Officials from the municipality of Finland’s capital Helsinki have reported that there have been no traffic fatalities in the city in the past year. “Despite a decline in road fatalities across the EU (3% in 2024), fatal accidents in big cities are still common. Going a year without an accident is an extraordinary achievement for most cities, let alone a European capital,” writes Politico magazine.
Roni Utriainen, an engineer at the city’s traffic department, said the new achievement was made possible by “many factors, the most important of which is the speed limit.”
In recent years, Helsinki has narrowed its roads and deliberately planted trees in places that make it difficult for drivers to drive. It has also lowered the speed limit to 30 km/h, installed 70 new speed cameras and increased police enforcement.
All of these measures have made the city’s landscape more complex and forced drivers to drive more carefully. The city has also updated pedestrian and cycling infrastructure and expanded public transportation, including a new line of driverless buses.
Politico cites the following statistics for the EU: 7,807 Europeans died in road accidents in 2023. Last year, 55 people died in traffic accidents in Berlin, and nine people died in traffic collisions in the Brussels region over the past 12 months.
It is worth adding: in early January 2025 , the Or Yarok association reported that 433 people died on Israeli roads last year. That is, more than one person died every day. These figures indicate a sharp increase in traffic fatalities (by 21%) compared to 2023.
