A nineteen-year-old died on the road from Radishani towards Pobozhje. He did not survive until the ambulance crew arrived - death was declared at the scene, with no vital signs. He was riding a motorcycle with no licence plates.

According to the Interior Ministry, the collision was reported at 12:12 on „Radishanska” street. One vehicle was an Alfa Romeo with Italian plates, driven by a 46-year-old. The other was a motorcycle with no plates, ridden by a 19-year-old from the Skopje area. The investigation is ongoing and traffic in that part of the city was disrupted.

A motorcycle with no plates. That is the detail that appears in a single line of the police statement and then disappears. It means the vehicle was not registered, it means it never passed a technical inspection, it means it was not insured. And it means it was riding around the streets of Skopje perfectly normally, until one day it ended like this.

How many such motorcycles are there in Skopje? Anyone who lives in the city hears them - in the evening, through the neighbourhoods, no plates, no helmet, often ridden by people who do not even hold a licence yet. This is not some covert operation that requires a special investigation. This is something every traffic officer sees every single day.

The investigation will establish who made the mistake near Radishani. But there is a bigger question than this one crash: what does the state do about vehicles that have no business being on the road at all? Judging by the streets, the answer is nothing - until somebody has to turn up at a crash scene.