Eight drunk drivers caught in one night in Ilinden, Gazi Baba and Kisela Voda - three were over 1.50 per mille

On the night between 17 and 18 October, from 9 p.m. to 3 a.m., the Mobile Road Traffic Safety Unit ran intensified checks in the Skopje municipalities of Ilinden, Gazi Baba and Kisela Voda, focusing on drink-driving. The result: eight drivers caught behind the wheel under the influence of alcohol.

Three of them were detained, because they had more than 1.50 per mille of alcohol in their blood - which makes it the criminal offence of "reckless driving of a motor vehicle" under Article 297-a of the Criminal Code. One more driver was detained under the same article for driving without a licence. Misdemeanour and criminal charges will be filed against all of them.

That is the picture from one night in three municipalities. The national picture comes from a separate Interior Ministry statement on Sunday: in the past 24 hours, 25 drivers were detained for reckless driving. Twelve of them were driving without ever having passed a driving test, including three minors - two from Skopje, aged 16 and 17, and one from Kočani. Eleven were driving under the influence, and two were behind the wheel despite an active driving ban.

The ministry is urging drivers not to get behind the wheel drunk, and says the intensified checks will continue. But when a sixteen-year-old is driving without a licence, the question isn't only about him. Whose car is it, and who handed him the keys?