In a reminder that off-road driving is never a good idea while travelling in Iceland a traveller who had taken a short off-roading adventure on a beach in a remote fjord in East Iceland ended up with a flooded rental car, steep fines for criminal off-roading and a trip to the police station.
Did everything wrong
According to a statement from the Police in East Iceland a foreign traveller requested police assistance after he had gotten his rental car stuck in the beach in Viðfjörður fjord. Viðfjörður is a remote fjord, only accessible by sea or by a single gravel road. The traveller had driven off-road to get to the beach where he had been driving when the car got stuck. After the car got stuck the tide came in and flooded the vehicle which was inoperable when Police from the town of Eskifjörður arrived at the scene.
In addition to driving off-road in the beach, the traveller had driven off-road on grown land, causing significant damage to vegetation. Police requested assistance from members of the ICE-SAR company Gerpir in the town of Neskaupsstaður to get the car out of the sea.
The traveller was taken to the police station in Eskifjörður where he gave a statement and was fined for criminal off-road driving. He will also be forced to pay the cost of towing the vehicle out of the water. Since flood damage is never covered by car-rental insurance the traveller is also faced with a steep bill from the car rental for the damages he caused to the vehicle.
In a reminder that off-road driving is never a good idea while travelling in Iceland a traveller who had taken a short off-roading adventure on a beach in a remote fjord in East Iceland ended up with a flooded rental car, steep fines for criminal off-roading and a trip to the police station.
Did everything wrong
According to a statement from the Police in East Iceland a foreign traveller requested police assistance after he had gotten his rental car stuck in the beach in Viðfjörður fjord. Viðfjörður is a remote fjord, only accessible by sea or by a single gravel road. The traveller had driven off-road to get to the beach where he had been driving when the car got stuck. After the car got stuck the tide came in and flooded the vehicle which was inoperable when Police from the town of Eskifjörður arrived at the scene.
In addition to driving off-road in the beach, the traveller had driven off-road on grown land, causing significant damage to vegetation. Police requested assistance from members of the ICE-SAR company Gerpir in the town of Neskaupsstaður to get the car out of the sea.
The traveller was taken to the police station in Eskifjörður where he gave a statement and was fined for criminal off-road driving. He will also be forced to pay the cost of towing the vehicle out of the water. Since flood damage is never covered by car-rental insurance the traveller is also faced with a steep bill from the car rental for the damages he caused to the vehicle.
