Iceland’s Deadliest Car Crash of the Century

Three young people have died in a crash on Iceland’s Krýsuvíkurvegur road near Bláfjallavegur, making it the country’s deadliest road accident since December 2018.

The crash joins a list of seven Icelandic traffic accidents since 2001 in which at least three people died. In 2001, three people died after two vehicles collided at the junction of Hafravatnsvegur and Nesjavallavegur. Two women died at the scene, while a third person later died in hospital.

Several fatal crashes involving three or more victims occurred in 2002. Four people, three adults and a child, drowned after a car left Kjalvegur, crossed a stone wall and ended up in Blöndulón. The driver reportedly lost control on loose gravel. That year, three women also died in a crash at the junction of Suðurlandsvegur and Landvegur, while a woman and two children died after a vehicle left the road in Skutulsfjörður.

Three people died in a head-on collision between a taxi and a Suzuki on Hafnarfjarðarvegur near Arnarnesbrú in December 2009. One victim died from injuries several days later. In 2017, two adults and a child died after a vehicle left a ferry ramp at Árskógssandur and landed in the sea. A transport accident investigation found that the driver had probably lost consciousness while driving. In December 2018, three tourists died after a Jeep left a bridge over Núpsvötn on Skeiðarársandur. The victims included two women in their thirties and an 11-month-old child.