The Swedish Transport Administration has reported statistics on snowmobile accidents since 1970. Until 2008, the accident rate was rising, but since then accidents have decreased. Now, however, the death toll among scooter riders is rising again.
"We are following this closely, but we are concerned that we cannot explain the reason for the increase. Hopefully it is temporary because there has been a long downward trend, says Jan Lindgren at the Swedish Transport Administration.
Required driver's license
Although there have been more fatalities, the long-term trend is positive with fewer fatalities over the past 15 years.
"There are many explanations for this, sobriety has improved, it can be an explanation, then we have introduced a mandatory driver's licence from 2000, which means that snowmobile drivers are more trained, the scooters and snowmobile trails have become better," says Jan Lindgren.
Hear Jan Lindgren talk about what is the biggest cause of snowmobile accidents.