Faded Faces on the 405: A Ghost Story

by Cristi Alvarez

It always seems to be a fog. Every morning, the same routine - waking up, getting dressed, getting a cup of coffee and a quick bite to eat all in a hurry to rush to work before 8am. I never seem to remember my commute to work because it's all a blur and I'm still half asleep most of the time. In my brief time here in California, I have learned that traffic in Los Angeles can be a fickle whore; one minute she's loose and free but then the next, she's tight and won't budge an inch.

One morning not too long ago, I was stopped in traffic along the 405 Freeway headed towards Santa Monica. Usually, traffic on the 405 is pretty slow and this morning was no different. I was still in my typical half asleep state, somewhat dazed and fighting to keep my eyes open and on the road. Something caught my eye and so I looked to my right at the concrete sound wall that separates the highway from the neighborhood. There was something different about this sound wall, something unsettling. You see, it appeared to have various portraits strewn across it’s somber grey façade. What was most unusual, however, was that there were no faces only shadows of what seemed to be at one time a very lovely mural. I drove past and continued on with my day. The rest of the day at work was the usual repeat of the day before and the day before that.

The next morning, I was stuck in traffic again and slowly inched towards the same mural, this time I had my camera with me and snapped a photo of it. I began to wonder why the faces were no longer there and what they looked like. I got to work after my long drive in and sat at my desk. I turned on my computer and tried looking up the history of the mural. I wanted to know what it looked like and why it was no longer there. I found nothing. There have been a bunch of murals painted along Los Angeles highways, but there was nothing documented on this particular stretch of the highway, which only gave way to more curiosity on the subject.

While browsing sites on the 405 I came upon a site which listed automobile fatalities on each particular highway in Los Angeles. I browsed the 405 Freeway and noticed all the fatalities and their locations. It seemed that throughout the years, many accidents had occurred on this very stretch with the mural, in point of fact right by the Manchester exit. The idea passed my mind briefly too ridiculous to even consider, but I thought about it anyways, "Could this be a Bermuda Triangle type of coincidence?" Why would all these traffic fatalities occur in this particular spot? There were no obstructions, no reasons for accidents to occur there. This made me even more curious.

The next morning I took more snapshots of the mural and pieced them together in a panorama type of shot. I was able to count all the portraits on the wall this time...All 28 of them. I couldn't imagine all of the work the artist had to do, to paint 28 faces on a large scale. It seemed arduous to say the least. My morbid curiousity got the best of me again and I went back to that Los Angeles Traffic Fatalities website, this time to count how many people had died on that stretch of the road. I thought perhaps it may have been a tribute to the dead. Lo and behold, there were 28 people killed at the 405 Manchester exit. "This could all just be a bizarre coincidence," I thought.

I continued to scrutinize the list more and more and noticed there was a family of three that was killed by a drunk driver. I looked at the photograph and saw a family of three. I started matching up sexes with how many sexes were on the wall, which was difficult. They all matched up!

The strangest coincidence of all was that the latest fatality had been updated just last week. A woman: 20 years of age was killed speeding at 2:11 am.

I continued to convince myself, "There is no way this could be a tribute portrait if a young girl was just killed last week...This mural has been there for quite some time. You can plainly see...It's old. It's worn off."

I shook my head and decided to stop investigating the mural. It was an old mural with no past and that was that. I continued to work and forget about the whole thing.

One morning months later, I was stuck in some unimaginable traffic. This was no ordinary morning traffic, there must have been a stalled car or an accident to hold everyone up from getting to work on time. I was almost at work and neared the Manchester exit slowly, but just I was approaching it, I saw the red flashing lights of the LAFD and the Highway Patrol on the left lane. Cars on the left lane were slowly trying to shift towards the right-hand side of the road to squeeze by a massive car accident. There were three cars involved. One was a small white car which was completely upside down. The other was a truck which was broadsided and the other vehicle was a motorcycle. Like most motorists, I was curious to see what had happened...all I could see was the twisted metal and the emergency vehicles coming to aide the injured. I also noticed, a large portion of the highway was taped off. I tried to look towards my right at the mural, but I had already passed it.

The next morning, the accident and the possible connection to the mural was still stuck in my head. I was inching by in traffic on the 405 again, and this time I was adamant about counting the number of faded shadow portraits on the mural.

"1, 2, 3.....12....13....14....25...26...27..28...29...30...31."

31? This time I had counted 31 people. How could this be? I counted 28 last time when I had taken a photo of the mural. I went back to that photo and re-counted and made sure I had taken a picture of the entire thing, not missing any extra portrait. Again, there was a total of 28 shadow portraits. I was right!

This was making me crazy....So I was determined to count again, which I did and again, I counted 31 portraits. I was so confused.

The next morning, I was determined to find my error, so I took my camera and took various photos of the mural while stuck in the unforgivable traffic.I went to work and uploaded the photos, scrutinizing them and counting them. Yes, there were 31 now. How?

I did some research on the accident that had occurred a few days prior and what I had found was that there were three fatalities that day. The driver of the white car which flipped over was killed on her way as she was transported to the hospital. The motorcyclist died as a result of being ejected from his bike. The driver in the truck that was broadsided was killed instantly.

This couldn't be a coincidence anymore. There was something to this stretch of road that is inexplicable. People die there and their shadows form on the mural. They're shadows are frozen there permanently, discreetly watching motorists drive by.

To this day, I make a conscious decision not to drive by this stretch of road. Maybe I'm just very superstitious or maybe I am just plain scared to die...but I don't want to take my chances. I always get off on the exit before the ghost mural and head to work safely.

I just don't want to be a ghost on the 405 freeway...