Legend: Two large trucks collide
head-on, killing the drivers and fusing the vehicles into a large mass that is hauled away in one piece. When the trucks are pulled apart at a junkyard a few weeks later, a Volkswagen Beetle
— and its driver
— are found crushed between them.
Example: [Collected on the Internet, 1997]
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Two of those big huge 18-wheelers were involved in a collision at very high speeds; one tail-ended the other one really really hard, so hard that the two trucks were basically fused together. The proper authorities dragged the trucks (still connected) to wherever it is they take them, I guess a junkyard, and then just left them there until someone could figure out what to do with them. After a few days, a stench started to emanate from the wreckage, and no one knew what it was. It got worse each day. When they finally pulled the two trucks apart, they found that a VW Bug, its passengers still inside, had gotten smashed between the trucks during the accident.
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Variations:
- In
some versions the smell of decomposition prompts the wreckers to separate the trucks.
- Variants mention up to four passengers being found in the Beetle with the driver.
Origins: This horror tale about the dangers of driving pits two vehicular extremes: the behemoths of the highway (tractor trailers) vs. the epitome of the small and fragile compact car (the Volkswagen Beetle)
— the inclusion of the latter perhaps inspired by its insect-like name and the associated imagery of a bug smashed on the front of a car. The exaggerated number of passengers sometimes said to be found in the crushed automobile heightens the terror of the discovery.
Last updated: 2 November 2006
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Sources:
- Brunvand, Jan Harold. Curses! Broiled Again!
- New York: W. W. Norton, 1989. ISBN 0-393-30711-5
(pp. 89-91).
Also told in:
- The Big Book of Urban Legends.
- New York: Paradox Press, 1994. ISBN 1-56389-165-4 (p. 90).
