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Most Swedish truck drivers ‘too fast’: report

The majority of truck drivers in Sweden are speeding, according to a new investigation, with police planning to crack down on the lawbreakers and increase roadside surveillance.

Published: 4 March 2013 07:47 CET
Most Swedish truck drivers 'too fast': report

The Swedish Transport Administration (Trafikverket) reported that 70 percent of truck drivers with trailers were speeding.

A new investigation carried out by the Swedish Transport Agency (Transportstyrelsen) and the National Police Board (Rikspolisstyrelsen) indicates that 40 percent of truck drivers with a heavy load are also speeding.

“We found that the heavy trucks have driven at more than 80 kilometres an hour, which they are not allowed to do,” Anders Arvidsson of the Rikspolisstyrelsen told the Dagens Nyheter newspaper.

“We haven’t measured for speeding in areas where the speed is below 80 kilometres per hour.”

With the sheer weight of such vehicles, the impact during an accident is even more severe with every extra kilometre over the speed limit.

Arvidsson claims that the drivers of these vehicles should be role models for other drivers, but are failing to even keep to their own rules, and are often in violation of their own resting times.

Claes Tingvall at Transportstyrelsen claimed that the lawbreaking drivers were a reflection of the norm.

“This confirms what we already knew, that drivers are infringing on tspeed limits and their resting times. It’s more or less planned,” he told DN.

Now, the police are planning to crack down on the drivers in an effort to slow them down, and lessen the severity of any possible accidents in the future.

“We aim to bring down the average speed and make the accidents less serious,” Arvidsson told the paper.

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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.

Published: 13 April 2023 11:17 CEST
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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