33,722 fines nobody ever collected: Tabanovce is the first test of whether „Safe City" applies to everyone

As of today, a foreign licence plate at the Tabanovce border crossing is no longer a way out of the system. Drivers of foreign-plated vehicles flagged by the „Safe City\" system for a traffic offence are stopped on their way out of the country, informed of the offence, and issued a report and a penalty payment order. After that - pay up, or fast-track court.

The logic is flawless and long overdue. If the camera fines domestic drivers, there is no reason whatsoever for foreign ones to be recorded and never charged. According to Interior Ministry figures, between 2 February and 31 May, 33,722 offences were registered by vehicles with foreign plates. That is not a technical detail - that is a hole through which thirty-three thousand fines passed over four months.

Day one exposed the problem, and it is not the rule

Around a hundred foreign drivers were stopped at Tabanovce today, with the old border terminals brought back into service for the checks. The result: queues, frayed nerves and a physical clash between drivers arguing over their place in line. Police had to step in.

When one extra procedure is multiplied by hundreds of cars at an already overloaded summer crossing, a minute turns into an hour. That is not an argument against enforcement. It is an argument that enforcement needs a procedure ready before it goes live on the ground in August.

An interesting detail: the official picture was running late

At 6pm the motoring association's information still stated there were no longer delays on the Macedonian side of the border crossings. Media footage from the same evening showed something else. It is a small thing, but it says a lot about how fast the situation at the border changes and how slowly the report on it does.

What is actually being tested here

„Safe City\" started issuing penalties on 1 February, in Skopje, Kumanovo and Tetovo, and on corridors 8 and 10 - illegal parking, speeding, running red lights and driving with an expired registration. The camera finished its part of the job long ago. What was missing was the institution that turns a recording into a collected fine.

Macedonia is a transit country, and for years getting through it quickly functioned as practical immunity from any sanction. If the new mechanism works consistently, that ends. The Interior Ministry has announced the model will gradually extend to the other crossings.

But consistent also means organised. The driver doing 140 through Macedonia should pay - that is the whole point of the system. The travellers in the queue behind him, who did nothing, should not be paying his fine with three hours of waiting. Equality in front of the camera has been solved. Equality in front of the counter is still to be proven.