Half of Swedes text at the wheel: poll
Published: 16 Jul 10 18:03 CET | Print version
Online: http://www.thelocal.se/27840/20100716/
Almost every second Swede has read or written mobile phone text messages while driving, according to a new study. Calls are now being made for drivers to be banned from using mobiles at the wheel.
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“It is at least as dangerous as driving while drunk,” said Susanne Lekengård, spokeswoman for motoring organization Motormännen.
Lekegård said the law should be changed to ban the use of phones while driving. Many other countries, including Sweden’s neighbours Norway, Denmark and Finland, have already introduced a ban.
But Infrastructure Minister Åsa Torstensson said a ban was not the solution:
“For it to be effective you would need a total ban, as it is the calls themselves and their content that distracts the driver. Hands-free doesn’t help and I can’t see a total ban being passed,” she said.
Torstensson added that a ban on text-messaging at the wheel would be hard to police.
Drivers who cause a hazard by driving while using their mobile phones can currently be charged with careless driving, a crime that carries penalties of up to 2 years in jail.
What do you think? Leave your comment below.
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You know the real reason Americans can't automatically get Swedish licenses? Yes, the money thing...we know that the Swedish government wants money, money, money, but beyond that maybe they are afraid of road rage if too many Americans wound up driving and had to deal with these poor excuses for drivers.
Road safety should come before idiots texting there friends to secure them some beer.
Mobile phones wont be banned while driving because the powers that be here are also texting on there way home.
Such a funny bunch, very predictable, I love it here
you don't need a total ban, in a lot of states in the US it's legal to talk on the phone but not legal to text, use the internet, etc. if you are in an accident and they suspect you were using the phone they can just check if you were. not too difficult it's all on the grid anyway.
Quote:
Torstensson added that a ban on text-messaging at the wheel would be hard to police.
Unquote
So that's alright then. What on earth does she think the rest of the world does when they ban mobiles while driving, just look the other way.
Just put the phone away until you are at your destination...just like when cellphones did not exist and people still survived! But I agree with a reader above, these policitians are using their mobiles themselves whilst driving....
I find it fascinating that the Swedes drive these expensive big cars that are not equipped with indicators (or is it that they don't know how to use them??)
It makes roundabouts more exciting - it odd Swedes usually prefer safe.
-Oscar Wilde
My country's better than yours, omg who cares???
I'm a Brit and I agree with everything thats been said against Sweden and can add a lot more but really whats the point? I could make a long list against the UK and the US too, but again, whats the point??
In my view, there is hardly anything left of common sense in Sweden. Naturally there are hundreds and thousands of examples of poor laws and inconsequential prohibited activities in Sweden that should be removed, but that does not mean that there are some that should still be added.
Sure, there are bad drivers in Sweden, and texting while driving doesn't make it any better, but I find the American driver's to be an order of magnitude worse on the roads than the Swedes. Americans plow through their commutes yakking away on their phones while navigating enormous SUVs, oblivious to others. They put on makeup, brush their teeth, read the newspaper, and, yes, send text messages regardless of it's illegality. I've never seen a stop sign that an American hasn't rolled through, or right turn on a red that an American doesn't treat like a yield sign. Speed limits? What are those? Half of the Americans are either on your ass because they're on their phones or on your ass because they have road rage, and, horrors, you have the nerve to drive the speed limit.
And why shouldn't they have road rage? Gas is so cheap that anyone can drive so the roads are completely packed with cars. Teenagers don't take the bus to school, they have to drive daddy's SUV instead, also clogging the roads. And the 16-year-olds in the U.S. shouldn't be on the road in the first place since they're not mature enough to understand the rules of the road. Oh, that's right, there are no rules of the road in the U.S., it's every man for himself.
I could go on.
Haha. Yeah, that sounded bad. I was thinking in the context of the teenagers who are able to drive because gas is so cheap, but it came out wrong and sounded quite elitist.
I'm actually born and raised in Minnesota.
erm, wrong thread I think.....