You’re not hallucinating. There is in fact a pickup truck driving backward around Wichita
A Wichita man was driving on west-bound Kellogg on Friday evening when he saw something that made his head hurt.
In the next lane over, driving at the 60 mph speed limit, was a 1998 blue GMC Sierra truck. Except this truck was driving backward, and there didn’t appear to be anyone behind the wheel.
“At first I thought it was being towed,” said the man, who asked not to be identified. “Then I was like, ‘This guy’s driving in reverse.’”
He whipped out his phone and caught video of the mind-bending moment, later posting it to Facebook, where it got hundreds of views and more than 2,000 shares.
As it turns out, he caught video of one of Wichita’s most unusual vehicles, one that’s lately been causing drivers all over town to wonder if they’re hallucinating.
When he got closer, he realized what he was really looking at.
The owner of the truck, who says he’s not quite ready to talk about his creation with the media, appears to have customized the vehicle by installing the body onto the truck’s chassis backwards, making it look as though it’s driving in reverse. The steering wheel, the gas pedal and the driver actually face out the back window, looking out over the truck bed.
Other car enthusiasts around the country have done the same thing to their trucks, and the results are often featured on YouTube.
Among the hundreds of comments on the post were other locals saying they’d seen the truck around town. One person said she’d recently spotted the truck on West Street.
Many called the truck “a marvel” and “impressive” and said they’d seen it at local car shows and gatherings.
Others wondered if the vehicle was legal.
“I have a legit question,” one person said. “How many times has he been pulled over?”
Chad Ditch, a Wichita Police Department spokesman, said he wasn’t aware of any city ordinances that would prohibit the owner from altering and operating the truck but suggested reaching out to the Kansas Highway Patrol.
That department’s spokesman is still looking into it.
This story was originally published March 28, 2022 at 2:50 PM.
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