STEINKJER (VG) What started as a completely normal Saturday evening ended in drama. They ran when they heard cries for help.
Ole Marius Thun (29) was standing outside the King’s Corner pub in Steinkjer late on Saturday evening. He has worked there as a bartender for around two years, and says that it was an evening like any other evening. Before it wasn’t.
– I was standing outside and looking down another street when I heard a bang. I turned around, and saw the van continue down the pavement, before it got out into the road at the end of the intersection, says Thun.
He says he couldn’t quite make sense of what he saw, as the van was so out of place on the pavement. Then he saw someone lying on the ground.
It was The daily newspaper which first featured the story of the two bar staff first.
A man is dead and two people are slightly injured after the white van drove into a group of people in the center of Steinkjer on Sunday night.
The driver fled the scene, but was apprehended a short time later a few kilometers away. The police have charged the man in his thirties with negligent homicide. He has pleaded guilty to the charge.
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The man in his 30s placed stones and other heavy objects on the train tracks outside Steinkjer.
– Instinctively
Inside the door of King’s Corner is a classic pub interior. Chairs upholstered in leather and dark wood characterize the clubhouse with multi-coloured glass in the windows.
Deputy general manager Martin Stornes Kvam (26) was standing inside when Thun opened the door.
– He said “I think someone has been hit”, says Kvam.
The two start walking across the road towards where a group of people are standing, to find out what has happened.
– Then I heard someone shouting for help, and then I just had to run, says Kvam. It was instinctive, he elaborates.
Kvam says that he quickly realized it was serious.
For both him and Thun, old first aid training reawakened, and Kvam says that there was already someone working with the man on the ground when they arrived, and that he assisted with what he could. At the same time, Thun asked if anyone had called the emergency phone. They had them.
– I didn’t have time to think that much. You do what you can when someone needs help, says Kvam.
Embossed
On Sunday, the employees in King’s Corner are wearing mourning bands over their white shirts.
On the other side of the street, around 100 people are standing in a silent gathering at the site of the fatal collision. Earlier Sunday, there was an open church.
Both Thun and Kvam have lived in Steinkjer all their lives, and say that the atmosphere in the town is characterized by what has happened.
Despite what they experienced on the night of Sunday, they agree that it is nice to come to work.
– There are special circumstances, and it is good to be here if someone needs someone to talk to, says Thun.
