2018 to see extra budget for level-crossing safety

The government on Thursday announced that the expenditure in the next budget will be raised by EUR two million to 99 million euros to make the country’s level crossings safe, reported the national broadcaster Yle.

The original allocation for the level crossing safety was 2.7 million euros.

The demand for increased budgetary allocations for raising the safety at level crossings was raised after the October 26 traffic accident at the Raseborg level crossing. Four people including three military personnel were killed in the accident that took place when a train collided with a military vehicle near the Town of Tammisaari, some 100km west of Helsinki, at a level crossing. The passenger train was commuting between Karjaa and the port Town of Hanko.

Although the human casualties in the accident shocked the whole society and raised questions about travellers’ safety, such accidents are not new in Finland. According to the Finnish Transport Agency, at least 27 people have been killed in level crossing accidents in the country since 2013, with all of them taking place at level crossings where there was no signal light or warning for vehicles on train movements.

The agency also said that as many as 2102 of the country’s 2,778 level crossings have no signal light.