Saturday 10 December 2011

Bravo, 1983: A miracle! Agnetha managed to get out of this bus alive!

It happened on October 2 at 7:35 PM on a rainy street in Urkelljunga between Helsingborg and Stockholm. Agnetha was on her way home from her promotional tour through Europe. With her in the luxurious touringcar were her tour manager and advisor Hans Blomgren, her friend, the journalist Britta Akesson and two drivers who took turns driving the vehicle during the long journey through Europe.
Agnetha had just got up from her seat at the right side of the bus to stretch her legs in the sleeping department in the back of the touringcar.
All of a sudden a red light popped up in the dark on the roadside. The driver didn't know that the Urkelljunga road construction authorities had put up temporary traffic lights in this track section due to road works.
He hit te brakes for all he was worth. The back wheels came into a slide in an oil spill. The touringcar tossed around wildly and hit the crash barrier with its left wheels. This caused such an instant standstill that the heavy vehicle turned over on its right side.
The impact took place with such force that the touringcar was deformed completely. The windows were ruptured with a deafening rattle.
Agnetha, who was just on her way to the backside of the touringcar, and her companions were catapulted to the floor, the complete inventory was hurled through the interior and partly landed on the street.
The bus accident triggered a major alarm at the police office in Malmö. Six ambulances hurried to the crash scene with emergency lights and howling sirens. In the dark and on the wet asphalt an eerie scene unfolded; first aid people came rushing in from all directions. They feared the worst. They rescued the five passengers through the broken front window. They were rushed to the Ängelholm Hospital immediately where they were examined thoroughly and had to stay until the next morning.
Agnetha's friend Britta had broken her right leg. Although no bone fractures were established with Agnetha, she did find herself with a mild concussion and a ricked neck. To calm down the cervical vertebra she got a broad neck brace. Apart from that, all five of them had slash wounds and abrasive burns.
Even when Agnetha and the others were still in the hospital, the rumours started spreading. It was claimed that Agnetha was expecting a baby - which would have been the reason for the surprising engagement with her former bodyguard Torbjörn Brander - that she lost due to the accident. This was denied with emphasis by Agnetha: "The pregnancy rumour came about because I was seen shopping in a children's store in London. But there were no baby clothes in these packages, only things for my children Linda (10) and Christian (5)."
Actually it was planned that Agnetha would be transported from the hospital to her house in Lidingö near Stockholm by a private plane on the day after the accident. But she opposed to this plan vigorously: although she was shaken up by the bus accident she did not want to get on a plane.
In great haste, a Chevrolet was rented and Agnetha and her advisor Hans Blomgren were smuggled out of the hospital through the back door. At 8:00 PM she reached her house in Jupitervägen in Lidingö. Several guardsmen were posted outside so that Agnetha could recover from the shock in peace and quiet.
When it comes to travelling, the ABBA singer is really pursued by bad luck. She has a panic fear of flying ever since she found herself in a heavy tornado with a small private plane on the flight from New York to Boston during the ABBA tour in the US.
On the ground, the tornado had caused a number of deaths and casualties. Up in the clouds the ABBA plane was shaken up in such a way that Agnetha had a nervous breakdown on board and woke up the next day at the hotel with a 40 degree temperature.
Even on the day before the bus accident in Urkelljunga, Agnetha had a small accident: during a performance in London she fell down from the stage and bruised her elbow.
At the moment, Agnetha can only be comforted by her fiancee Torbjörn by telephone. Until November he is stationed as a policeman with the Swedish UN troops in Larnaca on Cyprus. That's why he calls his Agnetha every day on the telephone, the same telephone that he used two months ago for a three-hour conversation with her in New York, when they decided to get engaged...

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