The self-employed truck driver, Niclas Nordström, was stranded on Sweden’s E22 motorway for an exhausting 20 hours due to severe snow on Wednesday and Thursday. He described the weather conditions as the worst he has faced in his 30-year trucking career.
Nordström, who has been operating his own road freight business since the 1990s, mistakenly believed that the traffic on the E22 would be cleared by the time he took the route on Wednesday. He, along with around 1,000 other drivers, found himself stuck near Linderöd around 1:45 PM.
“The cause of the traffic jam had occurred much earlier, so I assumed the police would have already redirected vehicles onto alternative routes,” the 58-year-old said. “I really didn’t think it through. With a bit more quick thinking, this could have been avoided and the long queues wouldn’t have formed.”
As a blizzard wreaked havoc across the country, up to 1,000 vehicles were left stranded on the E22 between Hörby and Kristianstad. The Armed Forces were called in to assist people by evacuating stranded motorists and providing food and water to those in need.
Nordström’s truck, equipped only with a day cab, lacked a sleeping area, forcing him to sleep upright in his seat. However, he considered himself better off than those in smaller vehicles. On his way to Lund in Skåne and then home to Olofström in Blekinge county, he had no food or medicine and had to rely on the kindness of others.
“I met a couple from Holland who helped me out the next day. I mentioned to them that I was very hungry, and they invited me in for coffee and a sandwich,” he said. Throughout the night, Nordström kept checking the Swedish Transport Administration’s website for information about when the road would reopen.
“The reopening times kept getting pushed back. Initial estimates were at 8 PM, then midnight, followed by 2 AM, and finally 2 PM the next day,” he recounted. Ultimately, around 10 AM, he received assistance from a local farmer who created a three-meter-wide path through the snow, allowing both Nordström and the Dutchman to leave the motorway. They drove down the opposite lane with their hazard lights on until they reached a clear route.
“We both took that path, driving against the traffic, but it was safe since there was no other traffic. If it weren’t for our initiative, we could still be stuck there,” he explained. Having primarily driven in the southern counties of Skåne and Blekinge, Nordström stated that he had never experienced snow conditions like those he encountered on Wednesday. “I’ve been driving for 30 years, and I’ve never faced anything like this. The last time Skåne experienced such severe weather was in 1979.”
