At least 49 people have died in traffic from the turn of the year until May. This shows preliminary figures from the Swedish Transport Agency.
Recently, several young people have lost their lives in traffic. Three people, all under 20 years old, died on Tuesday in a serious single-vehicle accident in Kimstad.
Last Friday, two women, one in their 20s and one in their 30s, died after their car collided with a bus in Hudiksvall.
During the night of Saturday, four young people were taken to hospital after driving off a road and colliding with a tree. An 18-year-old woman is seriously injured.
On April 19, two 18-year-old men died after a collision outside Eskilstuna. On May 1, a man in his 20s died and two the same age were injured after a car overturned in Brösarp.
Trafikverket: Young people overrepresented
Maria Krafft, traffic safety advisor at the Swedish Transport Administration, states that young people are overrepresented in the accident statistics.
– This is partly due to the fact that young people have a higher risk-taking but also because they have less experience.
Traffic fatalities have halved since 2010, but after the pandemic the number has remained at roughly the same level. The government has set a goal of halving deaths by 2030.
– This means that a maximum of 113 people will die. So right now the development is a little too slow.
The goal is also to reduce the number of seriously injured by 25 percent.
– We depend on the infrastructure when we transport ourselves in society. It is not reasonable that we pay with so many dead.
– Many people think it is a utopia, but we constantly make a forecast of what is reasonable. By the year 2050, it is reasonable to reach close to zero.
Hear Maria Krafft list three measures needed to stop traffic fatalities in the video above.