The self-employed truck driver Niclas Nordström experienced a 20-hour ordeal trapped by snow on Sweden’s E22 motorway, describing it as the worst weather he has faced in his 30-year career.
Since the 1990s, Nordström has operated his own road freight business. He regrettably assumed that the traffic on the E22 would be cleared when he set out on Wednesday. Around 1,000 drivers faced a similar fate when they were halted near Linderöd around 1:45 PM.
“I thought the police would have stopped and redirected traffic ages ago,” the 58-year-old shared. “Looking back, I should have thought it through more. If there had been quicker actions taken, the long queues could have been avoided.”
A blizzard stranded up to 1,000 vehicles on the E22 between Hörby and Kristianstad. The Armed Forces were called in to assist with evacuations and distribute food and water to those stuck.
Equipped with just a day cab, which lacks a sleeping area, Nordström had to sleep upright at the wheel. Fortunately, he was better off than those in passenger vehicles. On his journey to Lund in Skåne before returning to Olofström in Blekinge county, he found himself without food or medicine and had to rely on others for assistance.
“I met some people from Holland who were very kind. Feeling extremely hungry, they invited me for coffee and a sandwich,” he recounted. While waiting, he constantly checked the Swedish Transport Administration’s website for updates on when the road would reopen.
Frustratingly, the reopening times kept getting delayed—first set for 8 PM, then midnight, then 2 AM, and finally 2 PM the next day. Eventually, around 10 AM, a local farmer helped them by clearing a three-meter-wide path in the snow, allowing Nordström and the Dutchman to escape the motorway.
“We drove out against the traffic in a sense, but there was no danger as there was no oncoming traffic. If we hadn’t taken the initiative, we would still be stuck there,” he noted. Nordström, who mainly operates in southern Sweden, confirmed he had never encountered snow conditions as severe as those he faced that day. “I’ve driven for 30 years, and I’ve never experienced anything like this. It hasn’t snowed this heavily in Skåne since 1979, when the region was completely paralyzed by snow.”
