Another traffic tragedy on Macedonia's roads. A „Mercedes" truck with a trailer and Bitola licence plates ran off the road on the Gradsko - Prilep stretch, near the village of Oreovec. The driver, a 58-year-old from Bitola, died at the scene.

An ambulance crew from Prilep could only confirm the death. On the public prosecutor's orders, the body was taken for an autopsy, and the on-site investigation was carried out by a team from the Bitola police. The reasons why the vehicle ran off the carriageway are not yet known.

Behind every news item like this stands a dry police phrasing and one family that will not see their man come home. Macedonia's roads have for years taken a toll that we, as a society, have accepted too easily - like a weather forecast, not like something that can be changed. The question we rarely ask is whether the road, the vehicle and the conditions were as they should be, or whether we will once again wait for an autopsy to say what we all already know.