More than 2,600 offences on scooters, bicycles and motorbikes in September alone: The helmet usually stays at home

In just one month, September, police recorded 871 offences by electric scooter riders and another 1,803 offences by cyclists, moped riders and motorcyclists. In total, more than 2,600 offences on two wheels. And the most common of them is also the easiest to avoid - a head without a helmet.

For scooters, 377 of the 871 offences were for not wearing a protective helmet. For mopeds and motorbikes the picture is even worse: 1,478 of 1,803, that is more than four out of five offences, were precisely about the helmet. That's the figure that says the most: the rule is known to everyone, and it's broken en masse. In September, for thousands of riders, the bet that nobody would stop them didn't pay off.

Bitola ahead of Skopje on scooters

The geography is the most interesting part. For scooters, the most offences were in the Bitola regional police unit - a whopping 290, more than the Mobile Traffic Safety Unit (167), Ohrid (125) and Strumica (113). Skopje, the capital, isn't even among the units the ministry singled out. Do people in Bitola ride more carelessly, or does the Bitola police simply check more often? The figures don't answer that - and that's exactly the question worth asking.

For motorbikes and mopeds the ranking is more predictable: Skopje with 437 offences, then Bitola with 233, Veles with 213, Strumica with 201 and Tetovo with 168. The Mobile Unit recorded 154.

132 criminal offences and 88 confiscated motorbikes

On top of the offences, the ministry also recorded 132 cases of the criminal offence of "reckless driving of a motor vehicle" among motorcyclists and moped riders, and eight among scooter riders. Under Article 300-b of the Criminal Code, 88 motorbikes were confiscated, along with 17 electric scooters. The two operations also recorded another 5,362 and 5,034 offences respectively by other road users.

The ministry says the stepped-up checks will continue and urges people to wear helmets and respect the rules. The appeals are welcome, but the September figures show what really works - when the police are on the street, the offences get seen. The question is whether the checks will continue after the operation ends, or whether everything goes back to the way it was by the next monthly report.