Pedestrian Deaths on the Rise
Though the overall number of traffic fatalities in Estonia declined by 13 last year, pedestrian fatalities bucked the trend, rising by five.
Compared to 2011, when 26 of the year's 101 fatalities were pedestrians, 2012 saw 31 pedestrians among the 88 people killed on the nation's roads. The figure is the highest in the last eight years, uudised.err.ee reported.
The largest changes between the two years were the types of roads where the accidents took place and who was killed. Whereas in 2011, only nine of the incidents took place on rural roads as opposed to city streets, in 2012 the number was 20. The number of victims aged 50 and over rose from four to 16.
More than half of this year's pedestrian fatalities occurred during hours of darkness on unlit roads.
The legal requirement to wear reflectors, in effect since July 2011, seems to have gone unheeded by most of the victims. Only two of those killed in each of the past two years were wearing them.