Haulage boss rescues his stranded truckers after Euroferry Olympia tradgedy

Truck drivers don’t usually wear life jackets.

However, in a dramatic incident last week, life jackets were essential for three truckers, Rafa, Tomek and Dave when what should have been a routine ferry trip home after delivering in Athens, took a deadly turn for the worse.

Haulage boss Matthew Garnett of Templar European Logistics told of his horror on receiving a message from his driver Tomek, showing a photo of him wearing a life jacket. An emergency phone call established that their ferry was on fire and a mayday had been issued.

The sense of fear only increased until Matthew was able to establish that all three of his drivers were awake, out of their trucks and heading to the muster station.

A tense wait followed, in the darkness of night, until the coastguard arrived and transferred the three drivers to a bigger coastguard vessel, and safety. But not everyone was so lucky…

Matthew said “at this point we knew they (Rafa, Tomek and Dave) were safe, however news was circulating that drivers were stuck in cabs unable to escape…by now the ferry was well alight and burning in the night sky”

The BBC later reported that firefighters found the first body of a missing passenger in a burnt-out lorry aboard the ship and ten people – all thought to be lorry drivers – are still unaccounted for:

Ferry fire: Missing Euroferry Olympia passenger found alive off Corfu – BBC News

But for Tomek, Rafa and Dave, their nightmare was only just beginning.

The three drivers were taken to Corfu, initially to a makeshift medical and food centre at the port, and later to a hotel where they were provided with food and accommodation.

Matthew noted “At this point we had no contact with the ferry operator Grimaldi and the drivers had not been contacted either. One of them needed medication but was not able to get any help”

After 24 hours in the hotel with no official information, news was trickling down that transport would be arranged to take them onwards to Brindisi

Matthew observed – “36 hours after surviving a fire on a ferry where other truckers had lost their lives, the guys were a bit apprehensive at getting back on the water…to say the least”

With still no contact from Grimaldi (ferry operator) it was information from the ferry crew that advised them that they would be docking at 09.30 in Brindisi, Italy.

At this point, Matthew lost all faith in getting any help for his drivers from Grimaldi and decided to personally undertake an impressive 2000km journey to bring his drivers safely home.

Firstly, money for food and clothes was wired across whilst the drivers were still on board the lifeboats, this also enabled the drivers to hire a car and drive from Brindisi (fortunately one of the drivers still had his wallet and documents) to Verona.

Secondly, Matthew set off in his own car from Poland to Verona to be re-united with Tomek, Dave and Rafa.

Finally, they turned the car around and, exhausted but together, began the long journey back to their base in Poland.

Matthew said “we finally arrived in Wroclaw at 0700. Dave had lost all his documents in the ferry fire, along with the truck which was his home…so I bought him back home to my house whilst we sorted everything out. I dropped Rafa and Tomek at the main train station, shook their hands and saw them safely back home after our epic journey together.