Estonia, Legislation, Security, Transport

At 7.40 a.m. Wednesday morning, 13 vehicles – four trucks and 9 cars – collided in three traffic accidents on the 22nd kilometre near Jõelähtme. Four people were taken to hospital, none of them with life-threatening injuries, and one person was given medical aid at the spot, police spokeswoman Helen Uldrich told Public Broadcasting.

Postimees wrote that the chain collision started as a truck was making a u-turn and two cars drove into it as their speed was probably too high and road extremely slippery. While the air temperature was above zero, the road surface temperature fell to below zero at dawn, causing ice formation. A few minutes later a van arrived at the scene that also could not stop, turned off the road to avoid collision, and fell on its side. Some 200 metres further, at least four cars had collided and 50 metres further there was another truck upside down, Postimees describes. Witnesses said that this was one of the biggest accident sites they had ever seen and there was a traffic jam several kilometres long since cars could not pass the section of the road.

Police said that the road was so slippery in the region that it was hard for people to even stand up.

"But slippery road alone can never be the sole cause of a traffic accident, there is always driving techniques," said North Estonian police Prefect Kristian Jaani, adding that in winter one has to bear in mind that roads may be slippery, especially during the morning time and then a small driving mistake can result in very harsh consequences.

Traffic on the lane exiting Tallinn was closed in the distance of several kilometres for the whole day and was opened again for vehicles at 5 p.m.

The Highways Board warned that road surface temperatures everywhere in Estonia are below zero an there is black ice on roads. There were many other traffic accidents in Estonia on Wednesday caused by the extremely slippery roads.