Estonian 'cowboys'

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harryc
Posts: 1112
Joined: Thu Jan 23, 2014 6:09 pm
Location: Espoo-Helsinki

Estonian 'cowboys'

Post by harryc » Wed Feb 01, 2017 12:15 pm

Anybody familiar with law enforcement procedures for our Estonian friends who insist on not paying attention to the traffic regulations - speeding, running red lights, etc.?

We all know there are enough Finnish drivers making life dangerous - but their cars have FI plates and they carry Finnish driver's licenses - which give us some chance for control.

But it seems - from my questionning of both police and Estonians - that if a car has EST plates they are usually not bothered with - or just given oral 'warnings.' These people have no feeling of possible punishment - they tell me they don't get any idea of discipline from the idea they might get 'caught' - they know nothing happens.

Police that I ask say that they feel no compunction to get involved in any paperwork (trouble by itself) as Finnish authorities rarely get involved with foreign countries unless it's murder or armed robbery.

The interesting thing is that these people are basically 'permanent' here and also no one gets after them to get a FI driver's license or plates.

(I wonder if anyone has seen any published statement about what happens to ESTies if they are caught now 'on camera' - I should think it's a finger in the police's eye that they should not be able to ignore.)



Estonian 'cowboys'

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tavastia
Posts: 527
Joined: Tue Mar 08, 2016 1:54 pm

Re: Estonian 'cowboys'

Post by tavastia » Thu Feb 02, 2017 2:40 pm

Also if you are resident in Finland driving a foreign registered car is not allowed, but it seems that all construction workers are just "tourists". They were looking to charge more Finnish registered cars but foreign can drive without paying anything of the road use. A vignette system like even Germany plans to introduce could solve the problem of missing money for the road repairs?

harryc
Posts: 1112
Joined: Thu Jan 23, 2014 6:09 pm
Location: Espoo-Helsinki

Re: Estonian 'cowboys'

Post by harryc » Thu Feb 02, 2017 3:17 pm

Also if you are resident in Finland driving a foreign registered car is not allowed, but it seems that all construction workers are just "tourists". They were looking to charge more Finnish registered cars but foreign can drive without paying anything of the road use. A vignette system like even Germany plans to introduce could solve the problem of missing money for the road repairs?
All true - your comments increase the reasons for 'doing something' as it would also result in government revenue (plus the 'fines' :D ).

But as it stands now - they all get a free ride with respect to 'dangerous driving.' The road culture in Estonia is still decades old - I drove to Tartu once and it was hard to believe - much like Finland was in the 70's.


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