Yesterday a man driving a RV learned the hard way that it pays to take the wind seriously when driving in Iceland. Strong winds can easily pose serious hazards to motorists, especially around steep mountain hills and cliffs where extremely strong gusts can form. Strong enough to blow cars right off the road.
Read more: Waterfall running upside down, yes it can get quite windy in Iceland
Stretches of the ring-road in South Iceland and several areas in West Iceland, including the southern coast of Snæfellsnes peninsula and the ring road by the mountain Hafnarfjall are particularly dangerous, especially to tour buses, RVs or cars pulling caravans. But yesterday we were reminded that one of the most dangerous spots is actually within the city limits of Reykjavík: The south slopes of the mountain Esja has one of the windiest stretches of the ring road. In fact the road is frequently closed as it becomes impassable due to wind.
As this cell phone video shot by a local girl shows there is every reason to take the wind very seriously! The video shows where the wind starts shaking the RV back and forth, then finally blowing it right off the road. Then, after it was blown off the road it rolls over once down the side of the road towards the sea, where it finally stops.
In an interview with the local news site visir.is Sesselja Anna Óskarsdóttir said she was driving with her father and sister toward Reykjavík:
“I was on my way to practice with my dad and sister when we saw the car swinging back and forth. So, I took up my phone and started filming.”
In the video we can hear the father saying the driver in front of them should pull over “What sort of god damned nonsense is this!? He’s going to get blown off the road.” He then explains to the girls that the stretch of road they are just about to enter is particularly bad, seeing extremely strong wind gusts: “Right here, by the cliff”. When the car is about to be blown off the girls start screaming while their father says rather calmly: “I told you so!”
Read more: Six American travellers rescued after their RV “blown to smithereens” during the weekend’s storm
Sesselja Anna told visir.is that they had not been all that surprised by the winds, but seeing the car blown right off the road was a shock:
“We live on Kjalarnes, and we drive this road regularly, so we know full well that it can get quite windy there. But we were still pretty shocked to see the car blown off the road.”
Sesselja, her father and sister stopped to help the driver of the RV, but found that he was not seriously injured. “All I could see was a small scratch on his head. He was travelling with two others, but they were driving in a different car.” After having assured themselves that the man was ok and that the ambulance was on its way. The man’s travel companions who were driving in the second car then waited for him until the ambulance arrived.
Yesterday a man driving a RV learned the hard way that it pays to take the wind seriously when driving in Iceland. Strong winds can easily pose serious hazards to motorists, especially around steep mountain hills and cliffs where extremely strong gusts can form. Strong enough to blow cars right off the road.
Read more: Waterfall running upside down, yes it can get quite windy in Iceland
Stretches of the ring-road in South Iceland and several areas in West Iceland, including the southern coast of Snæfellsnes peninsula and the ring road by the mountain Hafnarfjall are particularly dangerous, especially to tour buses, RVs or cars pulling caravans. But yesterday we were reminded that one of the most dangerous spots is actually within the city limits of Reykjavík: The south slopes of the mountain Esja has one of the windiest stretches of the ring road. In fact the road is frequently closed as it becomes impassable due to wind.
As this cell phone video shot by a local girl shows there is every reason to take the wind very seriously! The video shows where the wind starts shaking the RV back and forth, then finally blowing it right off the road. Then, after it was blown off the road it rolls over once down the side of the road towards the sea, where it finally stops.
In an interview with the local news site visir.is Sesselja Anna Óskarsdóttir said she was driving with her father and sister toward Reykjavík:
“I was on my way to practice with my dad and sister when we saw the car swinging back and forth. So, I took up my phone and started filming.”
In the video we can hear the father saying the driver in front of them should pull over “What sort of god damned nonsense is this!? He’s going to get blown off the road.” He then explains to the girls that the stretch of road they are just about to enter is particularly bad, seeing extremely strong wind gusts: “Right here, by the cliff”. When the car is about to be blown off the girls start screaming while their father says rather calmly: “I told you so!”
Read more: Six American travellers rescued after their RV “blown to smithereens” during the weekend’s storm
Sesselja Anna told visir.is that they had not been all that surprised by the winds, but seeing the car blown right off the road was a shock:
“We live on Kjalarnes, and we drive this road regularly, so we know full well that it can get quite windy there. But we were still pretty shocked to see the car blown off the road.”
Sesselja, her father and sister stopped to help the driver of the RV, but found that he was not seriously injured. “All I could see was a small scratch on his head. He was travelling with two others, but they were driving in a different car.” After having assured themselves that the man was ok and that the ambulance was on its way. The man’s travel companions who were driving in the second car then waited for him until the ambulance arrived.
