- I was going at about 60-70 kilometres because the road was rather slippery. As I was a few kilometres from home there was a sudden brightness and I looked up.
Over a group of trees on my right side I saw a very oblong light that had "spikes" on the upper part. Just as I spotted this light the car started to act irregularly. I looked at the dashboard and noted that the car lights grew weaker and the speedometer went down. When I looked up on the road again - I had to bend forwards - the light took off and it just disappeared. The light was yellow, almost like from a candle light. Very yellow. The car continued some 100-200 metres while the lights grew dimmer and dimmer and finally it stopped. It was completely dead.
Kerstin Hallman managed to roll the car to the side of the road and waited for help. A few minutes later a milk-lorry came by. The driver stopped to help her, but he did not succeed in starting her car. Instead, he called Kersins husband on the phone and asked him to come and help her.
- As my husband sat down at the wheel and turned the ignition key it started with no trouble at all. He managed at the very first attempt.
Her husband tells us he was very surprised when the compartment light lit up as he opened the door and yet more surprised when the car
started so easily.
- But next day it was completely dead. I took the battery out and had it checked and loaded at a service station. It was faultless.
A few days after the incident UFO-Sweden paid for a new check-up of Kerstin Hallman's car, especially with a view of finding out if there was something wrong with the electric system. No faults were found. The car, a 1983 model, has a conventional ignition and carburettor system without sensitive electronic equipment. Ice formation in the carburettor could result in engine failure in this type of car but after a few minutes it would usually start up again. Such a failure would not have any influence on the lighting, however.
Another possibility would be that the ignition voltage from the generator was somehow disrupted. Such a failure would not, however, have any large influence on the cars operation in the short distance it was the question of in this case.
UFO-Sweden has also tried to find an explanation for the light Kerstin Hallman saw. A number of possible airports and helicopter owners were checked but none had any activity.
- I sometimes ponder over what it was that I saw but I just don't know, says Kerstin Hallman. It resembled an oblong football with spires turned upwards, fantastically bright. More I wouldn't know.
- Are you convinced that there was a connection between the light and
the car failure?
- I can't imagine anything else. It has never happened neither before nor since that the car has stopped in this way. There must have been a connection.
Steve Sandström, chairman of UFO-Skellefteå, and a member of one of UFO-Sweden's assessment groups, cautions us to be careful in our
judgement. He remembers a similar incident, without any light phenomenon, that he experienced while driving a Volvo Amazon car.
"Suddenly the car started to go heavy, the engine seemed tortured and the cars lighting (even the lights inside) started to glow a pale yellow. It was as if someone had connected a two-ton trailer to the back of the car. Then suddenly the phenomenon released it's grip on the car and everything was normal. When the interested owner of the Volvo Amazon finally found the fault it turned out to be a loose contact in the generator that caused a short-circuit."
Now this explanation is far from applicable to this case. The battery in Kerstin Hallman's Volvo was OK and the car had started with no problem just ten minutes before the incident. A loose generator would have no effect on the car since there was power from the battery. It hasn't been possible to find any reasonable explanation for the incident.
Source: UFO-Aktuellt, published by UFO-Sweden, pp. 20-21.
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