Coupling held firm!

For two nerve-jangling hours, Egil Jensen hung from
the Skåpesund bridge until he was freed by the fire brigade.

This year marks the 40th anniversary of a trailer coupling
being given an unexpected stress test on the Skåpesund
bridge between Orust and Tjörn. On an treacherously icy
morning in February 1971, Danish driver Egil Jensen was
out on the road transporting a load of Norwegian comic books,
cigarettes, sewing machines and 6,000 litres of paint.
In the pitch dark, his truck skidded and crashed straight
through the bridge railings. A few seconds later, the truck
was dangling 20 metres over the water below, suspended
from the drawbar with the trailer still on the bridge.
The staff at Kungälv Hospital confirmed that he hadn't suffered
any serious injuries and he was able to be discharged back
home to Denmark after a couple of hours. So, all's well that
ends well, thanks to the coupling holding firm.

This event, which drew worldwide attention, also led to plans
to replace the Skåpesund bridge being brought forward.
You can almost certainly guarantee that the current bridge
railings are significantly more robust then they were then
- but then so are VBG's coupling systems!

(Thanks to Ulf Nyström, Göteborgs-Posten)