Fright Bites: Hard Shoulder
Haunted UK Podcast: History, Hauntings and the Unexplained
Steven Holloway
4.5 • 652 Ratings
🗓️ 27 May 2026
⏱️ 4 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
A late-night drive on an almost empty stretch of the M6 should have been uneventful.
But just past Wigan, one driver noticed a woman standing alone on the hard shoulder. No broken-down car. No hazard lights. No attempt to wave for help. Just a still figure in a light-coloured coat, facing the road as traffic passed in the dark.
As the car drew level, she turned and looked directly at the driver - not frightened, not pleading, but waiting. A moment later, she was gone. No movement. No trace. Nothing visible in the mirror but the empty hard shoulder behind.
In this short Fright Bites encounter, a seemingly ordinary motorway sighting becomes something far harder to explain, especially when a colleague later mentions the stories attached to that same stretch of road: reports of a woman seen near the place where a fatal accident was said to have happened years before.
A quiet, chilling account of late-night roads, roadside ghosts, and the unnerving feeling that some places hold onto the final moments of those who never made it home.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Welcome to Fright Bites, a mini-series from the Haunted UK podcast. |
| 0:14.7 | Over the years, you've trusted us with your true paranormal experiences, stories that chilled us, |
| 0:23.0 | unsettled us, and stayed with us long after the episodes ended. In Frightbytes, we bring you the very best short-form |
| 0:29.3 | listener submissions we've ever received, hand-picked, stripped down, and told in their most |
| 0:35.3 | terrifying form. These are short stories, real accounts. |
| 0:40.7 | No filler, no distractions, just a single moment |
| 0:44.2 | where something unexplained stepped out of the shadows |
| 0:47.2 | and into someone's life. |
| 0:50.1 | So dim the lights, get comfortable, and brace yourself. |
| 1:05.4 | This is Fright Bites episode 7, hard shoulder. |
| 1:12.7 | I'm not sure if this counts as paranormal, but it's something that stayed with me. This happened about ten years ago. I was driving home late at night after visiting family. It was well past |
| 1:18.5 | midnight, and the motorway was almost empty. I was on the M6 up north, just past Wigan. I was in the |
| 1:26.1 | inside lane when I noticed someone standing on the hard shoulder ahead. |
| 1:30.0 | "'At first I assumed it was a breakdown. |
| 1:32.6 | "'As I got closer, I slowed a bit because it didn't look right. |
| 1:36.9 | "'There was no car, no hazard lights, |
| 1:39.3 | "'just a person standing near the barrier facing the road. |
| 1:43.3 | "'It looked like a woman, maybe middle-aged, |
| 1:46.4 | wearing a light-colored coat. She wasn't waving or signaling, just standing still watching the |
| 1:52.3 | traffic pass. I remember thinking it was dangerous and strange, and as I drew level with her, |
| 1:58.4 | she turned her head and looked straight at me. |
| 2:06.3 | I don't know how to describe it properly, but her expression wasn't distressed. |
... |
Transcript will be available on the free plan in 20 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Steven Holloway, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Steven Holloway and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.