Väsby Hockey will return from Norrland.
Then the bus hits a raft of oncoming trucks.
– It was a real hit, says trainer Jussi Salo.
Väsby Hockey was on the ‘North Country Tour’ and played Alletta matches against Kiruna and Boden. Yesterday (Sunday) at 18:00 the journey home started – but they didn’t get home until 08:00 this morning.
The incident occurred somewhere between Lulea and Betio. The players and coaches heard a huge commotion and at first did not understand what had happened.
– We thought we had run over an animal, says trainer Jussi Salo.
However, it was found that the explosion came from a floe of ice that was launched from an oncoming truck and hit the bus’s windshield.
“really lucky”
Pictures show how the entire windshield was shattered.
1 of 2Photo: Mats Tjernström
– We were really lucky to have the windshield installed. Some fragments of glass hit the bus, so it was about to hit the bus, and then the situation was even more dangerous.
How did you react when that happened?
– It was a real commotion and at first I was a little scared and thought: “What’s going on?”. But it went well. By no means personal injuries, says Salo.
Travel time is 14 hours
He and the players had to wait in the forest for 1.5 hours for a new bus.
– But there was very little ventilation and it got very foggy inside the bus, so we had to drive very, very slowly all the way to Skellefteå. There we changed buses again and our driver drove us to Umeå. There we changed buses again before heading home, says Salo.
The total travel time was 14 hours.
– But our next game is on Saturday at home against Stromsbro, so we have time to rest…