The condition of Estonian roads, which have suffered from chronic underfunding for years, is steadily worsening and there are insufficient resources for road development. As a result, road safety is also declining, said Tarmo Trei, executive director of the Estonian Infra Construction Association (ESTICA)

One way to improve road safety would be to upgrade the main highways to four-lane roads.

According to Trei, a previous analysis by the Transport Administration revealed that improving the safety level of Estonia's three main highways and the Tallinn Ring Road's single-lane sections to match the safety level of the current four-lane Tallinn-Tartu Highway could reduce traffic accidents by 25 annually and the number of injured or killed by 48 each year.

The current national road maintenance plan for 2024-2027 allocates €1.5 million for upgrading dangerous road sections in 2024-2025. However, the traffic safety program estimates that the actual need over those two years is €12.3 million.

The Transport Administration estimates that at least 50 hazardous road sections need to be rebuilt annually to save 0.65 lives and prevent eight serious injuries each year. In 2023, 39 dangerous road sections were rebuilt; in 2024, that number dropped to 14 and plans for 2025 include the reconstruction of only 10 such sections.

Over the past five years, €28 million has been invested in this measure — an average of €5.6 million per year. According to Trei, the known planned funding for 2025 under this measure is just €0.9 million, which is only one-sixth of the five-year average.

ESTICA estimates that maintaining the state road network would require at least €250 million in annual funding. However, only €100 million is planned for 2025. This amount merely covers maintenance needs, while the actual funding shortfall for state roads has reached a point where, starting from last year, at least €450 million annually should have been directed to state roads.

As of early 2024, Estonia has 17,000 kilometers of state roads. Road conditions improved until 2021, but progress has since stalled and due to a lack of funding, a rapid decline in road surface quality is expected.

A total of 70 people died in traffic accidents on Estonian roads last year.

According to the Transport Administration, the number of traffic accidents has increased by 25 percent over the past five years — from 1,406 accidents in 2020 to 1,837 in 2024. The number of road fatalities has risen by a sixth during the same period: 59 people died in traffic accidents in 2020, compared to 70 deaths reported by the Police and Border Guard Board (PPA) in 2024. The preliminary figure from the Transport Administration is slightly lower at 67, but this may not account for those who died in hospitals following accidents.

Traffic deaths initially declined — from 55 in 2021 to 51 in 2022 — but rose again to 59 in 2023.

Similarly, the number of injured in traffic accidents has also increased. In 2020, 1,617 people were injured in car accidents, while last year the figure reached 2,138 — an almost 30 percent rise.

Based on the past five years of statistics, single-vehicle accidents make up the largest share of incidents at 41 percent. Collisions account for 36 percent, pedestrian-related accidents for 17 percent and other types of traffic incidents for 5 percent.

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