Several people were injured in a serious traffic accident on highway 12 near the city of Lahti on Tuesday morning in a day of traffic chaos on Finnish roads.
Later in the day, up to 30 cars were involved in a pile-up on the Turunväylä slipway in Espoo while in a separate incident a heavy goods truck overturned in Vantaa.
The Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI) has issued warnings of bad or very bad driving conditions in eight regions across southern and southwestern Finland due to an earlier snowstorm.
Driving conditions have been made worse by unusual weather conditions: the temperature is too cold to salt the roads, and strong gusts of wind stir powdery snow into the air, making visibility even poorer for motorists.
The City of Helsinki's emergency services also issued a warning of dangerous driving conditions around the capital region, urging motorists to avoid unnecessary journeys, to drive at a slow speed and to remember to keep a safe distances from the car in front.
Espoo pile-up
In Espoo, the Turunväylä slipway was closed on Tuesday afternoon after an incident involving up to 30 cars near an Ikea outlet.
"Thirty cars is currently the best estimate, the number is growing all the time as there were more rear-end collisions following the initial incident," on-call manager with Länsi-Uusimaa emergency services Juha Rajala told Yle. "According to the firefighter's report, between five and seven cars were seriously hit."
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He said that emergency services were still assessing the condition of the people involved._
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"The severe weather conditions make the work more difficult," he added.
Crash involving six cars near Lahti
According to police at the scene in Lahti, six vehicles were involved in the crash: an articulated lorry, a bus, two Defence Forces vehicles and two passenger cars.
Only the driver, with no other passengers, was aboard the bus at the time of the accident, police added.
The fire chief on duty with the Päijät-Häme Rescue Department also confirmed to Yle that there are no fatalities.
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Sergeant Pasi Tanttu of the Häme Police Department told Yle that according to initial information the incident began when the bus pulled out from a stop and the two Defence Forces vehicles, travelling from the direction of Tampere, collided with it. The lorry then crashed into the Defence Forces' vehicles, before the two passenger cars crashed into each other.
Tanttu added that the situation could have been a lot worse.
"The ingredients were there for an even worse situation, as large vehicles were involved and the road was busy. If smaller cars had happened to come in between, then it might have gone really badly. Fortunately, this did not happen now," he said.
Police are still investigating the cause of the accident.
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Driving conditions and visibility in the area were extremely poor due to heavy snowfall, with the FMI warning of hazardous conditions for the entire Päijät-Häme region.
"Speed must now be adapted to the conditions. Patience is an asset," Tanttu added.
On-duty fire officer Juuso Nummela from the Pirkanmaa Rescue Services echoed Tanttu's call for drivers to exercise caution on the roads under challenging weather conditions. His department had dealt with over a dozen crashes in the region by Tuesday lunchtime.
"You need patience on the road, the snow is falling heavily and visibility is poor," Nummela said.