It's a tragedy to read that almost 100 people got killed in traffic [accidents] in Estonia during the first six months of this year. In Norway there were 74 people killed in the same period, 74 too many. In my everyday work in Estonia, I am, unfortunately, forced to drive quite a lot. And one has to realize that Estonian driving tradition is much different from [that in] the other countries that we would like compare ourselves with.
Each of these deaths has a direct governmental cost of more than one million kroons. On top of this, the loss for the families of these victims is incalculable. Norway has 4.5 million people, while Estonia has approximately 1.5 million citizens. It is therefore clear that the government has a [duty] not only to prevent an increase of these dark statistics, but to work hard to reduce them.