A family set off on a summer holiday in Greece. Only one child is coming home. On the regional road between Nea Moudania and Nikiti, near Polygyros on Halkidiki, a tanker collided with the passenger car carrying a family of four - and in a few seconds it snuffed out three lives.

According to Greek media, the crash happened around 6:30 pm. The car with foreign plates carried two parents and their two young children. Unofficially, it is said to be a family from Moldova. Eight firefighters with three fire trucks and Greek emergency medical teams reached the scene at once.

The mother and the baby were pulled from the mangled vehicle with no signs of life. The father and the other child were cut out with serious injuries and taken to hospital, but the father later died as well. That pushed the death toll to three. One child remains hospitalised, in a serious but stable condition.

The cause of the crash is still being established and the Greek services are running an investigation. But one thing needs no investigation to see: every summer hundreds of Macedonian and Balkan families pack those exact same roads to the Greek beaches, and the stretches toward Halkidiki have been known for decades for narrow lanes, fast tankers and very little room for error.

How many of us, when we pass a cleared-up crash on the road to the sea, actually ease off the gas - or just go quiet for a moment, then press it down again? This tragedy is not a number in the summer statistics. It is a reminder that the holiday only starts once you arrive alive.