The Hairy Hands is a ghost story/legend that built up around a stretch of road on a remote area of Dartmoor in the English county of Devon, which was purported to have seen an unusually high number of motor vehicle accidents during the early 20th century.
Story[]
Since around 1910, drivers and cyclists have reported suffering unusual accidents between Postbridge and Two Bridges. In many cases, the victims reported that their vehicle had jolted or swerved violently and steered off the side of the road, as if something had taken hold of the wheels and wrenched it out of their control. could be considered a demon or a restless spirit, perhaps of a person who died in an accident on the stretch of road (as some urban legends have suggested) - though given the rich and diverse folklore of the United Kingdom "Hairy Hands" could well be a modern incarnation of infamous goblins such as Will O' The Wisp, who often delighted in troubling travellers.
"Hairy Hands" could also, arguably, be related to the folkloric beings known as Gremlins - who were often blamed for mechanical failures in aircraft: "Hairy Hands" can be seen as a variation of this myth, with automobiles replacing aircraft.
Like many legends the "Hairy Hands" may also have been a way for people to try and explain why the stretch of road had so many seemingly unexplained accidents - with the idea of a malevolent external force being common in such scenarios, where easy answers are not to be found and the imagination left to wander.
Nevertheless the "Hairy Hands" remains an infamous spectre of British folklore and one of relatively few that has seemed to "evolved" to life in the 21st century by attacking cars, much as many malicious fay in times of old were seen to attack riders of horseback and cause them to either fall off the horse or be trampled by the startled animal.