The weekend's fatal car crash in Nurmijärvi has highlighted a widespread need for repairs in Finland's road bridges.
Four young people died early on Saturday morning when a car plunged from a bridge into a river. The accident took place on a narrow bridge on a private road not maintained by public agencies.
The bridge was not maintained in the winter, and the barriers at the side were short and flimsy. Police said on Sunday that there was no evidence the driver was speeding or intoxicated at the time of the crash.
According to the Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency, Finland has some 900 bridges in poor condition.
Pasi Anteroinen of the Finnish Road Safety Council says that the deficiencies should be recognised and repaired.
"There should be earmarked funding for improving the road network's safety," said Anteroinen.
Anteroinen did not offer an opinion on the safety of the bridge involved in the Nurmijärvi accident.
Generally, road safety has improved in recent years. The number of fatalities in traffic accidents fell significantly last year. That could create the illusion that all is well, according to Anteroinen.
"It could be that as the development has been good and as there are many other problems in society, road traffic safety has been left behind a little bit," said Anteroinen.
"Safety has a price, but when these kinds of tragedies happen it feels like we should have paid the price beforehand," said Anteroinen. "The human cost of a fatal traffic accident is always too big."
900 bridges in poor shape
One concern for road safety experts is bridges.
Finland has some 900 bridges in poor condition, according to Markku Äijälä from the Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency.
There are a total of some 15,000 bridges in Finland.
Many of the bridges of concern are on smaller roads, where a so-called "repair debt" has accumulated.
Damage to these bridges includes rotten wood in the structure, concrete showing wear and tear and rust in steel structures.
Barriers are also often a concern.
"From a road safety perspective the barrier issues are quite common," said Äijälä. "Barrier regulations were quite different in the 60s and 70s, when the road network was built."
"A typical problem is that the barriers are too low or too short, and they don't extend far enough on the approach to the bridge," said Äijälä. "Then it is possible to slip from the bridge into the water."
That appears to be what happened in Nurmijärvi.
Äijälä declined to offer an opinion on the weekend's accident. In general, he says that more funding is required to improve road safety.
"Sure more funding is needed," said Äijälä. "And it should be long-term funding. Short-term one or two year funding packages won't fix the repair backlog."