Eesti in brief - 2011-01-05

Last year, the number of traffic fatalities in Estonia fell just short of one hundred, reports National Broadcasting. The year 2011 was significantly worse than 2010, when 79 persons lost their lives in traffic. The number of fatalities grew particularly due to pedestrians and bicycle riders falling victim to traffic accidents. “The sad thing for the police is that those who die are the most defenseless – pedestrians and bicyclists – we have seen an increase in this trend,” said Police Major of the Police and Border Guard Board Margus Kotter. Kotter added that during the autumn season, when it rains, people are not clearly visible to drivers – they wear dark clothes and fail to wear reflectors, which makes them accident-prone.

North Estonian Narva city council member and Russian Citizens’ Union chairman in Estonia Juri Mishin died on Dec. 29 in a car crash in Leningrad oblast, reports National Broadcasting. Mishin’s death was reported by Sergei Sergeyev, chairman of the Union of Organizations of Russian Co-patriots. He was in a minivan that was on its way from St. Petersburg to Ivangorod, when a Scania truck, Opel car and Mercedes minivan collided in Alekseyevka village, killing 8 people. Mishin was identified by the passport in his pocket. He was 65. He headed the Russian Citizens Union from its inception in 1992. In March this year he ran for Riigikogu on the list of the Russian Party in Estonia, but did not get elected.

The city of Tallinn will increase advertising taxes by 25 percent starting January, reports Aripaev Online. The city was deprived of the right to collect sales tax as a local tax, and thus needs to find other sources of income.  Companies operating in Tallinn have complained that they learned about the tax increase just a couple of weeks ago when the city government sent the corresponding announcement and, thus, the tax increase comes unexpectedly in the light of a cooling economy.