The road accident investigation teams investigate all fatal road and off-road traffic accidents. Preventing them is crucial from the human perspective in particular, but also from the economic perspective. In addition, the teams investigate on a project basis accidents that have caused serious personal injury and property damage to clarify certain specific questions. A total of around 350–400 accidents are investigated annually.

The main aim of the investigation is to promote road safety. Accident investigations do not comment on guilt or compensation issues.

The Finnish Crash Data Institute (OTI) coordinates the work of road accident investigation teams but does not intervene in the independent working of the teams. OTI also takes care of the training of the teams, the use of investigation results, and information services.

Accidents resulting in serious injuries

According to official statistics, hundreds of people sustain serious injuries in traffic accidents in Finland each year. The official figures do not include any traffic accidents that are not reported to or discovered by the police, and it is estimated that the actual number is more than a thousand seriously injured people.

A comprehensive picture of serious injuries from traffic accidents is difficult to form because the information lies scattered across multiple operators. In addition, shortcomings in the collection of statistics have resulted in inadequate information being available for the promotion of better traffic safety policies. A new research method developed by the Finnish Crash Data Institute OTI improves the study of accidents resulting in serious injuries.