The world's best man we will miss you you are the best man in the whole world live in peace Unusual accident - but there is no sign of an attack

 

The world's best man we will miss you you are the best man in the whole world live in peace , I share my grief with the Swedish good people

Unusual accident - but there is no sign of an attack

The car in which the threatened artist Lars Vilks and two policemen were traveling crossed a wire railing before colliding with a truck.

A very unusual scenario that would also require great force - according to the Swedish Transport Administration.

But the police claim that nothing points to any external influence

The artist Lars Vilks, 75, and two policemen died in a frontal collision with a truck on the E4 at Markaryd on Sunday after the bodyguard car came over on the wrong lane.

The accident occurred at half past three in the afternoon, and both the truck and the police vehicle caught fire in connection with the crash.

The police are carrying out several investigative measures - both on the spot and in parallel - to get a picture of what really happened.

- We absolutely want to exclude that there would be any external impact on the bodyguard car or Lars Vilks. There is nothing in the current situation that indicates that there was an assassination attempt, but we still want to close the door completely, says Stefan Sintéus, head of the regional investigation unit, at a press conference.

No new threats

Lars Vilks has lived under threat since 2007, which meant that he had bodyguard protection. In recent times, however, no concrete, new threats have been made, according to Stefan Sintéus.

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- There are no threats that have been received in the near future, he says to TT.

The truck driver was taken by ambulance to hospital where he is being cared for. A first interrogation could have been carried out with the person, but the police do not want to go into what it has given.

Police technicians have found tire remains on the road some distance before the scene of the collision, and one of the hypotheses is that a tire explosion caused the accident. But the investigation is still at an early stage.

- We have a lot of questions about what happened at the scene, and therefore it is important to look at all the different alternatives, says Carina Persson, regional police chief in the South region.

"Very unusual"

It is unclear what caused the crash, but police confirm that the bodyguard car came over on the wrong side of the road.

However, the lanes are separated by a wire fence.

- It is very, very unusual for someone to come across the other side of the road when it is meeting separated and a railing in between. It takes a lot of power to do that, then we do not know where that power comes from, says Bengt Olsson, press manager at the Swedish Transport Administration, and continues:

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- I can not remember that something similar has happened in a very, very long time. In that case, it is several years ago.

"Opportunities to track"

The bodyguard car weighed about 4.5 tons and the speed limit on the road is 110 kilometers per hour.

- It could explain that you can drive through a wire railing, says Stefan Sintéus.

TT: Did the bodyguard car contain a black box?

- There is no black box. But there are opportunities to track other things, he says.

An escort car to the bodyguard car was a bit behind, but the staff in that car did not see the accident because they were too far away.

- There are different routines for how to act as a companion car, but there is nothing that I want to comment on in the media, says Stefan Sintéus.

"Dismay and great sorrow"

The investigation into the police's actions in the accident is led by a prosecutor at the special prosecutors' chamber. The accident is being investigated as causing another person's death, but there is no suspect.

The Swedish Transport Administration has also initiated its own investigation to investigate whether there were any errors with the road or the facility at the site.

"It is with dismay and great sadness that I received the news that our two colleagues and our security guard died this afternoon. My thoughts go to relatives, families, friends and colleagues," said National Police Chief Anders Thornberg in a statement.