September 21, 2023. Surveillance cameras in the Tallinn harbor area capture a motorcyclist moving along Reidi tee, in a westerly direction, and passing a green traffic light. At the same time, the light on the bisecting Petrooleumi tänav turns red (see map).

As staggering as it may seem, not one, not two, not three, but a total of four drivers run the red light in succession. Then a fifth driver — driving a white van — crosses too, only this time they slam into the motorcyclist.

The rider is thrown dozens of meters away to the other side of the road.

Particularly poignant is the fact that this junction was remodeled in recent years, following the construction of the Reidi tee, a major thoroughfare running through what had been a fairly non-descript and run-down area.

"Pealtnägija" managed to speak with all parties involved, from the victim to the driver who hit him, as well as a lawyer specializing in road traffic.

All said they believe the case is not just a very unfortunate accident but also a telling example of how Estonia's recent traffic safety programs have failed to yield results.

Siim, not his real name, but who works in the film industry, purchased a motorcycle in 2019 as a way of disconnecting from the 9-5 and enjoying a sense of freedom. He was able to enjoy that freedom until that fateful day in September 2023, which had started off as a typically mild and pleasant day for the time of year.

Siim and his partner, Liisa, also not her real name, have found the incident has left both physical and psychological scars.

Liisa speaks in this story too, simply because Siim himself does not remember anything from the day of the accident, nor from the following couple of weeks.

"In essence, all that I'm saying now is based on that video, as I remember nothing else. I had the green light. /…/ And you can see in the footage that I even slowed down. I let four cars that had already deliberately run the red light pass through the intersection. /.../ I assumed that this was already such a reckless thing to do that surely there wouldn't be a fifth. And then, in the video, you can see me riding into the middle of the intersection when, from [my] right, comes the fifth vehicle," Siim recounted.

The driver explained that since he had a green light from the outset: "I just didn't even look to check if it had changed, and I went through on red. /…/ I remember there was some kind of a bang."

Siim continues describing the events: "The van hits me, I almost flip over the roof, then I fall to the ground. The motorcycle's aluminum front wheel breaks off and starts bouncing around the place. When I saw that, I thought, wow, I actually survived something like that."

A clip of the incident taken from security cameras can be seen by clicking the video player below (viewer discretion advised). The four vehicles which initially crossed the red light, along with the fifth, which hit Siim, are highlighted, appropriately in red; Siim himself is in green.

Miraculously, Siim remained conscious and was rushed to the North Estonia Medical Center (PERH) in Mustamäe, where Liisa also hurried to meet him.

"He told me he didn't remember anything, but he did say 'this is completely messed up, I have almost 20 fractures or something like that'," Liisa recalled.

Siim himself enumerated his injuries: severe concussion, all his ribs broken, fractured shoulder blades, and multiple leg fractures.

Initially, it seemed that the worst was just the fractures and the concussion, but the situation took a sudden turn for the worse the following night.

"He was having convulsions. He couldn't enunciate his words and was drooling. I asked if he was in any pain, but everyone said they couldn't say," Liisa said.

Siim had developed a rare condition called fat embolism syndrome, where fat enters the bloodstream and clogs the blood vessels.

He was next placed in a medically induced coma. After 10 days in intensive care, doctors slowly began the waking-up process.

"Straight off the bat, I can tell all the TV viewers that this is not like in the movies. It's not like someone slowly opening their eyes, recognizing you, and then you both walk off into the sunset together ... It's an extremely painful and challenging process," Liisa warns.

Even upon waking up, it took time for things to get back to normality, Liisa went on.

"He was like a moody but serious teenage girl. /…/ He had an opinion on anything and everything and managed to express it well despite not being able to speak well. When he finally started talking, I asked if he knew who I was. 'Of course, I know who you are.' 'Okay, so who am I?' I asked. 'You're a peasant from Andorra,' he replied. I asked him this question five times, and each time he said I was a peasant from Andorra, then told me to get myself together."

One thing was that Siim had to go through a long rehabilitation process to relearn basic, everyday tasks. Another aspect was that the accident left deep psychological scars, and pain too.

"I can walk for three to five minutes at most before the pain starts in my leg, then shoots up to my shoulder," Siim continued.

"At that point, I have to sit down and rest for at least 30 minutes, sometimes for an hour, for the pain to die down a little. Then I take painkillers. And I can't sit just down anywhere — I have to carry a special ergonomic cushion with me. But then I often forget it, because my memory has been bad since the accident."

