quarta-feira, 29 de agosto de 2018

O carro fantasma de Helen


Slide 3 de 14: Teenaged Helen loved nothing more than tearing up the highways in Pop’s 1955 Mercury. Yamhill County, between Portland and the Oregon Coast, was still sparsely populated timber and farm land in 1961, with endless empty two-lane blacktops winding through the hills and valleys. The Merc was fast, yes—Pop kept in tip-top condition—but with Helen behind the wheel, it could beat any high school hopup in Yamhill and all the neighboring counties. The young lady had an almost psychic connection to the car and absolutely no fear. Her modus operandi was cruise the roads on Saturday night, searching for prey. If she spotted tail lights up ahead, Helen would run the Mercury right up on the other driver’s bumper, beep-beep! her horn in Road Runner fashion, then pull alongside the other car in the adjacent lane, racing her engine. There was a surprising amount of takers to her challenge; after all, in was the early 1960s and Helen was “just a girl.” Alas, addiction to speed was not her downfall; vanity was. Helen always carried her glasses with her, but rarely wore them. On the last night of her life, she raced up behind a shiny new Chevy Impala and tooted her horn. She pulled alongside the car and found herself face-to-face with the Yamhill County Sheriff. Her less-than-perfect eyesight had not noticed the lights and other markings on the car. According to the police report, the chase lasted over 80 miles with stretches that pegged the Impala’s police-calibrated speedometer at 120. Nothing is faster that radio, however, and a trap was laid. Helen perhaps didn’t see the deputies’ cars blocking the road; at any rate, she was still accelerating and hit the cars doing over 90 mph. She was killed instantly. Yamhill County is far more populated now, a mishmash of Portland suburb and tourist-trap wine country. To this very day, though, on the occasional Saturday night, witnesses report a glistening ‘55 Merc running right up on their bumpers, beep-beeping the horn, and roaring around them into the darkness.
Helen Furiosa A jovem Helen amava poucas coisas mais do que acelerar nas rodovias entre a costa de Portland e Oregon, nos EUA. Os caminhos mal eram habitados em 1961 e levavam até os montes e vales da região. O Mercury 1955 era um veículo rápido mas, com Helen por trás do volante, o possante podia ultrapassar qualquer carro da região. A jovem tinha quase uma conexão psíquica com o carro, e era destemida. Seu modus operandi envolvia cruzar as rodovias nos sábados à noite, procurando por presas. Se ela encontrava outros faróis pelo caminho, batia o carro e buzinava, beep-beep!, em seguida ficando lado a lado com o outro veículo e roncando o motor. Houve um grande número de indivíduos que aceitaram seu desafio, afinal, Helen era só uma garota. Nessa história toda, a velocidade não foi sua ruína, mas sim sua vaidade. Helen sempre carregava seus óculos consigo, mas quase nunca os usava. Na última noite de sua vida ela apostou corrida contra um Chevy Impala – do xerife do condado de Yamhill. Sua visão nada perfeita não a fez perceber as luzes de polícia e outras marcas do carro. Segundo o relatório policial, a perseguição percorreu mais de 120 km. Contudo, uma armadilha foi montada: uma barreira de carros policiais. Ela não enxergou os veículos e colidiu a 150 km/h, morrendo instantaneamente. A população da região aumentou bastante desde então, mas até hoje, nos sábados à noite, algumas pessoas alegam ver um carro do mesmo modelo de Helen avançar contra suas traseiras, buzinando e fazendo bagunça em meio à escuridão.
FONTE: msn

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