Travelling Car, Worcester-Beaufort West, 1952/53

What was reported

DG, then of Worcester and now living in Harare, was one of four bowlers driving 357 km to a weekend tournament at Beaufort West in 1952 or 1953. Some 20 km beyond Laingsburg a companion woke him to point out a green, mist-like glowing ball keeping station a metre or two from the car. Moments later it overtook from behind: the cabin filled with greenish light, the ball moved ahead and the engine died. Restarted, the car went on until the object reversed and stalled it again. The men got out; the thing now hung 400 metres off, a dim disc the size of a tractor wheel inside bright mist. George, who had stared into its light, felt unwell with aching eyes. As they climbed back in it shot away almost vertically and vanished.

What Hind made of it

Hind places it among numerous Karoo cases, notes eye damage and after-effect illness as typical, says hovering and forward-backward movement mark it as an unknown rather than a meteorite, and criticises the press for ignoring the signed statement.

Explanation offered
Meteorite or other natural phenomenon (dismissed by Hind because of the hovering and reversing)

In their words

• I saw what appeared to be a glowing green ball of a misty substance a couple of metres to the side of the car.

• While we were getting into the car, the object shot away rapidly, almost vertically, and vanished.

• Damage to eyes and an 'after-effect' illness, usually with nausea, are evident.

Cross references

• Danie van Graan case
• Rosmead Tennis Court case
• numerous Karoo vehicle-interference cases
• statement sent to the Cape Times (no acknowledgement)
• brief report in the local Worcester paper

Source

Cynthia Hind, UFO Afrinews No 2 (June 1989), spread 05-06

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