Niclas Nordström, a self-employed truck driver, found himself stranded in snow for 20 hours on Sweden’s E22 motorway, enduring the worst weather conditions of his 30-year career, as he recounted to The Local.
Operating his own road freight business since the 1990s, Nordström assumed that traffic would have been cleared when he hit the E22. However, he and around 1,000 others became stuck near Linderöd around 1:45 PM on Wednesday.
“The cause of the traffic jam had occurred much earlier, so I mistakenly thought the police had already facilitated diversions,” the 58-year-old explained to The Local. “I didn’t think it through adequately. A bit more quick thinking might have prevented this chaos and the extensive queues.”
The blizzard left approximately 1,000 vehicles trapped on the E22 between Hörby and Kristianstad, prompting the Armed Forces to assist stranded individuals with evacuations and provide food and water.
Despite his truck being equipped only with a day cab, meaning no bed, Nordström managed to sleep upright at the wheel—a situation he found better than those stuck in passenger vehicles. However, as he was traveling to Lund in Skåne on his way home to Olofström in Blekinge county, he had no food or medication and had to depend on assistance from others.
“I met various people there, including a Dutch couple who helped me the next day. I mentioned I was very hungry, and they kindly offered me coffee and a sandwich,” he shared.
Throughout the night, Nordström monitored the Swedish Transport Administration’s website for updates on the road opening, but the timeline kept getting pushed back—from 8 PM to midnight, then 2 AM, and finally 2 PM the next day.
Ultimately, around 10 AM, the Dutchman received aid from a local farmer who cleared a three-meter-wide path in the snow. They navigated out of the motorway by driving against the flow of traffic, flashing their lights until they reached a passable road. “If it weren’t for our initiative, we’d still be there,” he remarked.
Having mainly driven in the southern counties of Skåne and Blekinge, Nordström had never experienced such severe snow conditions. “In my 30 years of driving, I’ve never encountered anything like this. The last time it was this bad in Skåne was in 1979 when everything was buried under snow.”