Notably, Siim has been designated a 50 percent work capacity, meaning as a 32-year-old man, he can only work in a limited capacity. However, obtaining this designation required its own separate struggle.

However, the primary reason "Pealtnägija" covered the story in such detail is that Siim is a part of the statistics some experts cite when saying that Estonia's recent traffic safety program has failed.

"For we specialists in this field, this was, as sad as it may be to say, a fairly typical accident," noted traffic lawyer Indrek Sirk.

"They don't happen massively often, but 2,000 injuries per year, and 70 deaths, are the price we pay as a society for our carelessness and arrogance," Sirk noted.

National traffic safety programs get laid out in five-year cycles, while the latest one aimed to reduce the number of fatalities from 55 to 40 a year between 2021 and 2025.

But actually, 69 people died last year, i.e., near the end of the cycle.

During the same period, the number of road traffic accidents rose, not fell: from 1,572 to 1,914.

Sirk and head traffic police officer Taavi Kirss both acknowledged that the dire situation is the consequence of poorly planned or maintained infrastructure, inconsistent law enforcement, and relatively lenient penalties.

This, in turn, leads to reckless and impatient behavior among many drivers.

A prime example is the disregard for red lights, which gets widely documented on social media and is frequently sent to "Pealtnägija" by TV viewers.

"Drivers start 'stealing' from the end of the signal cycle. Some push through when it's on amber and, as sad as it is, many are now fully running red lights," Sirk explained.

"That can mean drivers moving with a green light on the cross street don't expect it, while that's exactly what happened here."

Kirss noted that the amber signal is misunderstood.

"Amber is actually a prohibitive signal, so you're not supposed to enter an intersection when it is showing. Maybe it's worth clarifying here: You can only go through an amber light if you're in a situation where stopping would prove dangerous — for example, if the car behind you is too close, or if you've already crossed the stop line when the light has turned amber. Those are the only two cases where you're permitted to continue. Red is always prohibitive, of course. Yet, just two days ago, I stopped a driver who aggressively sped up just to make it across, but for him, this was completely normal behavior," Kirss said.

The statistics show this message has not percolated through to many drivers on Estonia's roads, certainly not in Tallinn anyway.

A nationwide traffic behavior survey conducted by the Transport Administration (Transpordiamet) last year revealed that in Tallinn, drivers entered intersections on amber traffic lights a whopping 67.5 percent of the time, and on red lights nearly 16 percent of the time.

According to the Estonian Motor Insurance Bureau (LKF), which represents road insurers, there were 366 accidents in the capital alone last year, due to traffic light violations.

Sirk's belief is: "What actually influences drivers is the fear of getting caught. That is, the feeling that they are being watched and that action will be taken against them. The PPA's job is primarily to make reckless drivers change their behavior."

This brings us to the issue of enforcement. "Pealtnägija" observed a PPA operation at one of Tallinn's most hazardous intersections, where 116 accidents happened last year alone—an astonishing average of one crash every three days.

In 2024, nearly 5,300 fines were issued for running red lights, 2,000 of which came from just two automatic cameras in the capital.

Taavi Kirss admitted that due to limited resources, the police cannot patrol as much as needed, and it seems that fines no longer have the same deterrent effect as they once did, given the rising cost of living.

The driver who hit Siim was taken to court for causing serious bodily harm, and in October last year, he was handed a suspended sentence of one and a half years as part of a plea bargain, plus was also ordered to pay €10,000 in compensation to Siim.

"Why wasn't he charged with attempted murder?" Siim's partner inquired.

"This was the fifth car to run the red light, while the video shows that he even accelerated, as there was some open space ahead," she continued.

The driver in question agreed to speak to "Pealtnägija" over the phone.

He said that the accident had affected his own well-being too, and that his life had taken a downward turn.

"There's been less work, less of everything. Less money, the whole thing. I think if this hadn't happened, things would have turned out very differently. /…/ Yet if you look at the roads right now, the same thing is still happening today," he said.

Sirk acknowledged that it is difficult for the police to catch red-light runners and speeders in real time.

Vehicle passengers, for instance family members, can intervene in such cases, he said, either before, during, or after.

"If someone runs a red light, we should call them out on it," Sirk said.

"That would definitely help — that feeling of shame and the perceived risk of getting caught are important when it comes to traffic behavior. Even the fear of being caught just by your spouse, or the embarrassment of your children noticing that you ran a red light or exceeded the speed limit, can influence behavior," he summed up.

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