At the same time that the bus driver was stuck in the wreckage, he was talking to his colleague. Then the call was cut off.
On Monday, a construction machine and a bus crashed on the E8 in Tromsø.
The powerful impact left the bus driver trapped.
Bernt Windstad, who is one of the owners of the bus, says that he was called by the driver.
– He started talking about the damage to the bus. It wasn’t important at all. The people who were involved in the accident were the important thing, says Windstad to VG.
During the conversation, Windstad must have heard other people in the background. Over the phone, he wanted to try to get them to help, but it was difficult, says Windstad.
– At first they couldn’t get into the bus, and the driver was completely stuck. Not long after, the conversation was interrupted. At the time, I didn’t know how serious it was.
Also The Lofoten post office has mentioned the matter.
Still in hospital
Two men were involved in the accident, and there were no passengers on board the bus.
The police told VG on Monday that the accident happened at an intersection, and that one vehicle was on the E8, and that the other was entering the E8 from a side road.
Operations manager Roy Tore Meyer in the Troms police district says that one driver was injured and taken to hospital, while the other was taken to hospital for a check-up.
Windstad says on Wednesday afternoon that the driver of the bus is still in hospital.
– We continue to be in close dialogue with him to find out what he needs from us. For now, he is still in the hospital, so we will meet when he comes out. You should not make more drama out of this than what the person himself wants. The aim is to get him back into operation as soon as he feels he is ready, says Windstad.
– Surprisingly calm
Windstad says that it didn’t all sound very dramatic when he talked to the driver over the phone.
– He was surprisingly calm, and said he had been involved in a traffic accident. That could happen, I thought, and it didn’t sound so dramatic.
He says that he is happy that it looks like both drivers escaped with minor injuries.
– The driver was lucky, and thank God for that.
Windstad points out that some media used images of the bus with a visible logo soon after the incident, which he is not thrilled about.
– For the company’s part, it has nothing to say. The next of kin, on the other hand, were not supposed to know about the accident through the media. I was quite pissed about that, says Windstad.
