Railway safety in Finland 2009

When measured by the number of different types of accidents or by the number of fatalities the railway safety has remained about the same level in Finland during the last 10 years.

The number of derailments in rail traffic has decreased to near zero because many of the tracks have been upgraded and therefore the number of buckling of rails caused by the heat has de-creased significantly. Only 1 case of rail buckling was reported in 2009.

In 2009 there was two derailments in Finnish train traffic. A freight train derailed in Lahti, March 9th. Another freight train derailed in Toijala June 16th causing large scale damages to ATP appliances and the electrical system. This was the biggest accident in Finnish train traffic in years. Accident Investigation Board of Finland started investigating causes of the accident.

During the last 10 years the number of level crossing accidents in total has varied around 50 per year. In 2009 the number of level crossing accidents was as low as 35. This happened mainly due to significant decrease of accidents in harbour and industry areas. Also the number of level crossings decreased by 149 in 2009 (from 3 525 to 3 376). Number of fatalities and injured in level crossing accidents remained around the same level. During the last ten years the number of fatalities in level crossing accidents has varied from four to twelve. In 2009 there were eleven fatalities. The accidents were scattered around the rail network and there were no specific black spots to be named.

No passengers or employees were killed in Finnish train traffic during 2009 but one employee was killed in an accident that happened during shunting.