John Obinna Ozor

THE ODDER STORY / THE BRIDGE THAT WASN’T THERE

“Everything was gone!”

Around 99.9 percent of all working days pass by as usual. But then comes that day when you make one wrong turn and all of a sudden the ground beneath you disappears.

ON AUGUST 18, 2021, John Obinna Ozor took the Koppslahyttan exit just outside Borlänge as he always does when delivering It was 3 AM and raining. Visibility was poor, but he could see that there was water everywhere. After three days of heavy rainfall the area didn’t look the same. At all.

He hadn’t driven 20 meters before the road suddenly disappeared. The little bridge was gone! He stamped on the brake pedal and pulled the handbrake, but it was too late. His blue Volkswagen Caddy dropped four meters.

“Everything was gone. The van fell head first down the hillside now turned into a rushing stream of water,” says John.

He has no idea how many times the van turned over and over. It literally ‘went with the flow’ and he couldn’t even open the door. As luck would have it, one of the windows was open slightly. ”I had no idea how I would get out. But as the van gradually filled with water, I was finally able to kick the door open and escape.”

THE WATER WAS flowing fast. John couldn’t even work out how deep the water was, so he turned on the van’s hazard lights and clambered up onto the roof. His cell phone had been washed away, so there was nothing to do but hope for the best.

“I had to wait for two hours. The timber transports that passed by didn’t see me. But finally, a guy, probably on his way to work, saw the lights and pulled over, so I shouted up to him.”

When the police arrived, they spent 30 minutes trying to reach John. Without success. They had to get hold of a boat. A policeman with a rope tied around his waist finally managed to bring the frozen driver back to “dry” land, where he was put in an ambulance to warm up.

It took several days to recover the van. JOHN MADE IT through without any serious physical injuries.

“I talked to my manager and he gave me a number to call if I needed more support, but I felt that I could handle it on my own.”

However, every time John passes the scene of the accident, it still hits him: “What if I hadn’t made it?” But he says that he doesn’t let the thought linger.

“I need to get on with my life. I tell myself a lot of positive things. Sometimes, I wonder why I wasn’t able to react faster and turn. But there was no way I could have.”

ROBERT LÅNGSTRÖM AND MIKAEL MORIN

Make room for a lie-in

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