The police will supervise the traffic behaviour and safety of unprotected road users on Tuesday, 12 April 2022, by targeting supervision at cyclists, drivers of light electric vehicles, and pedestrians, and their behaviour in traffic.
Particular attention will be paid to observing the traffic lights and driving on the pavement.On the supervision day, stopping and parking of motor vehicles that hinders and endangers the movement of unprotected road users will also be intervened with.
“The objective of the day is to increase traffic safety in particular on pavements, zebra crossings and bicycle crossings, which are dangerous places according to statistics. This means that on the supervision day, stopping and parking that hinders and endangers the movement of unprotected road users will also be interfered with,” says Chief Superintendent Heikki Kallio of the National Police Board.
According to Kallio, supervision will mainly focus on cases in which a vehicle has been unlawfully stopped or parked on the pavement, zebra crossing, too close to the front edge of a zebra crossing, or on a bicycle path or lane.
Parking control will be carried out in cooperation with municipal parking control.
Unprotected road users account for a high share of road fatalities
Last year, the percentage of unprotected road users, that is, pedestrians and drivers of two-wheelers, of the fatalities in road traffic in was 35.7 percent.
“For this reason, traffic safety work must continuously focus on the safety of these road user groups,” Kallio says.
Statistics Finland’s statistics reveal that in 2021, 598 motorcycle riders, 534 cyclists and 255 pedestrians were injured in road traffic. Unprotected road users accounted for approximately 62 percent of seriously injured casualties last year.
“However, it should be noticed that not all accidents of cyclists, particularly so-called individual accidents, with no other parties involved, are reported to the police, and therefore do not end up in the official statistics. That means that in actual fact the number of the injured is higher,” Kallio points out.
Securing the safety of unprotected road users will continue with a two-week intensive control operation period targeted at zebra crossings (18 April to 1 May 2022), with main focus on compliance with rules that apply to zebra crossings.
