Ghost motorcycle crashes into US car museum
A riderless motorcycle in the state of Indiana has hurled itself into a car museum, damaging an extremely rare antique car.
Folks at Studebaker National Museum in the US state of Indiana have learned a painful lesson: don’t park a priceless classic car at a junction. Because you never know when a ghost motorcycle will jump a curb, hurl itself through a window, and smash into that car.
That’s the improbable scenario that took place this weekend in the Indiana city of South Bend. The city is best known as being home to the University of Notre Dame, but it was also once the headquarters of the Studebaker Corporation - makers of really cool-looking cars in the first half of the 20th century.
The company actually started out making electric vehicles - proving that there really is nothing new under the sun - but transitioned to petrol-driven machines in 1911. If you’ve ever watched a film that takes place in America at any point before, say, 1950, you will have seen Studebaker cars. They were iconic.
The museum honouring the company’s history sits in a quiet, leafy neighbourhood a little less than a mile from the city’s centre. It is home to a collection of more than 70 vehicles, including an ultra-rare 1924 Studebaker Light Six. Only seven examples of the model were ever built, and the museum’s is the last known survivor.
Of course, this is the car that a riderless motorcycle smashed into on Saturday night. Witnesses say the motorcycle, sans rider, sped down Washington Street - which leads to the museum - crossed Chapin Street - which borders the museum - jumped the curb, rode across a section of lawn and through some hedges, crashed through a window and firmly lodged itself under the car’s bumper.
“Nobody was harmed in this whole incident, which is a miracle, quite frankly,” museum director Pat Slebonick told radio station WPVE.
He also said that he believed the damaged Studebaker could be repaired.
Meanwhile, the most intriguing part of the story is that the motorcycle’s rider has yet to be found. One would have thought that the best place to look for him or her would be lying somewhere on Jefferson Street. That road travels roughly 160 meters before meeting a T junction. The bike would have had to have been ridden at least to that point, right?
But police say they’ve been unlucky so far.
“Definitely an odd story,” South Bend Police Lt. Brad Rohrscheib told the radio station. “I’ve had crashes where there was a motorcycle involved and someone came off of it, but, like, they’re still there, right? I’ve never had one where this happened, and we couldn’t find the person that was on it.”
Rohrscheib says the vehicle is registered to someone living in neighbouring Elkhart County, but they’ve yet to make contact with that person.
As it happens, Elkhart is home to the Recreational Vehicle and Manufactured Home Hall of Fame. Lots of stuff for a ghost motorcycle to crash into there, so they’d better watch out.
Chris Cope is a fourth-generation journalist, originally from Texas. He has lived in the UK for roughly two decades and has been writing about motorcycles for most of that time. He has written for dozens of publications and websites in the UK, US, Canada, and Australia.
