The Swedish Transport Administration's answer: "Clearly we have failed"

Assignment review has told how Masugnsbybon Rickhard Lantto has repeatedly warned the Swedish Transport Administration of the curve on road 395. In 2016 and 2017 he calls and e-mails the authority and tells that accidents have happened when cars skid over in the wrong lane and can not handle the curve.

Several times he gets an answer from an official that his warnings have been passed on to those responsible. Still, nothing happens.

- The incidents that have been there have been pulled up the cars, helped and then it is not visible in the system. And then it has been a private person who has heard from them several times. It has not been achieved and it is not good, says the Swedish Transport Administration's Traffic Safety Director Maria Krafft.

Why haven't you done anything, even though you got these alarms?

- It is because we do not have such a system, it does not enter our logs when accidents occur.

He says he should take it to those responsible?

- Absolutely, it is clear that we have failed there.

In January this year, the fatal accident occurred. A minibus comes over on the wrong lane and frontal bumps with an ore car in the curve. Six people lose their lives.

When Assignment Review Reporter asks the Swedish Transport Administration's press officer Bengt Olsson, he says that the accident does not depend on the design of the road - but on how they drove.

Maria Krafft believes that this is a shared responsibility.

What are they doing wrong then?

- We don't know yet. But as much as I know about this accident, we know it was dark, it was slippery, difficult circumstances and a road that does not have the highest safety rating. This means that more responsibility is placed on the driver. But our ambition when building this system is that it should be more forgiving.

When the Swiss tourists came driving on the road, the speed limit was 90 kilometers per hour - a speed that is far too high, according to residents at the curve.

- In our old road network we have speed signs and that does not mean that "what is on the sign, I should be able to drive everywhere". You cannot keep the same speed on a straight line as in a curve, you have to adapt, especially if it is slippery.

How, then, should they know that this curve cannot be handled at the speed that is signposted? They receive no warning signals that this curve is about to come, how will they manage it?

- First there was a sign saying that it narrows about 350 meters before the curve and then comes another warning saying that there will be a right turn. With the facts in hand, it has not been enough and we have reinforced that now.

After the fatal accident, the Swedish Transport Administration has put up proper warning signs in the curve - and lowered the speed from 90 kilometers per hour to 70, which was previously not considered necessary.

- As far as this death is concerned, it still has not been investigated what happened. But what one can clearly say based on the criteria we have for a safe path, there is more to do there, says Maria Krafft.

Assignment review report "The Curve of Death" will be sent on Wednesday 25 September in SVT1 20.00 - you can see it on SVT Play . Roads inspection continues during the week at svt.se.