The Morning After Sweden Changed From Driving On The Left Side To Driving On The Right, 1967
Dagen H (H-day) - today usually called "Högertrafikomläggningen" (lit. 'the right-hand traffic reorganisation') - was the day Sweden switched from driving on the left-hand side of the road to the right.
The "H" stands for "Högertrafik", the Swedish word for right-hand traffic.
It was by far the largest logistical event in Sweden's history.
On Dagen H - Sunday, September 3, 1967 - all non-essential traffic was banned from the roads from 01:00 to 06:00.
Any vehicles on the roads during that time had to follow special rules.
All vehicles had to come to a complete stop at 04:50, then carefully change to the right-hand side of the road and stop again - to give others time to switch sides of the road and avoid a head-on collision - before being allowed to proceed at 05:00.
In Stockholm and Malmö, however, the ban was longer - from 10:00 on Saturday until 15:00 on Sunday - to allow work crews to reconfigure intersections.
The relatively smooth changeover saw a temporary reduction in the number of accidents.
On the day of the change, only 157 minor accidents were reported, of which only 32 involved personal injuries, with only a low number being serious
These initial improvements did not last, however.
The number of motor insurance claims returned to "normal" over the next six weeks and, by 1969, the accident rates were back to the levels seen before the change.
Trams in central Stockholm, in Helsingborg and most lines in Malmö - which ultimately abolished its tram system in 1973 - were withdrawn and replaced by buses, and over one thousand new buses were purchased with doors on the right-hand side.
Some 8,000 older buses were retrofitted to provide doors on both sides, while Gothenburg and Malmö exported their left-traffic buses to Pakistan and Kenya.
Fellow Nordic country Iceland changed to driving on the right in May 1968, on a day known as H-dagurinn.
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