Mass accidents in snowy weather – 120 people to hospital

Around 120 people were taken to hospital after two major crashes involving over 100 vehicles in the snowy chaos on E4 and E18. It was like a dystopian film scene, says police spokesperson Stefan Larsson about one of the major crashes.

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Mass accidents in snowy weather – 120 people to hospital
Photo: Utryckning Uppsala/TT

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The pressure on healthcare was extremely high after Saturday's two major accidents.

Read more: Traffic flowing now in both directions

After the incident in the Enköping area, 106 people have been transported to healthcare for assessment, says Mikael Köhler, health and healthcare director in Region Uppsala.

Several people were seriously injured. Köhler has no details about the injury situation, but says that two people are admitted to the intensive care unit. Their condition is stable.

In another accident, north of Uppsala, 13 people were taken to Akademiska Hospital in Uppsala with minor injuries, said Ulla Olsson Strömberg, chief physician on duty, to SVT News Uppsala earlier in the day.

Most patients were taken to Akademiska Hospital or Enköping Hospital. Even the hospital in Västerås received patients, according to Region Västmanland.

In addition, hospitals in Region Stockholm received four affected, according to P4 Stockholm.

By 9 pm, a majority of the injured had been able to leave the hospitals in Region Uppsala, according to a press release.

Nearly 100 vehicles

Just before 12 pm on Saturday, an alarm came in about a large number of vehicles being involved in an accident on E18 at Grillby between Enköping and Bålsta. The police have flown drones over the accident site and count 95 involved vehicles.

It was a lot of vehicles standing all over the place. I've never seen anything like it in real life, says Stefan Larsson about the drone images from the accident site.

The road section is closed. At the earliest, it is expected to open at midnight in the direction of Västerås, according to the Swedish Transport Administration.

In the accident north of Uppsala at 10 am, about ten vehicles crashed on E4.

"A big pile"

According to the police, both passenger cars and trucks were involved in the mass collision on E18.

When it comes to a stop on the motorway and there's a lot of traffic coming at high speed and not getting their vehicles to stop, it becomes a kind of ketchup effect. People drive into each other and it becomes a big pile before you get all the cars to stop, says Stefan Larsson.

He urged motorists stuck in the queues after the accident on E18 to be patient.

A large number of these vehicles will need to be towed. It's both trucks and passenger cars, so it's going to be very, very strained and difficult.

Another accident also occurred at Villingsberg in the Karlskoga area, where two drivers collided during a traffic jam on E18. One person has been taken to hospital with unclear injuries.

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By TTEnglish edition by Sweden Herald, adapted for local and international readers

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