What makes you draw that conclusion?
The Swedish traffic baneities has come a long way. In the 70:s, when I got my drivers license, there was around 1200 rests in traffic annually, on a population of less than 8 mil. Last year we had slightly over 400 rests on a pop of 9+ mil.
The Swedish DOT has made some serious attempts at getting the rest rates down, and it appears to be quite successful.
Contributing factors, from the top of my head: ---
Restrictive speed limits: 110(kph) on the motorways, 90 on good and wide country roads, 70 on other country roads, 50 in cities, and 30 at schools.
This is being changed, and instead of 20 kph between limits, we will have 10 kph intervals, with 120 kph on the best motorways.
Speed checks are quite lax though, although there is currently an aggressive deployment of automatic speed cameras.
Restrictive alcohol limits: We used to have two limits, 0.05%, which would make you loose your license for a year, and 0.15%, which in addition sent you to jail for a month.
This was changed to a single 0.02% limit, which sends you to jail for a month or so and you'll loose your license for a year.
There is talk about mandating alco checks in all new vehicles from some year, making the car unstartable if you're under influence. SAAB presented an innovative and cheap idea where the alco check is built into the starting key, and integrated with the now mandatory immobilizer. You would have to blow into a mouth piece on the key to have the cars immobilizer accept the key.
Daylight running light: Yep, Sweden probably invented this, and we've had them since the early 70:s.
Rear facing baby seats: Another Swedish idea AFAIK.
Mandatory seatbelts. I don't understand how people can even think of driving without having their belts fastened. It has become so natural that I don't even think of it. I feel uncomfortable in a car (old cars not originally sold with belts) that lacks belts.
Annual safety inspections: New cars are safety and emissions tested semi-annually initially and later annually.
Strict driver tests: The license tests are very strict, and normally you would need something like 20 one hour driving lessons before you even have a chance of getting your license, at least here in Uppsala.
The driving license age is 18, but many years ago there was a change so that you can begin practising with an approved teacher, like your parents, from the age of 16. The reason was to increase the amount of driving in ordinary traffic. A recent study has shown that little benefit has been gained from this.
Fenced roads: As Sweden is quite large, about the size of California, but with only 9 mil people, few roads are separate lane motorways. Starting a few years ago many wide roads has been modified with wire fences between the lanes, reducing the risk of head on crashes. Old two lane roads were changed into three lane roads, where pieces are two lanes in one direction and one lane in the other, and then altering this scheme regularly. Although I personally hate these roads, they have provably reduced the number of baneities.
That said, I can only say that cars have also come a long way.
Last night my son totalled my 2001 Audi A6 in town. He was hit on the rear right door in a crossing, with such force that the car spun around 180 degrees and hit a traffic light pole on the left side behind the rear left door. It was a Volvo V40 that hit him, and the Volvo was a bit flat in the nose, but otherwise OK. The side impact protection on the rear right door on the Audi could easily be seen on the outside, and it had not yielded anything, leaving the pbuttenger compartment completely intact. The side air bags on both front seats had deployed. The rear end had totally collapsed from hitting the curbs and the body was sitting on the ground, with botn rear wheels only hanging to the body with the parking brake cables and brake lines.
My son told me that immediately after the impact all lights went out, but they came back after just a moment, and the warning flasher was then on, and he said that the car had enabled those by itself.
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It must have been quite a crash as that smallish Volvo had flung the two ton Audi around and the Audi was on top of the the traffic light pole, which was laying flat on the ground. The tow truch had to pull it off the pole, with the cars body sliding on the road, with no rear wheels.
Both drivers were OK and although the fire brigade and ambulance came, there was no need for anyone to go to the hospital. The firebrigade swept the crossing from the broken glbutt of the rear window and rear left window of the Audi.
I'm not so sure that my son would have been so lucky had he been driving the 1993 Golf we also have.
Thomas (who will have to find a new car), Uppsala, Sweden
