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The Journal
6 days ago
- Automotive
- The Journal
Why did Helsinki have zero road deaths in the last year - and could Ireland achieve the same?
LAST UPDATE | 2 hrs ago IN THE 12 months to August, not one person died in a road traffic collision in Helsinki, Finland. The feat may sound impossible to Ireland, which has seen a steady increase in the number of road fatalities in recent years. So far this year, 95 people have died on Irish roads. In 2023, the Road Safety Authority launched their 'Vision Zero' campaign, which aimed to achieve zero road deaths by 2050. However, as people continued to lose their lives, the RSA pivoted to more provocative messaging. The most recent ad campaign shows blood on the hands of those who drink drive, as well as those who don't call it out. Helsinki, a city with a population of 690,000, really has achieved 'Vision Zero'. Advertisement It's come close before. In 2019, no pedestrians or cyclists were killed in road traffic collisions, and just two people in vehicles died. The city's authorities have been trying to replicate the feat for the last five years. Now, after a full 12 months with no fatalities, The Journal asked how they managed it – and whether they have any tips for Ireland. Need for (less) speed Roni Utriainen, a traffic engineer with the city's Urban Environment Division, says a multitude of factors come into play, but perhaps the most transformative has been speed. More than half of the streets of Helsinki now have speed limits of 30km/h – a significant reduction on the 50km/h limits of the 1980s. Statistically, one in ten pedestrians hit by car travelling at 30km/h will die of their injuries. Whereas if a car is travelling at 50km/h, the likelihood of being killed is five in ten. Helsinki has also made other changes to discourage speeding. Narrower streets, Utriainen says, make a difference to a driver's boldness. As well as that, 70 new speed cameras have been installed around the city in the last seven years. Related Reads Irish car bonnets are getting taller every year, risking children's and pedestrians' lives - study Fianna Fáil TD says learner drivers should be allowed drive a car unaccompanied Dublin TD calls for SUV-free zones as study shows these cars are more likely to kill There are also fewer people driving cars. 'Helsinki has a rather good public transport network,' he says. 'This also reduces the number of crashes, because more people take a tram, or metro or bus line.' To expand on this, the city has plans to construct a so-called cycling 'super highway'. Utriainen says that another factor for the reduction in road deaths may be that residents of Helsinki have a better attitude to their fellow road users. 'I would say that drivers give way in most cases to pedestrians,' he said. 'It's more about overall culture and overall society.' Readers like you are keeping these stories free for everyone... A mix of advertising and supporting contributions helps keep paywalls away from valuable information like this article. Over 5,000 readers like you have already stepped up and support us with a monthly payment or a once-off donation. Learn More Support The Journal
IOL News
31-07-2025
- Automotive
- IOL News
This European capital city hasn't recorded a single road death in over a year
Helsinki has managed to go an entire year without one road death. Image: Armand Tamboly / Connect Images via AFP As difficult as it is to believe, given the daily carnage that we see on South Africa's roads, Finland's capital city, Helsinki, has not seen a single traffic fatality in more than a year. Police officials confirmed the milestone this week, Finnish publication YLE reported, stating that the last known fatal vehicle accident occurred in early July 2024 in the city's Kontula district. Helsinki's streets haven't always been this safe, with the city recording around 30 road deaths and 1,000 injuries per year in the late 1980s, according to reports. Traffic injuries in the city have been reduced to just 277 in the past year. While city-specific road fatality data is not easily available in South Africa, consider that the province of Gauteng records around seven road deaths per day, equating to more than 2,500 per year, according to the Provincial Legislature. But what is the secret to Helsinki's traffic safety success? You're not going to like this. "A lot of factors contributed to this, but speed limits are one of the most important," traffic engineer Roni Utriainen told YLE. And we're not talking about the 60km/h and 80km/h zones that are common in Mzansi's cities. He said more than half of the city's streets now have a speed limit of 30km/h, and this was recently extended to all areas near schools. But enforcement also plays a key role, Utriainen said, with city officials recently installing more automated enforcement systems such as traffic cameras. Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Advertisement Next Stay Close ✕ Ad Loading Excellent public transport, which reduces car use, as well as recent significant upgrades to pedestrian and cycling infrastructure, also play a key role in the city's exemplary safety record, he added. Overall, Utriainen attributes the zero-death rate to decades of sustained effort, and particularly the most recent traffic strategy, running from 2022 to 2026, which focuses on improving safety for pedestrians and cyclists with smarter intersection designs and safer crossroads. This is all despite significant snowfall in the winter months. Electric scooters recently became a problem in the city, Utriainen said, but this has largely been resolved through numerous measures that were put in place, the Helsinki Times reported. But could it simply be something in the water that causes Finland to breed really good drivers? Consider that Formula One drivers Kimi Räikkönen, Mika Häkkinen, Keke Rosberg, Mika Salo, Valtteri Bottas, Heikki Kovalainen and JJ Lehto all come from Finland. Not to mention successful rally drivers like Tommi Mäkinen, Marcus Grönholm, Juha Kankkunen and Jari-Matti Latvala. It's hard to imagine that any of them regularly stick to the 30km/h limit in Helsinki. Either way, there is a lot that can be learned from this city's remarkable achievement of one full year without a road fatality. If only the powers that be were willing to listen and act. IOL Motoring
Motor 1
30-07-2025
- Automotive
- Motor 1
This City Just Went a Whole Year Without a Traffic Death
One city in Northern Europe just went an entire year without a traffic-related death. Officials from Helsinki, Finland, confirmed to the Finnish publication YLE that it hasn't had a fatal accident since early July 2024, marking an impressive milestone for the Scandinavian coastal town. The achievement doesn't come from any one major policy shift, but rather a handful of small changes that added up to create a meaningful impact. "A lot of factors contributed to this, but speed limits are one of the most important," Roni Utriainen, a traffic engineer for Helsinki's Urban Environment Division, told YLE . Earlier this year, Helsinki lowered speed limits near schools to 30 kilometers per hour (18.6 miles per hour). Now, more than half of the city's roads carry that speed limit. Those same streets had a speed limit of 50 km/h (31 mph) 50 years ago, according to YLE . It's not just speed limits, of course. Infrastructure for cyclists and pedestrians has been greatly improved, while more automated traffic enforcement systems (speed and red-light cameras) have been added. Combine that with more traffic police on watch, a robust public transit system, and modern in-car active safety tech, and the result is no deaths in 12 months. Fatalities aren't the only metric that's fallen, either. Traffic-related injuries in Helsinki have also plummeted from nearly 1,000 yearly incidents on average in the 1980s to just 277 in the past year, says YLE . Utriainen credits the efforts of city officials, but also of drivers, bikers, and pedestrians. "The direction has been positive for years," he said. No pedestrians were killed in Helsinki due to traffic incidents in 2019, either. Photo by: Getty Images America, Take Notes The US could learn from Helsinki. In 2023, over 40,000 people died in America from traffic-related incidents. Car-related deaths have been a focal point in major US cities for years, in an effort to curb injuries and fatalities. Yearly data from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety shows a downward trend in traffic deaths since the 1970s, with the rate of death bottoming out in 2014, with 10.3 people killed per 100,000 people. Since then, that number has grown to a high of 13 deaths per 100,000 people in 2021, back down to 12.2 in 2023. In 2014, New York City, America's largest metropolitan area, famously enacted "Vision Zero," a series of policies designed to drive down traffic fatalities. Those policies seem to work, with deaths decreasing steadily in the city until the Covid-19 pandemic, where fatalities saw a spike. In 2024, 251 people were killed in traffic-related incidents in New York City. But so far, 2025 is the lowest year on record for traffic deaths in the metro, with just 87 fatalities recorded. "The 32 percent drop in traffic fatalities that we have seen this year is historic," said Mayor Eric Adams in a press release earlier this month. "It's also further proof that our administration's Vision Zero efforts are working. Strong enforcement against reckless driving is keeping pedestrians, cyclists, and drivers safe, and our administration will continue using all tools available to drive down traffic violence and deliver results that keep New Yorkers safe on and off our streets." More Car Laws 'PSA:' Expert Says This State Will Soon Change Its Speeding Law. Then He Reveals Speeding Will Carry Jail Time Lamborghini Driver Fined Over Missing 'Supercar License' Get the best news, reviews, columns, and more delivered straight to your inbox, daily. back Sign up For more information, read our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use . Share this Story Facebook X LinkedIn Flipboard Reddit WhatsApp E-Mail Got a tip for us? Email: tips@ Join the conversation ( )
