- A story doesn’t get much more Scandinavian than this.
Every now and then, you come across a story that perfectly fits the place where it happens. We’re talking about stuff like the Canadian government warning people to not let moose lick their cars or sausage vending machines taking over Germany.
We can now file another story in this category. It’d be hard to think about a series of events that scream “NORWAY!” more than this.
Recently, a Tesla driver’s mistake sent his car plummeting into a fjord in Norway’s capital of Oslo. Without help, the vehicle’s driver and passenger would’ve surely quickly succumbed to the icy waters.
Fortunately, help was at hand. But nobody could’ve expected the form it would take.
Nicholay Nordahl was captaining a nearby sauna boat when he witnessed the accident. Without hesitation, he raced his floating hothouse to the sinking Tesla.
Together with two French tourists, Nordahl dragged the shivering motorists out of the water. In the end, the car got ruined but the passengers survived with a brief cold plunge.
At least they had a perfect place to warm up while waiting for professional rescue crews to arrive. The only things to make this story more Norwegian would be a Viking or a codfish somehow being involved.
‘A Very Disgusting Feeling’
The incident happened on February 1 in Oslo, Norway’s capital. Oslo sits by the Inner Oslofjord, one of many in a series of fjords that connects it to the North Sea.
The Tesla’s unidentified driver was parking his vehicle in Akerhusstranda, a waterside neighborhood famous for the medieval Akerhus Fortress. However, he made a small but crucial mistake during the process.
The driver thought he had set the transmission to Park — but he hadn’t. When he accidentally stepped on the gas, the Tesla accelerated and took off straight toward the shoreline.
“Then it drove into the water. It was a very disgusting feeling,” the driver told the Norwegian VG news outlet.
Luckily for the driver and passenger, they managed to free themselves of their seat belts. However, the Tesla was quickly taking on water — and that water was cold. According to witnesses, the Oslofjord’s temperature at the time was merely 33 degrees.
Oh yes, there were witnesses and lots of them. But they were all stuck on the shore, watching helplessly as the Tesla slowly started to sink.
All but one.
Full Throttle to Rescue
Nicholay Nordahl, 26, captains a small sauna boat in Oslofjord. He takes tourists out to enjoy the ultimate Scandinavian experience — enjoying the sauna before jumping for a dip in the freezing waters.
And that’s what Nordahl was doing on the day of the accident. He had taken two French tourists out to the fjord and one of them saw the Tesla fall in.
“One of the guests came running and alerted me that a car had fallen into the water,” Nordahl recalled.
He spotted the Tesla’s driver and passenger in the water. Right away, Nordahl turned his sauna toward them and shifted into maximum overdrive.
“I went full throttle toward the people who came climbing out of the car. We arrived just as the car went under,” he said.
With the help of his French passengers, Nordahl pulled the half-frozen motorists onto the boat. Then, the three did what was only reasonable and took their surprise guests into the sauna.
As the two began thawing themselves in the heat, Nordahl began piloting his vessel to the shore.
A Weird Day at Work
Emergency services arrived at the scene just as the sauna boat was docking at the Aker Brygge pier. Nordahl allowed the professional to take over and the car’s passengers climbed ashore.
Fortunately, the driver and passenger both escaped from their ordeal physically unharmed, reported VG. Nonetheless, they were taken to a hospital for evaluation while a crane fished the Tesla out of the fjord.
Witnesses on the shore praised Nordahl’s and his French guests’ quick action. Vladislav Nikirov, 51, said the whole scene made him feel like watching a horror movie.
“It was lucky that someone came to help them. If there hadn’t been people there, I’m afraid of what could have happened. They could have died,” Nikirov said.
For his part, Nordahl doesn’t make too much out of the event. To him, it was just a bizarre day on the job.
“It was surreal, not exactly what you expect when you are at work. But we managed to act quickly,” he concluded.