was always worse during construction… So whoever dreamed this up about the ghosts had a pretty cool approach, but I still believe more in I-4 deaths being blamed on the DMV for giving licenses to errogant bastards that don’t belong on the road to begin with.
I have no doubt that I-4 is haunted and possessed. On June 21, 1959, I watched my 5 year old brother die on an I-4 constructions site. That construction site just happened to invade our neighborhood playground and backyard. The builders of interstate 4 were reckless and careless. They were building roads at a record pace and offered contracts to the lowest bidders. Safety and consideration for the living and the dead were not major priorities. Nonetheless, the memory of my brother has haunted me for nearly 50 years and his image can be seen in an interstate pilar near where he died.
I live in Seminole County. I have driven over that road several times and have yet to “wreck” my car there. Although I am a believer in paranormal, I have to look into this area further. But I will say for sure that , the certain part of I-4 that the accidents are on. Traffic is moving at 90mph standard every day. Alot of accidents aren’t surprising, It is normaly right after the traffic clears there for people are trying to make up time lost stuck in traffic. Think about that before you blame ghosts for other peoples deaths.
I drive I 4 every day and I see orbs many orbs. They are very near cassadega which is one of the points of the triangle….
People, stop. It would be the cause of either the supernatural OR the bad driving. End of story. I have driven that strech of land MANY times, and as stated above ^^ I have seen phantom vehicles. Many of the vehicles i have seen are older cars, rather than modern. And when you look into the drivers seat, there is no one there. At first I thought that the person had dropped something and wasnt looking at what they were doing, but then it kept happening. I am a VERY firm believer IN the supernatural because of my home being haunted by a woman that had killed herself. I’m not scared of it, and I am a very interested person.
Many times people THINK that they are about it hit a ghost, or run into them or whatever. When really it is just an apparition. That is a major cause in wrecks. Or can be. But also crappy drivers can be a reason too obviously. So there you have it people. The true life story.
hi
I am from nc, been thru there bunch a times, place always creeps me out. Never knew why…now, the driving is high speed, 80-90 mph,but I done seen too much to blame that. I won’t be back.