On Croatia's A3 motorway, on the route from Zagreb to Bregana, near Sredanci, a tragedy unfolded on Tuesday evening. A truck with Macedonian plates left the road, smashed through the central crash barrier, hit a pillar, crossed into the opposite lane, hit again - and burst into flames. The driver, a Macedonian, was trapped in the cab and died.

According to the police of Brod-Posavina County, the accident happened at 14:15, in the area of Donji Andrijevci. „The driver was travelling in the southern lane when the vehicle left the road on the north side", the authorities said. Traffic was partly cut for several hours while investigation and clean-up were carried out.

Yet another Macedonian truck driver dies far from home. This is the invisible profession of our economy - people who clock 1,500 kilometres a day with 40 tonnes of cargo, on 4-6 hours of sleep, with 45-minute breaks at petrol stations, and shifts that end after 14-16 hours behind the wheel. It's the work that feeds families back home and loses their children on the road.

Why does a vehicle like that fly off the road in the middle of the day, in the sunshine, on a perfectly serviceable motorway? The police are investigating. But the statistics for European motorways are clear: driver fatigue, mechanical faults caused by economic pressure, and undercut delivery deadlines are the main causes. Macedonian transport companies work at some of the lowest rates in Europe - which means with some of the tightest deadlines.

How many times are we going to read the same headline? „Macedonian driver killed in Croatia". „Macedonian driver killed in Germany". „Macedonian driver killed in Austria". These aren't accidents. This is an economic model.

And once you've moved past „who will support the family?" comes the uncomfortable question for the employers: are the vehicles being serviced? Do the drivers get proper training? Do the driving schedules respect European regulations? How many statutory deadlines do they overrun in a year?

Macedonia still has no functional transport workers' union. No effective inspectorate for hauliers. And every piece of news like this one out of Croatia is met with a small „my condolences", no follow-up, no demand for accountability.

Today we're at Sredanci. Tomorrow we'll be at the next motorway. And we'll never learn the driver's name - except maybe when the psalm is read at the funeral.