The police monitored outbound Christmas traffic on 22-23 December and return traffic on 26 December 2023 nationwide. Most, 43, accidents occurred on Friday and on Saturday the police caught a total of 72 drivers driving while intoxicated or seriously intoxicated.
Monitoring detected a total of 712 incidents of suspected causing of a traffic hazard. Most, 217, incidents of causing a traffic hazard occurred on Friday 22 December. Saturday (the day before Christmas Eve) and Tuesday (Boxing Day) came in joint second place with 174 suspected incidents on both days. The police also caught some drivers suspected of causing a serious traffic hazard on each day, with a total of 32 drivers being caught. Speeding was the most common suspected offence.
Most drivers of suspected driving while intoxicated were caught on Saturday 23 December (the day before Christmas Eve), when 44 drivers suspected of driving while intoxicated and 28 drivers suspected of driving while seriously intoxicated were caught. Over the whole Christmas period a total of 146 drivers suspected of driving while intoxicated and 87 drivers suspected of driving while seriously intoxicated were caught.
The police information system shows that shows that most accidents occurred on Friday 22 December, when there were 43 accidents, 7 of which resulted in injuries. There were a total of 122 accidents in Christmas traffic, with 18 accidents resulting in injuries.
Chief Superintendent Tuomo Katajisto at the National Police Board considers it excellent that apart from an accident that occurred already on Thursday, there were only injuries and no fatalities on the roads this Christmas. “Nevertheless, speeding measured in Christmas traffic posed a great risk to the health and life of road users. The 2022 Annual Report of the Finnish Crash Data Institute shows the speed of the driver involved to have been a background risk in more than half of fatal accidents in 2022. The importance of driving and situational speed is particularly important in poor road conditions,” concludes Katajisto.
