Safety in Finnish waters, ships stays high

The safety of shipping in the Finnish territorial waters and on Finnish vessels has remained high in the past few years.

A total of 18 maritime accidents in the Finnish waters were reported to the Finnish Transport Safety Agency (Trafi) in the first six month in the current year, with 10 of them involving Finnish vessels, said Trafi in a recent press release.

The number of accidents in January-June 2017 was much lower than that in the same period of 2016.

A total of 11 accidents took place in the first half of 2016, with eight of them involving Finnish vessels.

There were, however, no serious maritime accidents in the first half of 2017.

“As a whole, the level of safety in Finnish maritime traffic can be considered high and it has been the situation for many years,” said Trafi Maritime Sector Director-General Tuomas Routa.

Trafi received reports on a total of 20 casualties in marine accidents between January and June, 2017. The figure includes accidents in Finnish territorial waters and in other parts of the world involving Finnish vessels. It also includes the accidents in Finnish waters involving foreign vessels.

According to information received by Trafi, there were only two accidents outside Finland that involved Finnish vessels.

In the previous five years, one to five maritime accidents took place every year.

So far, no serious accidents, deaths or injuries have taken place. In the previous five-year period, there were between 13 and 24 maritime accidents in the January-June period every year.