Killswitch Engage's Tour Bus Was Struck By An Elk

Killswitch Engage faced a terrifying incident on the road while heading to In Flames’ Dalhalla Brinner festival in Rättvik, Sweden when an elk crashed into their tour bus.

Luckily, the band is fine. As you can see in the video below captured by vocalist Jesse Leach, the front of the tour bus is marked with a shattered glass windscreen. It’s some kind of miracle that everyone is okay and that the bus driver only “sustained some torn ligaments,” per Leach’s Instagram post.

Informing fans and the wider metal music community of what went down, Leach got reflective about “what could have been” and, without naming any bands but likely thinking of Cliff Burton, wrote that “I think of all the bands that have had to deal with loss or injury because of these types of accidents.”

“You never know what tomorrow holds take nothing for granted,” Leach wrote alongside a video displaying the aftermath of the accident.

“This is the scene I woke up to yesterday morning around 6 am. Thankfully no one was seriously injured. Our driver Tom sustained some torn ligaments and was shaken up for sure but he is ok. The majestic Moose (*correction an ELK) that collided with our bus however did not fair so well sadly.”

Leach said he doesn’t carry fear with him while on the road, but “seeing this definitely put some fear in me, not so much for my safety but thought of losing someone I love (or someone being injured seriously),” he shared. “It washed over me as we pulled away in a passenger bus. I felt the tears fall on my face as I thought about the ‘what could’ve been.’”

Towards the end of the lengthy caption, Leach issued his “deepest sympathies to anyone who’s lost a loved one or had to suffer because the road came to collect.

“I prayed and sat with my fear yesterday. Just so grateful it wasn’t worse than it could’ve been.”

You can see the footage and read Leach’s full caption below.

Last month, Leach teased that work on Killswitch Engage’s follow-up to 2019’s Atonement is underway, and “There's some bangers on there already.”

In June, the singer admitted that the new album is “taking a lot longer than, I think, any of us anticipated because there's a lot of quality control going on. And making sure that it's fresh; we're not repeating ourselves.”

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