A Chilean Trucker’s Dashcam Passes a Half-Visible Figure on Route 78

A stretch of the Pan-American Highway in Chile, mid-20th century (Bureau of Public Roads, public domain). Not Route 78 and not the dashcam scene.

What happened

A Chilean truck driver, who has not been named, was driving Route 78 toward the port city of San Antonio in the small hours when he saw a woman standing on the shoulder of the highway. According to the account shared by paranormal researcher Carlos Martínez, the figure stood still and seemed to face the cab. It was the middle of the night and there was nobody else around. He kept driving.

Later he checked the file from his truck’s front camera and felt it did not match what he remembered. He sent the clip and his story to Martínez, who posted them on Instagram. By 21 July 2026 Chilean news sites were reporting that the video had gone viral. Coast to Coast AM picked it up on 23 July.

Route 78, popularly called the Autopista del Sol, is a toll motorway that runs from Santiago to San Antonio through the Metropolitan and Valparaíso regions.

Timeline

• 1920 (claimed): One social media commenter, quoted by Coast to Coast AM, says local accounts describe the roadside woman as “a young girl who died around 1920”. None of the cited sources gives a name or record for this.
• 1968: Hazlett and Allen at Indiana University publish road tests on how far away drivers can see pedestrians in dark, grey and white clothing at night.
• 1976–1977: The Malloco–El Paico section of the dual carriageway on Route 78 opens in stages.
• Early June 2026, about 3:30am (per C2C): The driver passes the figure near the Talagante toll.
• By 21 July 2026: Martínez’s Instagram post is circulating. La Hora and Central Noticia report it on 21 July.
• 22 July 2026: ADNSUR (Argentina) and Sur 45 run the story.
• 23 July 2026: Coast to Coast AM publishes “Watch: Chilean Truck Driver Passes Ghost on Highway?”
• 4 November 2026: This rewrite re-checks the coverage.

What believers claim

The paranormal reading rests on two points: the hour and the mismatch. Coast to Coast AM says the driver, a former sceptic, saw a full figure but found the footage “appears to show only the upper half of the woman”. Commenters quoted by C2C tie it to a local legend of a woman in white. One wrote: “a supervisor once told us that she appeared to him all along the highway before reaching each toll booth.” La Hora notes that stories of “mujeres vestidas de blanco” (women dressed in white) on lonely roads have been part of Chilean folklore for decades.

What the research found

1. The clip started with Martínez, not with Coast to Coast AM. La Hora reports that the video was “difundido por el investigador paranormal Carlos Martínez en Instagram” (shared by paranormal researcher Carlos Martínez on Instagram) and that, according to Martínez, it happened near the Talagante toll exit “a eso de las 03:30 de la madrugada” (at around 3:30 in the morning). Central Noticia published the same details on 21 July at 18:13.