Skip to main content

Estonia road safety issue

Estonia’s worrying road safety issue is causing concern.
By MJ Woof November 2, 2020 Read time: 1 min
Estonia’s roads suffer an increasing rate of crashes involving wild animals in the roadway - image © courtesy of Woravit Vijitpanya, Dreamstime.com
Newly released traffic data from Estonia shows a serious cause for concern. The number of crashes involving wild animals in the roadway has increased.

There have been more than 6,000 crashes involving wild animals in Estonia in the past two years. This compares poorly with data prior to 2015, when there were around 2,000-2,500 crashes involving wild animals/year.

According to the report, part of the problem is that existing highway fencing intended to prevent animals from reaching the roadway are not proving effective. Some have been holed, while others are too low and allow animals to jump over them.

New animal crossings are seen as the solution to the problem, although this will likely come at a cost.

Related Content

  • Safety barriers improve highway safety
    July 3, 2012
    Highway safety could yet improve using available technology more widely Safety barriers still offer huge opportunities to improve accident statistics worldwide. There is a wide array of products on the market to suit all types of installation and with a diverse range of solutions for each application. Highway authorities have been installing barriers for many years now and the technology continues to improve, however an analysis of accident statistics shows that barriers offer further potential. Details fr
  • EU funds for Polish eastern voivodeships
    February 13, 2024
    The total available under the European Funds for Eastern Poland programme is €2.7 billion of which around €430 million is for roads.
  • UK road investment strategy questioned
    July 31, 2023
    A report from the House of Commons Transport Committee recommended cancellation of some major new projects such as the Stonehenge Tunnel and the Lower Thames Crossing.
  • Road safety gain for UK in 2013
    June 26, 2014
    The UK’s Department for Transport (DfT) reveals that the road fatality rate for 2013 was the lowest since records began in 1926. The data shows that 1,713 people died on the UK’s road network in 2013, around half that of the figure recorded for the year 2000. This reveals an on-going improvement in road safety levels. The DfT statistics show that in 2013, 21,657 people were seriously injured in road crashes, while the total number of casualties of all severities stood at 183,670. Car occupant fatalities in