It is safe to say that a major accident was narrowly avoided on Thursday, when a speeding bus overtook a car in the path of another oncoming car.
The incident took place on Route 1 near Akrafjall mountain and was caught on video by a following driver.
The director of Hópbílar, which owns the vehicle in question, says the matter is under investigation.
The driver of the following car posted his video to Facebook, including a shot of his own speedometer, which shows both vehicles moving at over 100 km/h. The speed limit in Iceland is 90 km/h. Then the camera pans back up to show the bus overtaking a slower car.
The video shows the bus passing very close to the car traveling in the same direction and then the viewer sees a car approaching from the opposite direction. Drivers of both cars swerve off the main paved part of the road to avoid an accident.
There were passengers on board the bus, meaning a very serious accident could have taken place.
“We have this under internal investigation,” says Gísli Jens Friðjónsson, director of Hópbílar, the company which runs the rural bus route on behalf of Strætó. The driver was interviewed about the incident yesterday.
“We will deal with this firmly. This should absolutely not happen,” Gísli adds; saying that the on-board speed limiter should have made it impossible to drive the bus so quickly, but it was quite evident from the video that the vehicle was traveling faster than the speed limit when it overtook the other car.
“It should not have been possible,” Gísli Jens said; declining to comment further on the matter until the driver had been spoken to.
Vísir was unable to reach Flosi Pálsson, who took the video, but you can watch it by clicking here.
