Ein Augenzeuge berichtet

Mike Watt befand sich im Tourbus, als sich der Unfall auf einer Schwedischen Autobahn ereignete, bei dem sich J.Mascis eine mittelschwere Verletzung am Rücken zuzog. In einem Brief schildert der Tour-Bassist Watt die Ereignisse aus seiner Sicht. Wir drucken den Brief hier ungekürzt ab: “I don`t think they mentioned anything about the other car that blew by us. They think we just lost control by hitting the center divider when trying to pass. That was not the case let me type you some facts about what happened:

Yesterday at about ten of six (pm), in Falconburg, Sweden, travelling south on the E 06 Highway towards

Malmo, our van lost control when we had to avoid someone coming into the fast lane and going by us like a bullet as were trying to pass another vehicle. We cut right, back into our lane but too sharp, started to swerve, then overcorrected left, bringing us up on two wheels and landing us on our side (my side), then skidded to a stop after hitting a center divider cable.

It seemed like the whole thing took an hour but it was probably less than a minute or two. I was belted in and was unhurt. The driver (Noel, the soundman) had scrapes on the side of his abdomen. The tour boss, David, was sitting in the bench seat in front of me and got a

deep wound in his knee (like my bike one last summer) from the window glass breaking as we skidded along (my window remained intact). George was in the front passenger seat and was belted in and only hurt his wrist, bracing against the dash during the crash.

J. was hurt the most. He was sitting in the back row of the van but on the other side and went flying inside the van and landed above me (I saw him fly in front of me as I held my knees and braced myself) when we were on our side. He asked if I was alright and then said “My back!” and I told him not to move. The ambulance was there in minutes, they popped out the front windshield and got him out that way. I just saw him at the hospital here in Halmstad (the next big town that has a hospital with a brand new emergency room) and he`s in pain if he tries to stand up but is in good spirits, saw him take his first steps since the wreck with a walker.

He`s got two cracked upper vertebrae but no spinal injuries which is great. We`re so fucking lucky, all the way around. Last night he was in much pain but things are getting better. He`s gonna try to fly home in a couple of days. Of course, the rest of the tour is cut (all the german gigs). I`m still in my Oslo clothes, I never got a chance to change. I can`t tell you how scary the whole fucking nightmare was but am so grateful things

weren`t so much worse. Only me and George were wearing seatbelts (and it was a rare thing for him to do). You don`t know how many times I advised these guys about that. I hope I don`t sound like I`m armchair quarterbacking this, in reality, I`m just so glad things aren`t worse.

George and Noel went to the police station

just now in Falconberg to get the stuff from the van. Noel feels terrible but really, it was that asshole in the other car that got this going. Also, he jammed past us never stopped and just blasted away. What a dick. The other swedish people were so nice to us though – we had help immediately. Everyone speaks great English here too.

I`m at a hotel in Helmstad now, typing you this email on the `puter they have here for guests. It was so scary and made me shake but I`m feeling a little stronger now. We`re by the sea and I saw two neat sailing ships, old ones made of oak than

are being rennovated. Even the sailor on board who`s doing work on it heard of the wreck we had. He was a nice man and we talked much about bass and boats. Helped my mind calm. Great niceness from him.

Love and bass from Watt.”