Falling accident in Hietalahti: Safety Investigation Authority, Finland carries out targeted investigation into sturdiness of balcony railing board structure

The Safety In­ves­ti­ga­tion Au­thor­ity, Fin­land has launched an in­ves­ti­ga­tion into a per­son falling through the bal­cony rail­ing board of an apart­ment block in Hi­eta­lahti, Helsinki on 17 Sep­tem­ber 2025.

“We can carry out targeted investigations, in which we focus particularly on a specific issue, instead of engaging in a 360-degree investigation people may normally expect from us. This is what we are now going to do with this investigation. We will proceed using the traditional safety investigation methodology, but in the investigation, we will focus particularly on examining the technical safety of the balcony railing board structure,” says Timo Naskali, Investigator in Charge.

The Safety Investigation Authority has conducted an investigation into an accident in 2016 in which a woman fell through a balcony board in Lahti. 

In addition, the Safety Investigation Authority has investigated, for example, the collapse of a sports hall roof in Järvenpää in 2010. One of the recommendations of this investigation was repeated in the investigation of 2016.

“In the investigation conducted in 2016–2017, we recommended, among other things, that balcony structures should withstand a person falling against it. We have also called for setting up a kind of property database so that information on potential safety deficiencies relevant to structures could be disseminated and made publicly known,” says Timo Naskali.

“I would like to emphasise that we do not yet know whether there is anything wrong with the balcony boards or their attachments. This will become clear only after we have examined and tested the boards used for the balcony,” Naskali points out.

A safety investigation usually takes about 9 to 12 months. A targeted investigation is expected to be completed sooner.