The Konginkangas bus disaster was a major traffic accident on March 19, 2004, outside the Konginkangas housing estate in Äänekoski

Äänekoski

Äänekoski is a town and municipality of Finland.-Geography:It is located in the province of Western Finland and is part of the Central Finland region. It is neighboured by Kannonkoski, Konnevesi, Laukaa, Saarijärvi, Uurainen, Vesanto and Viitasaari. The town has a population of and covers an area...

, Finland

Finland

Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...

. At 02:08 local time (00:08 UTC) a bus

Bus

A bus is a road vehicle designed to carry passengers. Buses can have a capacity as high as 300 passengers. The most common type of bus is the single-decker bus, with larger loads carried by double-decker buses and articulated buses, and smaller loads carried by midibuses and minibuses; coaches are...

 transporting 38 passengers, most of them youths, to the Rukatunturi

Rukatunturi

Rukatunturi is a high fell and a ski resort in Kuusamo, Finland. Apart from downhill skiing, there are over 500 km of cross-country skiing tracks. Also snowmobiles can be rented to enjoy some of the area's 600 km of snowmobile routes . Ruka is also the southern end of the Karhunkierros...

 skiing center for an alpine skiing vacation crashed into a tractor trailer carrying heavy paper

Paper

Paper is a thin material mainly used for writing upon, printing upon, drawing or for packaging. It is produced by pressing together moist fibers, typically cellulose pulp derived from wood, rags or grasses, and drying them into flexible sheets....

 rolls weighing about 61.5 tonnes (60.5 LT) total. The accident occurred on highway 4

Finnish national road 4

Finnish national road 4 is a highway in Finland. It is the main route from Helsinki to Northern Finland and a major road link in the country. It runs from Erottaja in Helsinki to Sami Bridge in Utsjoki. The road is long...

 (E75

European route E75

European route E 75 is part of the International E-road network, which is a series of main roads in Europe.The E 75 starts from Vardø, Norway in the Barents Sea and runs south through Finland, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Serbia and Republic of Macedonia to Sitia, Greece on...

) 20 kilometres (12.4 mi) north of Äänekoski, and left the bus driver and 22 passengers dead; 15 were injured. The executive director of the youth travel company was among those who perished in the accident. Most of the victims were sleeping at the time and were immediately killed by the paperrolls ejected into the bus. The tractor trailer driver was left unharmed.

Sequence of events

The accident was investigated by the Accident Investigation Board Finland

Accident Investigation Board Finland

Accident Investigation Board of Finland is the accident investigation authority of Finland. It investigates all major accidents, and all aviation, maritime, and rail accidents and incidents. The board is located within the Ministry of Justice, and it is headquartered in Helsinki, the capital of...

. The accident occurred when the trailer of the southbound truck began a soft swerving movement on black ice

Black ice

Black ice, sometimes called glare ice or clear ice, refers to a thin coating of glazed ice on a surface.While not truly black, it is virtually transparent, allowing black asphalt/macadam roadways to be seen through it, hence the term "black ice"...

, which intermittently covered the highway at its sloughs and troughs. The trailer first swerved to the right; to correct this, the driver counter-steered the vehicle. This led to a loss of control of both the pulling tractor truck and its trailer. The trailer continued its slide across the icy pavement and into the oncoming lane until the hinge locked at a ninety-degree angle with the pulling tractor-truck. The northbound bus had no way of escaping, as this happened at the moment of passing. Five 780 kilograms (1,719.6 lb) paper rolls were ejected through the side of the trailer into the bus as it hit the trailer at a speed of 70 kilometres per hour (43.5 mph). The winter speed limit on the road was 80 km/h (49.7 mph). The front of the bus, as well as several seat rows, were demolished on impact.