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'Are they on Easter holiday?': Swedish government under fire after snow chaos

AFP/The Local
AFP/The Local - [email protected]
'Are they on Easter holiday?': Swedish government under fire after snow chaos
The Öland Bridge was closed in both directions on Wednesday due to a number of accidents caused by the weather. Photo: Magnus Lejhall/TT

The Swedish government faced heavy criticism after heavy snowfall caused traffic chaos across southern Sweden leaving some motorists stuck for more than 10 hours.

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Traffic ground to a halt on several key highways earlier this week, trapping hundreds of motorists. Infrastructure minister Andreas Carlson left an EU meeting in Brussels to return home over the emergency.

Carlson told a press conference late on Wednesday that traffic on most roads was moving again.

But he said car and truck drivers that did not have proper tyres for the wintery conditions should not go out on the roads. Many drivers have switched from winter to summer tyres.

The minister said many road closures had been caused by trucks becoming stuck but acknowledged that the maintenance of roads could be improved.

Some lorry drivers rejected the government criticism and opposition politicians also lambasted the government.

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Lena Hallengren, parliamentary leader of the Social Democrats, said in a social media post that the government had been "invisible" as it had been when heavy snow hit Sweden in January. "Is the whole government on Easter holiday?" Hallengren questioned.

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Tony 2024/04/06 17:01
Follow-up on my comment below. In today’s Jönköpings-Posten, a breakdown/tow-truck driver who worked during the night on the E4 says that he helped to clear 16 heavy articulated trucks that had come to a standstill and were blocking the motorway. All but one were foreign-registered. Probably due to poor tyres and drivers’ inexperience working in snow and ice conditions. The political blame-game should perhaps focus on things like that instead of criticising those who helped all night.
Tony 2024/04/04 16:36
Unjustified criticism. I live close to Jönköping where traffic came to a halt on a 30km undulating stretch of the E4 close to Lake Vättern. We had a snowstorm for about 12 hours. As one guy said: “We can’t stop the snow coming, and we can’t plough before the snow has fallen.” Sums it up nicely. Also, some cars had already switched to summer tyres and should not have been out on the road. Just a couple in difficulty disrupts the entire traffic flow, along with foreign trucks with poor tyres.
Andrzej 2024/04/04 12:33
When I moved to Sweden in 2020 I was nicely surprised how well maintained the road infrastructure is. Recently, mostly last year I started to notice that there are more broken traffic signs, or waste bins on parking areas are usually overfilled. It is only a feeling, but this „change moment” in my perception is surprisingly aligned with 2022 elections. Is is possible that Trafikverket started to be defunded or worse managed after elections? Might be interesting to do some investigation.

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