Mersey Tunnel motorbike ghost sound Liverpool

I am a total sceptic so it is bizarre that I find myself posting on here. I am not just saying that, like a weirdo might to justify their posting - I really am a sceptic - but then something weird happened in my life yesterday.

It was my wife's birthday yesterday 5th October 2013 so we went for a day out on the Wirral, travelling from our home in St Helens in Lancashire, England, to Liverpool and from there via the world-famous Liverpool-to-Birkenhead Mersey Tunnel eventually to Port Sunlight. I was with my wife and ten year old daughter and it was around 3pm on Saturday 5th October 2013.

The journey through the Mersey Tunnel is only a few minutes, though one does go deep under the river, and as we approached the end of the journey we had become accustomed to the general noise of traffic in this fairly confined space, and I as the driver was well aware of what vehicles lay in front of and behind me (via mirror), and obviously could see well ahead the traffic in the lanes going in the opposite direction.

In this tunnel environment people are required to, and do, stick to their lanes. Overtaking and lane changing is not permitted in the Mersey Tunnel and this rule is almost universally observed at all times - motorbikes have to follow the car in front, and in my experience always do.

Here's the weird thing: I am a careful and observant driver of many years experience, watching and listening to visual and audible stimuli at all times in my journey. I knew what was before and ahead, I was sober and alert and I am very safety-conscious. There was no overtaking, and there were no motorbikes around BUT, for about four seconds, my wife, daughter and I distinctly heard the deep low rumble of a powerful motorcycle engine at a volume suggesting sudden acceleration then ceasing. It was louder than all the surrounding four lanes of traffic put together and was shocking in its loudness and intensity - we all gasped, as it seemed to originate WITHIN our car. It stopped in an instant, leaving no clue as to its origin. There was absolutely no such vehicle for'ard or aft and absolutely no way we missed an overtaking vehicle - these lanes are tight and the no overtaking rule is there for a good reason - death might easily ensue for any motorcyclist foolishly attempting such a manoeuvre.

PS. as to the sound, the radio was not on and in any case there is no signal in the tunnel and the only CD we have on in the car we have heard a hundred times - no sign of motorbike revving there. I cannot explain what happened, even as a sceptical scientist.

Naturally I googled motorbike Mersey Tunnel ghost or something like that as soon as I got home and found myself here, reading about the supposed ghost of a girl killed in the tunnel in the late 1960s.

I don't want to put two and two together and come up with 47, but I WOULD like to compare notes with anyone else who has had or who knows about this supposed manifestation. Should anything I hear back - without me giving any further clues - chime in with our experience, I might go from being a total sceptic to being more open to ideas. I don't know. I DO know that what happened to us was REALLY weird, and I cannot explain it. PS I have a Bachelor of Science (Honours) degree - hence the original scepticism.

Paddy Riley

not at all