Tallinn Transport (TLT) says it reviews mistakes and trains drivers on safety accordingly, including by replaying video footage.

Over last weekend, a child got left alone at a tram stop in Tallinn after their father was unable to get off the tram with a stroller before the doors closed. Pressing the door button and speaking to the tram driver did not help things, and the father had to dash to the next stop on foot to retrieve the child safely.

The story has spread on social media and has brought to light other similar incidents in which small children have ended up on one side of tram or bus doors, their adult carer on the other. In some cases, families got reunited at the same stop, while in others, as in the one outlined above, the vehicle continued on its way.

Kaido Padar, TLT board member, rejected the idea that the issue is a systemic one. He said the company gets about 270 complaints a month, but most of these concern schedule time-keeping rather than safety issues.

"Something like this has happened between one and four times during my four years here," Padar said, though noted the weekend's incident was the second this year.

According to the TLT executive, 750 of the company's 1,500 drivers undergo practical, video-based customer service training each year.

"This morning we already agreed that we would also look at the driver's perspective and videos, showing how to act in one situation or another," Padar added.

Regina Peegel, a board member of the transport section of the rail workers' union (Eesti Raudteelaste Ametiühing), said tram drivers can see what is happening around the tram doors either through cameras or mirrors. Drivers close the doors only once there is no longer any movement around them, she noted.

"One thing is certain: the driver did not do it deliberately. In fact, that is what the job is about — letting everyone off and then letting everyone on properly," Peegel said.

"You see, quite often passengers are on their phones and only at the last moment realize it is time for them to get off, then they run to the door and start pressing the buttons. But the driver can't see who is running where. From a driver's perspective, if no one is getting off anymore, they close the doors and start driving. That means you really need to be ready when it is time to get off," Peegel continued.

However, Padar conceded the recent incident also clearly illustrated a trend of tram drivers being unnecessarily distracted while driving, or in this case, not grasping fully what had happened.

"The tram driver said this morning that they didn't really understand what the person wanted, because people ask all sorts of things and some people do stupid things to drivers through the glass, something which has happened to us many times. It is even more common for people to try to provoke the driver. So these kinds of incidents do happen and, unfortunately, yes, people also get caught in the doors," Padar added.

Other recent reported incidents involving TLT trams include one from March this year, when a dog got left outside a tram with its leash stuck in the closed doors. A quick-thinking passenger pulled the emergency brake lever, thereby avoiding the worst. However, the driver then assaulted the passenger who had pulled the lever, both verbally and physically. TLT said the driver has been fired and that the passenger had acted "100% correctly".

In March 2025, reported this summer, a man on the tram lines on Peterburi tee was killed when a tram struck him. Surveillance footage from inside the tram showed the driver had been viewing a video on a dashboard-mounted smartphone at the time of the incident. The driver received a two-year suspended sentence.

The tram incidents come amid a wider pattern of serious public transport accidents in the capital. In August 2025, a 26-year-old Ukrainian woman died after being hit by a bus at Narva mnt; police found she had crossed against a red light while wearing headphones. Last month, a 65-year-old woman died after a bus struck her at a pedestrian crossing in Haabersti — she had crossed on a green light, but the driver did not spot her. The circumstances of that case are still under investigation.

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