In 2020, there were 1,402 accidents with human victims in Estonia, 35 less than the year prior. 6,667 drunk drivers were caught last year, down by 484 from 2019.

Sirle Loigo, Police and Border Guard chief law enforcement officer, said the numbers are about the same as 2019 in large part, but the coronavirus' effect on traffic frequency must be considered. In addition, winter conditions in 2020 were not too difficult to operate in.

"In spots, traffic frequency decreased by 30-40 percent in April (during the national emergency situation - ed.) and that shows in the numbers and traffic data. If we are looking at the number of caught speeding violators last year, then stationary cameras registered nearly 30 percent less violations. This speaks to a decrease in traffic frequency and if we are looking at the effects of the coronavirus, then the number of single-vehicle accidents went up and there were less collisions on highways," Loigo said.

There were nearly a quarter million speeding violations recorded in 2020, with 218,116 of them violations up to 20 km/h of the speed limit. The total number of speeding violations in 2020 was up nearly 60,000 from 2019.

Loigo said the increase comes from using mobile cameras: "Close to 80,000 were those who were registered by stationary cameras and more than 122,000 were those who were fixated by mobile cameras."

"There is also the reason of the emergency situation affecting the use of cameras, as at that time, a mobile camera was the only way to monitor in a way that we would not have contact with the person and the cameras were used to the maximum in that time," Loigo added.

The officer said the number of violations registered by mobile cameras is also likely to remain high in 2021 as drivers are not yet used to them yet.

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