Sweden’s Road Accident Rate Falling

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30945, 29 December 1965, Page 6

Sweden’s Road Accident Rate Falling

Sweden has the lowest road accident rate in Europe, and probably one of the lowest in the world when the amount of traffic, the roads and the long hours of darkness are taken into account. New Zealand could probably benefit from Sweden’s example.

Unlika that of most other countries, Sweden’s road accident rate is falling. One reason is the severity with which Swedish law punishes the driver who has been drinking. For some years fines have been imposed on motorists who have consumed what, by New Zealand standards, might be regarded as only a moderate amount of alcohol. Those who have been drinking more heavily—with .13 per cent of alcohol in the blood—have been imprisoned. Just how great a deterrent the penalties have been to the drinking driver is readily apparent to the visitor to Sweden. When, say, four Swedes go out socially they agree that the person who Will drive home will not drink. This responsibility usually falls to one of the women! Accidents in Sweden in which drunken drivers are involved number only about 3 per cent. This is very low when compared with other highly-motorised countries. Sweden's example of severe penalties to deter the drinking driver is now being followed in Britain and also in Australia. There is considerable support for similar action in New Zealand. Cars inspected A scheme has begun in Sweden whereby every motor vehicle more than three years rid is technically inspected annually by a special organisation a company owned by the State and motor organisations, automotive dealers and car repairers. Two-thirds of the vehicles involved in accidents in New Zealand last year were 10 years old or more. This suggests that a more thorough regular inspection could be made of vehicles on New Zealand roads. ofoq cmfwy mfwy fwywyyy Ninety per cent of the new cars produced in Sweden this year have been fitted by factories with two safety belts in the front seats. Seventy per cent of cars on Swedish roads are fitted with safety belts. For many years, shoulderstrap belts have been approved in Sweden, but a new regulation, expected soon, will stipulate that only three-point (round the waist and across the shoulder) safety belts will be approved. One of the most urgent problems facing those trying to promote road safety in

Sweden is protection of the pedestrian on dark roads and highways. With its longer hours of darkness for much of the year this is a greater problem in Sweden than in New Zealand.

Last year, however, onethird of New Zealand's road accidents occurred in darkness, and 97 of the year’s 428 fatalities involved pedestrians —24 Of them children aged under to and 25 persons 70 and more. This year the figures will be up considerably. Sweden has certain rules for driving in darkness. These are based on the results of road safety experiments and tests. Some of the findings are:

If a car Is travelling with headlights on full beam and a person in dark grey clothes is on the side of the road, the driver can see him only at a distance of up to 110 yards.

If another car is approaching 600 yards away, the distance at which 1 the driver can see the pedestrian decreases to 80 yards.

If the pedestrian is wearing a light grey suit the distances up to which he can be seen increase to 135 yards and 100 yards in those situations. If the pedestrian is carrying a reflecting elastic band or tag the distance u>p to which he can be seen is increased three times. If tile car’s lights, are dipped, a pedestrian wearing dark grey clothes on the roadside can be seen only up to 35 yards.

It is one of the most dangerous situations for the pedestrian when two cars are less than 120 yards from each other and both have dipped lights.

Asymmetrical car lights give better lighting on the lefthand side of the road and increase by about .50 per cent the viewing area in critical positions. They are strongly recomended, therefore, by road safety authorities.

When a motorist conies to the crest of a hill he should momentarily dip his lights to warn oncoming traffic. This also applies when he is approaching a bend in the road. Where ears are approaching on the open road, lights should -be dipped when the beams meet, —when the cars are about 350 yards apart. They should not be dipped earlier, as it is dangerous driving on the open road with dipped lights. After two cars have met, their lights should immediately be returned to full beam. Overtaking in darkness calls for the motorists’ cooperation in the use of full and dipped headlights. Generally, Sweden has no fixed speed limits, although sometimes a temporary limit is set. One such limit, of 90 kilometres an hour on the open road, was imposed for almost all last month, as November is one of the darkest months of the year in Sweden and usually produces the winter’s first icy roads.

By Sc® Montpattl, of Welltnoton, who recently titscussed road safety with Mr O Atblom, secretary of Sweden’s National Society on Road Safety, and studied the subject tn Stockholm.