Report of the railway accidents investigated in 2023
Preface to the report
Safety investigations in Estonia have been conducted since 31 March 2004 when the legal provisions stipulated in the “Railway Safety Directive” 2004/49/EC came into force within the Railways Act approved by the Parliament. At that time the safety investigation unit of railway accidents started work at the Crisis Regulation Department of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications. Before that, an investigation unit for aviation accidents had already been operating at the Crisis Regulation Department for several years. Later, an investigation unit for maritime accidents started work at the same department. With this, a single structure for safety investigations of the three transport areas was created in Estonia. Legally safety investigations were only loosely connected to the core function of the Crisis Regulation Department.
Today, the duties of safety investigation agency are performed by the Safety Investigation Bureau (ESIB). Safety investigation units of maritime, aviation and railway accidents and incidents were separated from the Crisis Regulation Department on 1 January 2012 and merged with the Safety Investigation Bureau that had been newly created for this purpose.
The latest bigger changes in the organisation of safety investigations of railway accidents and incidents came when the provisions of the European Parliament and Council Directive (EC) 2016/798 were applied to the Estonian judicial area. These came into force with the Railways Act on 31 October 2020. In Estonia, occurrences considered affecting railway safety are accident, serious accident, and incident which is pursuant to the classification of occurrences affecting railway safety in the Railway Safety Directive. Safety investigations are conducted pursuant to national legislation in accordance with the Safety Directive. Only the Safety Investigation Bureau is competent to conduct safety investigations. Safety investigations of railway accidents and incidents are conducted independently of any other investigation of the same occurrence.
During the year under review the safety investigation of the serious accident that took place on 11 March 2022 at the Ropka level crossing was completed. The annual report discusses the current status of processing the recommendations presented in the investigation report. During the year the ESIB kept account of and analysed all other accidents and incidents they were made aware of. No new safety investigations were launched.
3.1 Overview of completed investigations
During the year, the Safety Investigation Bureau received 12 notifications of accidents and 6 notifications of incidents. Of the accidents, 7 took place on level crossings, 5 cases were of a train hitting a person. No serious accidents took place. The report does not contain information about suicides that took place on the railway.
In the previous year, 2022, the Safety Investigation Bureau received notifications of 17 accidents and 7 incidents. In 2021 and 2020 the ESIB was notified of 8 and 10 accidents, respectively. The number of notifications of incidents in the same years was 5 and 1. In the pre-Covid years of 2019, 2018 and 2017 the ESIB received 19, 33 and 24 initial notifications of train accidents, respectively. There were 5, 9 and 3 notifications of incidents in the same years.
At the end of the first month of the year, on 30 January, the safety investigation of the serious accident that took place at Ropka level crossing on 11 March 2022, was completed. The safety investigation report was presented to the safety authority Consumer Protection and Technical Regulatory Authority, the railway infrastructure manager Estonian Railways Ltd, the railway transport company AS Eesti Liinirongid (Elron) and the Emergency Centre for the proceedings of recommendations.
Operation Lifesaver Estonia (OLE) on 2004 aastal AS Eesti Raudtee eestvedamisel asutatud mittetulundusühing, mille missiooniks on suurendada oluliselt elanikkonna teadlikkust raudteeliiklusega kaasnevatest võimalikest ohtudest ja õiguspärasest käitumisest raudteel, eesmärgiga vähendada raudteedel toimuvate liiklusõnnetuste ning nendes hukkunud ja vigastatud inimeste arvu. OLE liikmed on AS Eesti Raudtee, Edelaraudtee AS ja AS GoRail.