At around 14:20 on May 27, on the Skopje-Veles highway near the Sopot toll booth, an Opel with Veles plates went off the road and flipped onto its roof. The driver - L.K., 19 years old from Veles. The passengers - E.S. (20) and T.T. (17), also from Veles. All three injured, all three under treatment at the General Hospital in Veles.

It hasn't been publicly announced whether the Opel was in contact with another vehicle, whether the weather was a factor, whether the driver was under the influence. Data is expected from the Veles police investigation team. Until then, the repeatable story: young drivers, late-model cars, high speed, a night out.

For the Balkans, all of that sounds familiar. Teenagers are one of the highest-risk groups in traffic - inexperience behind the wheel is a well-documented driver of elevated risk. With cars handed down by parents, insurance brokers, or a friend's brother - the mechanics aren't the problem. The hours spent behind the wheel are. And as long as we keep letting eighteen-year-olds onto the highway without any requirement for added experience, we'll be reading the same report every May.