Sweden says worker negligence behind motorway landslide

Stockholm: Swedish authorities said Thursday that worker negligence at a construction site was believed to be behind a landslide that tore apart a mot...

Stockholm: Swedish authorities said Thursday that worker negligence at a construction site was believed to be behind a landslide that tore apart a motorway in western Sweden in September.

The landslide, which struck the E6 highway in Stenungsund, 50 kilometres (30 miles) north of Sweden's second-largest city Gothenburg, ripped up a petrol station car park, overturned lorries and caved in the roof of a fast food restaurant.

Prosecutor Daniel Veivo Pettersson said Thursday he believed "human factors" were behind the landslide as "no natural cause" had been found during the investigation.

He told a press conference the landslide had been triggered by a nearby construction site where too much excavated material had been piled up, putting excessive strain on the ground below.

"At this stage, we consider it negligent, in this case grossly negligent, to have placed so much excavated material on the site," Pettersson said.