Tallinn City Councillors Liis Klaar (Reform) and Kristen Michal (Reform) made inquiries to Mayor of Tallinn Mihhail Kõlvart (Center) about the number of accidents in public transport and driving style of the tram, trolleybus and bus drivers. 

Kõlvart responded that a total of 142,4 million trips were made on public transport in Tallinn in 2019, and 80 incidents were registered.

Last year, Tallinn City Transport Ltd (TLT) received 164 complaints related to the driving style of tram, trolleybus or bus drivers. In total, there were 2,457,992 trips made with buses, 268,727 with trolleybuses, and 305,363 trams rides.

Kõlvart believes that public transport in Tallinn is safe, but one of Tallinn's priorities, the new rolling stock, will certainly increase safety. He said there are regular media and publicity announcements made to draw attention to holding on to a rail in public transport and helping the elderly and the disabled.

Klaar, who asked the question, mentioned her own accident on the tram. During a ride tram from Kadriorg to Hobujaama on December 5, as she validated her public transport card, the tram started to move and she fell over.

"The tram made a sudden trembling and I fell, a hat on one side and a handbag on the other and me in the middle. The driver stopped the tram and asked if I needed an ambulance. Then he came with some kind of a form and wanted me to sign it to confirm that I didn't have any complaints. I declined because I had not yet understood whether something was injured or not," Klaar explained.

She added that when she made it to Hobujaama tram stop, she couldn't get off the bench and an ambulance was called for her. Klaar was taken to East Tallinn Central Hospital (ITK) where she was diagnosed with lumbar spine and pelvic fracture. She was in hospital for nine days.

Klaar said that all of this pain and effort wouldn't have happened if firstly, there wasn't this validating system, which nobody seems to consider necessary. Secondly, she points out the so-called retrotrams, where there are wooden benches on each side and which don't have the poles to hold on to in the middle and that makes it easy to fall. Thirdly, the commissioner was disturbed by the fact that the hurt passenger is given a form to sign, where they need to confirm that there are no claims.

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