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To drive safely, you need to stay alert, use good judgement, and react in time. If anything impairs these abilities, your driving is affected, increasing the risk of misjudgements and accidents.
This chapter explains how different risk factors affect driving, which rules apply, and what you need to consider.
Alcohol is a common cause of impaired judgement in drivers, but there are several other factors that can also impair driving ability. In the traffic regulations, the rules on this are summarised in a single sentence:
"Vehicles must not be driven by anyone who, due to illness, fatigue, the influence of alcohol, other stimulating or anaesthetic substances, or for other reasons, cannot drive the vehicle in a safe manner."
Several risk factors can also interact and reinforce each other. For example, fatigue, illness, alcohol, and certain medications can together impair driving ability much more than each factor on its own.
This chapter covers several common risk factors, but fatigue, stress, and peer pressure can also impair your driving ability.
If you have not read those chapters yet, you can read them here:
Read more about fatigue
Read more about stress and peer pressure
Remember: If anything impairs your attention, judgement or reaction time so much that you cannot drive safely, you must not drive.
Alcohol is socially accepted in many situations, but in traffic it is a very serious problem. Every day, at least 15,000 journeys are made by drivers who are so affected by alcohol that they would be convicted of drunk driving if they were caught.
About 20% of all drivers killed in traffic have alcohol in their blood.
Alcohol is involved in a significant proportion of fatal road accidents
Alcohol combined with driving greatly increases the risk of accidents. Even at low blood alcohol levels, the risk of an accident increases, and the risk rises as the alcohol level increases. Alcohol impairs, among other things, your judgement, reaction time, vision, attention and coordination.
Per mille shows how much alcohol you have in your blood. For example, 1 per mille means there is 1 part alcohol per 1,000 parts blood. The higher the per mille level, the more it affects your body and impairs your driving ability.
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It is a traffic offence to drive with an illegal amount of alcohol in your blood. You can be convicted of drunk driving at 0.2 per mille. You can also be convicted at a lower alcohol level if you are so affected that you cannot drive safely.
The limit for aggravated drunk driving is 1.0 per mille. drunk driving can also be classed as aggravated at a lower alcohol level if you are severely affected or if your driving poses a significant danger to traffic safety.
The penalty for drunk driving is a fine or imprisonment for up to six months. The driving licence is also revoked for at least 12 months. The penalty for aggravated drunk driving is imprisonment for up to two years. The driving licence is also revoked for at least 24 months.
If you knowingly lend your car to someone who is under the influence of alcohol, you may be convicted of aiding and abetting drunk driving or aiding and abetting aggravated drunk driving.
The blood alcohol limits for drunk driving and aggravated drunk driving are 0.2 and 1.0 per mille, respectively
People who have had, or risk having, their driving licence revoked because of drunk driving or aggravated drunk driving may in some cases apply for a driving licence with an alcohol interlock condition instead of being without a licence. This option applies only when the offence involved alcohol, not other drugs or narcotic-classified substances.
An alcohol interlock or breath alcohol ignition interlock device (BAIID) is a breathalyser that prevents a vehicle being started by a non-sober driver. Anyone who has a driver's licence with conditions on alcohol interlock may only drive a car equipped with a personal alcohol interlock.
All alcohol interlock breath tests are registered and saved. A failed breath test leads to a revoked driver's licence
The conditional period is one or two years, depending on what led to the application. The penalty, that is, the fine or prison sentence, is not affected by this, but is carried out as usual.
Your driver's licence can also be revoked, and it may be difficult to obtain a driving permit, if there is information suggesting that you may be at risk of driving under the influence. For example, this may be the case if the police have taken you into custody for intoxication on repeated occasions. This applies even if you were not driving a car or any other motor vehicle.
Alcohol impairs, among other things, your judgement, reaction time, vision, attention and coordination. It also makes it harder to make realistic assessments and to judge distance and speed.
Alcohol affects us in the following way:
The per mille numbers above refer to blood alcohol concentration.
Alcohol starts to affect you even in small amounts. The more you drink, the stronger the effects become, even if you do not feel it yourself. But it is not about how affected you feel – alcohol can impair your driving ability even when you feel unaffected.
Even small amounts of alcohol can impair your driving ability
Your blood alcohol level is affected not only by how much alcohol you have drunk and over how long, but also by factors such as body weight, sex, and whether and how much you have eaten.
Your blood alcohol level can therefore vary greatly between different occasions, even if you drink exactly the same amount and type of alcohol. This means that you can never rely on how unaffected you feel, or assume that the same amount of alcohol will affect you in the same way every time.
Many medications strengthen the effects of alcohol. Alcohol combined with certain medications, such as sedatives, can therefore greatly impair your driving ability or even be directly life-threatening.
How we are affected by alcohol varies from person to person
On average, the body breaks down around 0.15 per mille of alcohol per hour. Roughly speaking, this corresponds to the amount of alcohol in about 2 centilitres of 40% spirits. However, the rate of breakdown varies from person to person, so never try to calculate when all the alcohol has left your body.
