Why is Sweden the world’s safest for protecting children in traffic?

A combination of long-term public education, collaboration between parents, policymakers and researchers, and a strong focus on child safety has contributed to Sweden’s reputation as one of the leading countries in protecting children in traffic. Did you know that the rear-facing child car seat was also invented in Sweden?

In 1997, Sweden introduced Vision Zero, a long-term road safety strategy that has attracted international attention with the goal of eliminating fatalities and serious injuries in road traffic. Sweden has consistently ranked among the countries with the safest roads in Europe.

Together with the widespread use of rear-facing child car seats and the development of rigorous safety assessments such as the Swedish Plus Test, these efforts have helped shape Sweden’s strong record in child road safety.

Sweden adopted rear-facing child car seats earlier than most other countries and has contributed to research in this field for more than 40 years. The concept of the rear-facing child car seat was developed by Professor Bertil Aldman at Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden. Inspired by the way astronauts travelled facing backwards, he developed the first prototype in 1964 with the aim of reducing the forces acting on a child’s head and neck during a frontal collision.

Since then, awareness of the benefits of rear-facing travel has grown significantly in Sweden, and many parents choose to keep their children rear-facing for as long as possible. In a simulation study, neck forces in rear-facing seats were 83–90% lower than in the forward-facing seats tested (Belwadi et al., 2019), and on this basis the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends keeping children rear-facing for as long as possible (Durbin et al., 2018). The Swedish Transport Agency states that small children in forward-facing car seats face up to five times the risk of being killed or seriously injured compared to children in rear-facing seats. You can find every study we rely on in our reference list.

It is no surprise that the Swedish Plus Test was also developed in Sweden. Today, it is widely recognised as one of the most demanding voluntary crash tests for child car seats. The test is carried out by VTI (the Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute) in Linköping, Sweden, and was developed to assess the forces acting on a child’s neck during a frontal collision. The Swedish Plus Test is specifically designed for rear-facing child car seats and complements the mandatory approval requirements with additional assessment criteria. Axkid has today several Plus Tested car seats: Axkid Minikid,Axkid Move, and Axkid One 2.