Estonia, EU – Baltic States, Legislation, Security, Transport

The government sent to the parliament the 2018 state budget amendments, with which the Police and Border Guard Board will be given money for the mobile speed cameras already this year, spokespeople for the Interior Ministry told. The portable speed cameras will be purchased for all prefectures and they will arrive on Estonian roads at the beginning of 2019.

Interior Minister Andres Anvelt said that the number of traffic casualties is the largest in the last six years and the reasons for it are usually high speed, alcohol or drivers being on their phone while driving.

"We must improve the situation very quickly and strongly," Anvelt said. "Compared to the previous years, the number of those killed on byroads has namely increased, as drivers already know the locations of speed cameras along large highways by heart. Mobile speed cameras work in exactly the same way as stationary ones, the violations is automatically forwarded to the handling center for formalization, but the new cameras will start changing locations several times a day, both according to the accident statistics and the observations of the road users."

Altogether 56 people have lost their lives in traffic this year already, while the indicator stood at 34 at the same time last year. A total of 9,223 traffic misdemeanors have been registered, marking an increase of 16% on year. The number of speedings, drunk driving incidents and especially the detection of unrelated activities increased.