It is not possible to increase the pace at which our body burns off alcohol. This process takes place in the liver, and you cannot affect the rate at which it works. Taking a sauna, exercising, drinking coffee or any other "miracle cure" might make you feel better, but these things do not affect how quickly the body metabolises alcohol.
Furthermore, even if you no longer have alcohol in your body, this does not necessarily mean you are fit to drive. Your driving ability may still be significantly impaired the day after, even when your blood alcohol level is zero.
Do not take chances – the day after drinking, your driving ability may still be impaired, even at zero per mille. Do not drive unless you are fully recovered.
Your driving ability is greatly reduced the day after drinking alcohol
It is easy to underestimate how much alcohol common alcoholic drinks contain. For example, a large can of mid-strength beer (folköl) can contain more alcohol than 4 centilitres of vodka.
Spirit (40% alcohol) equivalents in beer and wine:
Four large mid-strength beers contain more than 17 cl spirits
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Certain medications can affect you so strongly that you become an unsafe driver. They can cause such major problems with hearing, seeing clearly, staying awake, concentrating, and reacting quickly that you cannot legally drive.
Some medications affect you only when you start taking them or after you stop taking them, while others affect you every time you take them. How long a medication affects you is individual and can therefore vary from person to person. The effects of many medications can also become much stronger in combination with even small amounts of alcohol.
To find out how a medication can affect you, you can read the medication's information sheet or ask a doctor or pharmacy staff.
It is your responsibility to determine whether a medication affects your ability to drive safely
The rules on medication are simple: you must not drive if the medication affects you so that you cannot drive safely. You are always responsible for judging whether you are fit to drive. If you make a wrong judgement and drive dangerously, you may be convicted of drunk driving even if the medication was prescribed by a doctor.
If you drive with a narcotic-classified medication in your body that has not been prescribed to you, you may also be convicted of driving under the influence, even if you have not driven dangerously or been involved in an accident.
You may be found guilty of driving under the influence or aggravated driving under the influence if you have taken a:
If you take a medication that makes you sluggish, tired, dizzy, groggy or slow you should not drive
You should always refrain from driving if you have taken one or more medications and exhibit any of the following symptoms:
In Sweden, there is a zero limit for narcotics in traffic. This includes illegal drugs and other substances classified as narcotics. This means that you must not drive with narcotics in your blood, regardless of whether you are affected or not. There is no permitted minimum level.
Since many drugs and narcotic-classified substances remain in the blood for a long time, you may be convicted of drug driving long after taking them.
The only exception to the zero limit applies to narcotic-classified medications taken according to a doctor's prescription. However, you must not drive if the medication affects you so that you cannot drive safely.
Illegal drugs can severely impair your judgement and driving ability
Illegal drugs can affect your driving ability in different ways, depending on the substance and how you react.
Cocaine and amphetamines can make you feel more awake, energetic and confident than you really are. They can also mask the feeling of tiredness without removing the tiredness itself. This may cause you to continue driving even though your driving ability is impaired.
Cannabis, such as hashish and marijuana, can impair your reaction time, attention, orientation and coordination. It can also affect how you perceive time, distance and what is happening around you.
Illegal drugs can seriously impair your driving ability and increase the risk of road accidents. The effects can also be difficult to judge and may remain even when you no longer feel affected.
It is prohibited to drive if you cannot drive in a safe manner due to illness. This means that if you are so ill that your driving ability is impaired, it is just as illegal to drive as it is when you are fatigued or under the influence of alcohol, drugs, or unsuitable medication.
Examples of conditions that can impair your driving ability include fever, dizziness, impaired vision, severe pain, and a risk of fainting – all of which can make it difficult to react, judge, or control the vehicle safely.
If your ability to drive safely is impaired due to illness, you are not allowed to drive
Do not take chances – always contact your doctor before getting behind the wheel if you are unsure whether your medical condition is making you unfit for driving.
Strong emotions can affect you as a driver, often negatively. If you are very angry, sad, upset, or stressed, your judgement may be impaired and the risk of impulsive or risky decisions may increase. If you feel that your emotions are taking over, you should wait to drive until you have calmed down.
Studies have shown that drivers who are angry, upset, or crying behind the wheel are 10 times more likely to be involved in an accident than calm drivers.
Irritation, anger and other strong emotions make most people worse drivers
Driving with one hand while using a mobile phone with the other can be very dangerous, because both your attention and your ability to control the car may be impaired. You must therefore not use a mobile phone or other communication equipment while holding it in your hand when driving. You must also not use such equipment in any other way if it affects your driving negatively.
This means that you must not talk on the phone, send text messages, browse the internet or use your phone in any other way while holding it in your hand. Even using a phone without holding it may be prohibited if it affects your driving negatively.
Sending text messages, browsing the internet or using social media while driving takes your eyes and attention away from the traffic and can be very dangerous
You may talk on the phone without holding it in your hand, as long as the conversation does not affect your driving negatively. For safety reasons, however, you should still avoid phone calls in complex or demanding traffic situations.
A person you are talking to on the phone cannot see the traffic situation and adapt the conversation in the same way as a passenger in the car. A passenger can often notice that you need to concentrate and pause the conversation.
Even a hands-free call can therefore distract you and impair your attention, especially if the conversation is emotional or engaging.
