Helsinki just went a full year without a single traffic death

Helsinki hasn’t registered a single traffic-related fatality in the past year, municipal officials revealed this week.

Although road deaths are on the decline across the EU, with a 3 percent decrease in 2024, accidents with tragic outcomes are still commonplace in metropolitan areas. To go a full year without one is a remarkable feat for most cities — let alone a European capital.

In 2023, 7,807 Europeans lost their lives in traffic accidents in EU cities. Fifty-five people died in traffic accidents in Berlin last year, and nine individuals lost their lives in collisions in the Brussels region over the past 12 months.

While Helsinki is among the smallest EU capitals, with a little under 690,000 residents, some 1.5 million people live in and commute throughout the metropolitan area.

Roni Utriainen, a traffic engineer with the city’s Urban Environment Division, told the Finnish press that the achievement was attributable to “a lot of factors … but speed limits are one of the most important.”

Citing data that shows the risk of pedestrian fatality is cut in half by reducing a car’s speed of impact from 40 to 30 kilometers per hour, city officials imposed the lower limit in most of Helsinki’s residential areas and city center in 2021.

The limits were enforced with 70 new speed cameras and a policing strategy based on the national “Vision Zero” policy, with the goal of achieving zero traffic injuries or deaths. Data collected by Liikenneturva, Finland’s traffic safety entity, shows Helsinki’s traffic fatalities have been declining ever since.

European model

Helsinki’s authorities have spent the past five years trying to replicate the miracle they first achieved in 2019, when no pedestrians or cyclists were killed in automotive collisions.

Utriainen stressed the mission’s success is based on data-driven, long-term mobility policies and urban development strategies that have transformed the once car-centric capital. In many parts of the city, roads have been narrowed and trees have been planted with the deliberate goal of making drivers uncomfortable — the rationale being that complex urban landscapes force drivers to move more cautiously through populated areas.

The city has also invested in new pedestrian and cycling infrastructure, including a comprehensive network of cycling paths that span over 1,500 kilometers. It has boosted its public transportation network with decarbonized and self-driving buses, and received European Investment Bank funding for a new tram line.

Utriainen said the upgrades helped “reduce car use and, with it, the number of serious accidents.” And statistics show that between 2003 and 2023, the number of traffic-related injuries in the city dropped from 727 to just 14.

Helsinki’s success is being noted in Brussels, where the European Commission is pressing to curb road fatalities. Earlier this year, Transport Commissioner Apostolos Tzitzikostas noted most member countries weren’t on track to meet the EU’s 2018 goal of halving traffic-related fatalities by 2030.

Hanne Cokelaere contributed to this article.