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Thin ice spells double trouble for persistent Swedish motorist

Things didn’t go as planned for a 42-year-old man when he tried to retrieve his car after it crashed through the ice on a lake near Lidköping in central Sweden.

Published: 4 January 2010 08:21 CET

The man had driven his car out onto the lake near a marina around 10pm on Saturday night, only to have the ice give way, leaving his vehicle partially submerged in the shallow waters a few hundred metres off shore, the Nya Lidköpings-Tidningen reports.

Desperate for a way to extract his car from the lake’s icy waters, the man decided to borrow a wheel loader from his workplace in hopes of being able to tow his car back to shore.

But when the man drove the piece of heavy construction equipment onto the ice shortly after midnight, it too crashed through the lake’s ice, which once again proved to be too thin to support the weight of a heavy vehicle.

Elsewhere in Sweden, a man on a snowmobile went through the ice on a lake outside of Luleå in northern Sweden. While the man escaped without injury, he was nevertheless taken to hospital for observation, the TT news agency reports.

And a car carrying an elderly couple also went through the ice when they tried to take a short cut over the frozen Östra Geasjön lake to a cabin on the island of Storholmen outside of Ljusdal in northern Sweden, according to the Aftonbladet newspaper.

Before embarking on their ill-fated journey, the man had drilled through the ice the test its thickness, but his faulty judgment resulted in his car breaking through the ice just 20 metres off shore.

The man and his wife, both in their seventies, managed to get themselves and their dog out of the sinking car without injury.

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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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