Traffic and public transport, Parish | Haven’t slept properly for 25 days: – Dependent on having my head with me at work

Sagen, who works as a nurse, has lived in the condominium in Klaus Torgårds vei for ten years. She is well used to the Russians using the road as a gathering place. Nevertheless, she now wants to talk about her experiences, in order to bring out the extent of the problem.

– I haven’t slept properly for 25 nights now. In my job, I also completely depend on having my head with me when I go on duty.

She says that on the night of Thursday 9 May she was woken several times by noise and commotion.

– First I woke up at half past one. When I then looked out of the window, I counted about 18 buses. If you do a quick calculation, and say around 18 to 20 people in a bus, there were probably around 350 drunks in the street here. It’s absolutely beautiful, she says ironically.

She is also very worried about the refugees who live in the barracks, just across the road.

– You don’t know what they’ve been through, so they really hurt me, she says worriedly.

– Used megaphone

When she first woke up, she decided for the first time to call the police. They arrived after quite a short time. Then, according to Sagen, they cleared the street. But it would still turn out that the Russian was not quite done partying.

– Already at half past four they were back again. Then the police came back once again and made them leave.

But this time too, it would not help that the long arm of the law came to the scene. At half past six, it was a full party again. Then, according to Sagen, it seemed that the police had also grown tired of repeated inquiries. This time they took more drastic measures.

– Then I heard they used a megaphone and shouted that the buses had to move.

Once again the bus began to move. But it was not to be a quiet end to the evening, neither for Russians nor residents.

– On the way away from the area, one of the buses had one of its tires blown to pieces. Then the whole neighborhood here exploded, so to speak.

As mentioned, Sagen has lived in the neighborhood for ten years. She thinks the noise from the Russian has only picked up.

– It has only gotten worse and worse over the years. Especially after Covid.

In a previous case on the issue, the police state that the Russian is following their instructions. In short, Sagen does not agree with this.

– For me, who sees this up close, it doesn’t seem like they are very responsive.

– Concerned about safety

But it’s not just noise and lack of sleep that Sagen reacts to. She also fears for the accessibility of the street at night.

– What if it becomes necessary to run emergency services here during the night, when all these buses stop the road. It will be quite scary, she points out.

She believes the municipality must give the Russians a place where they can be together.

– I kind of understand that they hang out here, if they don’t have somewhere else. The municipality should give them a place where they can actually be allowed to stay. Then we can solve this problem, she says.

Many buses obstructed traffic

Operations manager Roy Langengen confirms that the police were at Gaustad at half past five on Thursday morning.

– Then there were many buses in the road which prevented the passage of other road users. These were then sent away.

Langengen does not find anything in its logs that the police should have been on the scene several times during the night. But he does not deny that this may have happened.

– This is a place where the Russians often stop, so it is not unnatural that we may have been there several times.

Nor can the operations leader find any information that a megaphone was used to remove the Russian.