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

  • Hillhead Digital event taking place March 2021
    November 5, 2020
    The Hillhead Digital event has been announced, taking place exclusively online 9–10 March 2021.
  • An Italian job in Ortisei for Simex’s PL self-levelling planer
    February 21, 2019
    A Simex PL 5020 self-levelling planer recently proved its worth in the historical centre of Ortisei, northeastern Italy. The peaceful and tidy town of under 5,000 people is nestled within the beautiful South Tyrol Mountains.
  • Date set to complete D1 Višňové Tunnel section
    July 20, 2023
    The D1 section between Lietavská Lúčka and Dubná Skala in Slovakia includes the partially completed 7.5km twin-tube Višňové Tunnel - to be the country's longest.
  • The drive for safer roads around the world
    October 1, 2019
    The world’s roads are dangerous places. Around 1.35 million/year are killed in road crashes, according to data collated by the World Health Organization (WHO). Just 28 countries are rated as having adequate laws covering the five biggest risk factors in crashes according to WHO: speed; DUI; helmets; seat belts; child restraints. Europe has the world’s safest roads, with the lowest level of road casualties/year. Around 9.2 people/100,000 of population are killed on Europe’s roads/year on average. Africa m