The self-employed truck driver, Niclas Nordström, found himself stranded by snow on Sweden’s E22 motorway for 20 hours on Wednesday and Thursday, calling the conditions the worst in his 30-year career.
Nordström, who began his own road freight business in the 1990s, mistakenly thought the blocked traffic would be cleared when he took the E22 on Wednesday. Along with around 1,000 other drivers, he realized his error around 1:45 PM near Linderöd when traffic came to a standstill.
“The reason for the jam occurred long before I arrived, so I assumed the police had already stopped traffic and redirected it,” the 58-year-old shared. “I didn’t think it through enough; if there had been a bit more quick thinking, this wouldn’t have happened, and the queues wouldn’t have been so long.”
Up to 1,000 vehicles were trapped on the E22 between Hörby and Kristianstad as a blizzard struck, prompting the Armed Forces to be dispatched to assist with evacuations and provide food and water to those still stranded.
Nordström’s truck featured only a day cab without a bed, forcing him to sleep upright while still having an advantage over passengers in cars. On his way to Lund in Skåne, and then home to Olofström in Blekinge county, he had no food or medication, relying on the kindness of others.
He met a Dutch couple who helped him out the next day. “I told them I was really hungry, and they invited me in for coffee and a sandwich,” he recounted. He spent the night checking the Swedish Transport Administration’s website for updates on when the road would reopen.
Each time he checked, the opening time kept getting pushed back—from 8 PM to midnight, then to 2 AM, and finally to 2 PM the next day. Eventually, around 10 AM, a local farmer helped him and a Dutch man clear a three-meter-wide passage through the snow, allowing them to leave the motorway.
“We both drove out through the gap against the traffic, but since there were no other vehicles around, it wasn’t risky,” he explained. “If we hadn’t taken the initiative, we might still be stuck there.” Throughout his 30 years of driving mainly in Skåne and Blekinge, Nordström had never experienced weather conditions like those on Wednesday. “It’s been since the winter of 1979 or so that Skåne faced such snowy conditions,” he remarked.
