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Icy conditions cause chaos on Sweden’s roads

Snow and ice made driving treacherous on roads in souther Sweden on Saturday with a slew of accidents as a result. Passengers were left stranded at Stockholm Skavsta airport as a Ryanair flight was cancelled and roads remained blocked.

Icy conditions cause chaos on Sweden's roads

20 accidents were reported over three hours on Saturday evening in the county of Skåne due to the icy conditions.

The Swedish Roads Authority (Vägverket) had issued a warning for icy roads from Blekinge in the south to Uppsala in the north on Saturday.

Several accidents were reported during the morning. Ten cars were reported to have collided on the E4 motorway near Vagnhärad in the course of a 15 minute period.

The combination of icy road surface and heavy snow falls made the roads particularly treacherous, according to Södermanland police officer Dennis Meedendorp.

A further ten cars were reported to have collided by the time conditions calmed down in central Sweden in the afternoon.

More than 100 passengers were left stranded at Stockholm Skavsta Airport as Irish airline Ryanair cancelled a flight to Paris as a plane, en-route from Frankfurt, was re-directed to Arlanda Airport, 150 kilometres to the north.

With the main road routes out of the airport blocked due to the slew of traffic accidents and heavy snow, stranded passengers were forced to re-book on a later flight.

Several more flights were delayed at Skavsta throughout the day due to the snow and transport difficulties to and from the airport.

The snow and ice chaos spread south during the day and the counties of Västmanland and Östergötland experienced a wave of car accidents, as did Kronoberg and Blekinge.

The roads authority had warned of localized icy conditions in Skåne and Halland on the west coast and their forecast rang true as reports of several car accidents filtered through during Saturday.

As the evening approached road conditions in the south turned for the worse with 20 traffic accidents reported in Skåne between 4pm and 7pm alone.

“They say that it is very slippery in places. It rained earlier today and temperatures have been above zero and now it has frozen, said Lars Rosberg at Malmö police.

Despite the large number of accidents no serious injuries were reported in the affected areas.

For members

DRIVING

EXPLAINED: When can a child sit in the front seat of a car in Switzerland?

Babies and children must be safely secured in a child’s car seat designed for their weight and age group whenever they travel in a car in Switzerland. We look at the rules around driving with children.

EXPLAINED: When can a child sit in the front seat of a car in Switzerland?

In Switzerland, a simple rule for taking children in motor vehicles has been in place for a good two decades: Every child up to a height of 150 cm or the age of 12 must travel in a suitable child seat.

Its Austrian neighbour has even stricter rules in place. Babies and children in Austria must be correctly secured in a child’s seat up to the age of 14 if they are below 135 cm in height.

The German law takes a more relaxed approach and regulates that children from the age of 12 or those that are taller than 150 cm can ride in the vehicle without a child seat – with the appropriate seat belt, of course.

When can a child sit in the front?

According to the law in Switzerland, once a child has reached a height of 150 cm, they can sit anywhere in the car with or without a child or booster seat.

However, a child needs to reach a minimum height of 150 cm for the safety belts to guarantee their safety in a way that the neck is not constricted while driving in the event of sudden braking or an accident.

In principle, children are allowed to sit on the front passenger seat regardless of their age, however, this is not recommended by experts who argue that children are much safer in the back of the car. Furthermore, if a vehicle is equipped with airbags, rear-facing car seats may only be used if the front airbag on the passenger’s side is deactivated.

A driver at the Stelvio Pass, Santa Maria Val Müstair, Switzerland.

A driver at the Stelvio Pass, Santa Maria Val Müstair, Switzerland. Photo by Jaromír Kavan on Unsplash

Can I be fined for my child travelling without an appropriate car seat?

You can and you will. The fine for transporting an unsecured child under the age of 12 is 60 francs, which, given the risk driving without an appropriate child seat poses to your child’s life, is mild. 

But what about public transport?

Though this may seem illogical to some, Switzerland does not have any safety laws dictating that car seats be used on its buses, meaning it is not uncommon to see mothers standing in the aisle of a packed bus with a baby in a sling while struggling to hold on to a pole for stability.

Though politicians did briefly discuss equipping buses with baby and child seats in 2017 to avoid potential risks to minors, nothing came of it. Ultimately, supplying buses with special seats or introducing seat belts proved unrealistic given the number of seats and considering how often people hop on and off a bus – there is a stop almost every 300 metres in Switzerland.

Instead, drivers are now better informed of the dangers posed to minors travelling on their vehicles and parents are advised to leave children in strollers and not load those with heavy shopping bags.

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