While 82 dangerous situations were recorded at Estonian railroad crossings in the last three years, there have already been 17 of them in the first five months of this year, according to the safety statistics of passenger train operator Elron.
“In 2021-2023, there were a total of 82 dangerous situations, or near misses, at crossings, where a pedestrian was only a few seconds away from a collision with a passenger train,” Natali Aosaar, Elron’s safety manager, said. “Most of the dangerous situations have taken place at Keila, Nomme, Tondi, Hiiu, Laagri and Kehra and Tapa crossings. There have been seven accidents at crossings in the last three years.”
Almost a third of dangerous situations at railway crossings involve children. In the first five months of this year, 17 narrow misses at railway crossings have been registered, mainly on the Tallinn-Keila route, and there has also been one accident.
According to Aosaar, the number of accidents has decreased in recent years, but the number of dangerous situations is on the rise.
“This is due to both the general increase in traffic load in the regions and the related distraction. When analyzing the image of the train’s on-board camera after a dangerous situation, we can see that many dangerous situations are related to engaging in extraneous activities while crossing the railway — for example, people are engrossed in their smartphones,” she said.
Elron called on pedestrians to be extra careful when crossing the railway, as the braking distance of a train is 400 to 1,400 meters, depending on the weather.
Source: BNS
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