Twenty-one detained in one weekend in Skopje, six of them minors: one was driving drunk with a ban already in force

One weekend. Twenty-one people detained in Skopje for reckless driving. Six of them minors. That is the figure the interior ministry published after stepped-up checks by the Skopje internal affairs sector.

Alongside the detentions, another 161 measures were issued in the area of road safety and vehicle regulations. Ten of them concern people riding light electric vehicles - a category that did not exist in the statistics a few years ago and is now demanding its own line in them.

The national picture is even more interesting

Across the country, in a single 24-hour period police detained 15 people under Article 297-a of the Criminal Code. Eight of them were driving without a licence - and four of those eight are minors. Four were driving under the influence of alcohol. One person was driving with an active driving ban. One was driving both without a licence and drunk. Another was driving drunk and with an active ban.

Read that last sentence again. Someone had already been banned from driving - and it did not stop him getting behind the wheel, drunk. The measure existed on paper. On the asphalt it meant nothing.

Where the campaign stops

The ministry appeals to citizens to respect the rules and adds that „responsible behaviour in traffic is a shared obligation and a key precondition for greater safety for all citizens”. Hard to argue with. But an appeal is the cheapest part of the job.

The question the statement leaves unanswered is what happens next. Criminal charges will be filed against those detained - and that is where the information we get ends. How many of those charges end in an actual penalty? How many drivers under a ban are caught behind the wheel again? Those are the numbers that would show whether the system works, and those are precisely the numbers that never make it into the statement.

Four minors drove without a licence in one day. They did not become drivers that day - somebody gave them keys, or knew and said nothing. Stepped-up checks catch the consequences. The question of who lets them onto the road is the next phase, and it has not started.