Some numbers need no comment. This is one of them: 2.09 per mille of alcohol in the blood, behind the wheel, on a road in the village of Kadrifakovo near Sveti Nikole.

Officers from the Sveti Nikole police department detained D.B. (67), from the village, on 2 September at 16:13. He ran his Ford off the road; the car carried Štip plates. When officers took action they established he had been driving under the influence of alcohol.

That is not the end of the list. It was also found that the driver held no valid driving licence, and the vehicle's registration document had expired. Three offences in one incident, not one of them accidental.

An inspection was carried out, the public prosecutor was informed, and once the documentation is complete the appropriate charges will follow.

What makes this more than a routine crime-log entry is the hour of the day. At 16:13 a village road carries people coming home from work, children, tractors. The difference between "ran off the road" and something far worse was decided by a few metres and an empty lane - not by any defensive line the system put up.

Because the system did not intervene once before this happened. He had no licence, the registration had expired, and the car was on the road anyway. The check arrived only after the vehicle was already off the tarmac.