The self-employed truck driver Niclas Nordström spent an exhausting 20 hours stuck in snow on Sweden’s E22 motorway, experiencing, as he described to The Local, the worst weather of his 30-year driving career.
Nordström, who has operated his own freight business since the 1990s, realized he had made an error in judgment when he took the E22 on Wednesday. Along with around 1,000 other drivers, he found himself halted near Linderöd at approximately 1:45 PM. “I thought the traffic would have been cleared by the police and rerouted,” the 58-year-old shared. “I didn’t think things through. If there had been quicker thinking, this wouldn’t have led to such long delays.”
As a blizzard hit, up to 1,000 vehicles became stranded on the E22 between Hörby and Kristianstad. The Armed Forces were called in to assist stranded motorists and provided food and water to those caught in the situation.
Nordström’s truck, equipped with only a day cab, lacked a bed, forcing him to try and sleep sitting up at the wheel. However, he acknowledged that his situation was still better than those in smaller passenger vehicles. On his way to Lund in Skåne and then back to Olofström in Blekinge, he found himself without food or medicine in the truck, depending on the generosity of others for assistance.
During his ordeal, he met a couple from Holland who offered him coffee and a sandwich the next day when he expressed his hunger. He spent the night checking the Swedish Transport Administration’s website for updates on when the road would reopen, but the estimated opening times kept getting pushed back.
Finally, around 10 AM, the Dutch couple received help from a local farmer who created a three-meter-wide passage through the snow. Together, they managed to escape the motorway by driving against traffic for safety, using their warning lights until they reached a passable road.
Nordström, who typically drives throughout Skåne and Blekinge, had never faced conditions as severe as those he encountered that day. “I’ve never experienced anything like this in 30 years of driving. The last time Skåne saw weather this bad was in 1979, when it was completely snowed in,” he added.
