Tallinn is the only municipality to have installed its own speed cameras. As the law does not allow the municipality to look after its own speed cameras, they were handed over to the Road Administration.

But a new draft bill prepared by the Ministry of the Interior would see the police, the Road Administration and local governments cooperating in the use of speed cameras in the future. 

The task of the municipality would be to buy and manage equipment, the Road Administration would manage the database and the police would impose a fine. The local government would then receive half of the fine.

The explanatory memorandum to the bill states that 60 percent of all traffic accidents where a person is injured or killed occur on municipal roads and streets.

The Road Administration has estimated that if 10 speed cameras were put in the four largest cities, the damage caused by traffic accidents would be reduced by about € 3 million.

With the same bill, the Ministry of the Interior also wants to increase fines for speeding. The unit on which the fine is calculated will be raised from €3 to €5. This means that the maximum fine would increase from €190 to €300.

The explanatory memorandum says fines have stayed at the same level in recent years despite the fact that the standard of living and the minimum wage has improved significantly in Estonia, meaning the fines have a smaller and smaller impact on offenders.

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