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Icy conditions cause chaos on Sweden’s roads

Snow and ice made driving treacherous on roads in souther Sweden on Saturday with a slew of accidents as a result. Passengers were left stranded at Stockholm Skavsta airport as a Ryanair flight was cancelled and roads remained blocked.

Published: 4 January 2009 11:01 CET

Icy conditions cause chaos on Sweden's roads

20 accidents were reported over three hours on Saturday evening in the county of Skåne due to the icy conditions.

The Swedish Roads Authority (Vägverket) had issued a warning for icy roads from Blekinge in the south to Uppsala in the north on Saturday.

Several accidents were reported during the morning. Ten cars were reported to have collided on the E4 motorway near Vagnhärad in the course of a 15 minute period.

The combination of icy road surface and heavy snow falls made the roads particularly treacherous, according to Södermanland police officer Dennis Meedendorp.

A further ten cars were reported to have collided by the time conditions calmed down in central Sweden in the afternoon.

More than 100 passengers were left stranded at Stockholm Skavsta Airport as Irish airline Ryanair cancelled a flight to Paris as a plane, en-route from Frankfurt, was re-directed to Arlanda Airport, 150 kilometres to the north.

With the main road routes out of the airport blocked due to the slew of traffic accidents and heavy snow, stranded passengers were forced to re-book on a later flight.

Several more flights were delayed at Skavsta throughout the day due to the snow and transport difficulties to and from the airport.

The snow and ice chaos spread south during the day and the counties of Västmanland and Östergötland experienced a wave of car accidents, as did Kronoberg and Blekinge.

The roads authority had warned of localized icy conditions in Skåne and Halland on the west coast and their forecast rang true as reports of several car accidents filtered through during Saturday.

As the evening approached road conditions in the south turned for the worse with 20 traffic accidents reported in Skåne between 4pm and 7pm alone.

“They say that it is very slippery in places. It rained earlier today and temperatures have been above zero and now it has frozen, said Lars Rosberg at Malmö police.

Despite the large number of accidents no serious injuries were reported in the affected areas.

How do you appeal a parking ticket in Sweden?

Receiving a parking ticket is always a frustrating experience, particularly if you’re in a country where you might not be entirely familiar with the relevant rules and procedures.

If you do end up having to deal with such a situation in Sweden, know that you have the right to appeal the ticket if you believe it was issued unfairly or in error – as long as you’re the registered owner of a vehicle in the Swedish Road Traffic Register (or an equivalent foreign register, for that matter).

READ MORE: The nine ways you can lose your driving licence in Sweden

Did you receive a ticket despite having a valid parking permit? Did the parking meter malfunction? Or do you believe the signs in the area were misleading?

If any of the above is the case, here’s what you should know (and do) to start an appeal case.

An important distinction: Parking fines (parkeringsanmärkning) vs parking charge notices (kontrollavgift)

Before proceeding with your appeal, it’s important to distinguish between a parking fine (parkeringsanmärkningin Swedish) and a parking charge notice (kontrollavgift).

The easy rule of thumb is that if you parked on a city street when you got a fine, you’ll likely be dealing with a standard parking fine. If, however, you used a private parking area, then chances are you’ll need to deal with a parking charge notice.

The Swedish police handle parking fines issued on municipal streets, while private parking companies issue parking charge notices for parking violations on private land.

So, if you want to challenge a parking fine that you received on a municipal street, contact the police.

However, if you want to contest a parking charge notice, you’ll need to get in touch with the private parking company that issued it.

The payment and deadline rules

Unfortunately, even if you believe there’s been a mistake and intend to challenge the parking fine, you must still pay it initially.

If your challenge is accepted, the amount you paid will be refunded.

Remember that you need to submit your appeal to the Swedish police no later than six months after you paid the fine or after the Swedish Enforcement Authority took action to collect the sum owed for the fine.

If you miss the deadline to pay your parking fine, you might also face an increased charge (which you also have the right to challenge). The Swedish Transport Agency is in charge of monitoring payments.

READ ALSO: EU countries to extend range of offences foreign drivers can be fined for

There are different payment rules in place for parking charge notices (kontrollavgift), however.

If you believe the parking charge notice you received is incorrect, do not pay it, as paying it means you’ve accepted the charge.

Instead, first, reach out to the private company that issued the notice to dispute it.

Can I challenge a parking fine online?

Luckily, the answer is yes (as long as you have a Swedish personal identity number/coordination number; if not, you’ll need to use a form) – the Swedish police have an online service you can use to challenge your parking fine, add more information to a previous challenge, or appeal a police decision on an earlier challenge.

The wizard will guide you on what actions you can and need to take.

What should I include in my appeal?

Simply stating that the parking fine was incorrect is rarely enough to get your parking ticket revoked.

You should gather and prepare all the necessary documentation to support your challenge (think photos, receipts, and the like).

The police’s online platform accepts JPG, PNG, DOCX, and PDF files, with a maximum file size of 10 MB at the time of writing.

Note: Before you challenge a parking fine, however, check whether you have sufficient grounds to do so. The Swedish police lists some of the most common challenges that it receives that do not meet the requirements for waiving payment liability on its website.

What can I do if my appeal is rejected?

If the police have rejected your challenge, you have the right to appeal their decision.

In that case, your appeal must be received by the authorities no later than three weeks after you receive the decision.

The online service can be used for four weeks after the decision is made. If this time has expired or if you cannot or do not wish to use the online service, you can also send your appeal in by email or post.

If you submit the appeal on time, the police will then send it to the district court together with other documentation in the case, and the court will look into the case.

Obvious errors on your parking fine

If you notice an obvious error on your parking fine, such as the wrong license plate number or make of vehicle, you can apply for rectification.

This path is used to address other factual inaccuracies that are easily verifiable. When you apply for rectification, you are basically requesting that the authority correct these mistakes without going through the full challenge or appeal process.

If the rectification request is straightforward and the error is unmistakable, the fine can be adjusted or cancelled accordingly.

To do this, take the parking fine to a police station within a few days of receiving it. The officers will review the mistake, and if it’s clear-cut, they will correct it on the spot.

However, if the rectification is not approved, you can proceed by challenging the parking fine through the standard process described beforehand.

Sweden’s parking rules can be a bit perplexing. One of our readers was fined 4,000 kronor after the rules changed on their street.

However, if you learn these rules, you should keep your annual ticket bill in the country to a minimum.

You can also find more information about common questions about road signs and general traffic rules in Sweden in the “Stopping and Parking” brochure issued by the Swedish Transport Agency.

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