Annually, on average, 65 people per million inhabitants die on Macedonian roads, that is, a quarter more than in the countries of the European Union (EU), and the picture is no better in the region either.
According to data from the International Conference on Road Traffic Safety presented at the end of May in Skopje, in the countries of the Western Balkans, an average of 70 people die per million inhabitants per year.
In Kosovo, there are an average of 55 victims per million inhabitants per year, in North Macedonia 65, and in Serbia as many as 502 victims.
In the EU, Sweden has the fewest accident victims per million inhabitants - 22, and Bulgaria - 78 and Romania - 86 the most.
The causes of all accidents are human factor 95 percent, vehicle condition four percent and road conditions one percent.
In North Macedonia, the new sections Štip - Kočani and Štip - Radoviš, which are included in the category of fast roads, are a kind of traffic black spots.
According to police records, the highest number of accidents occur on these sections.
However, what are the black spots on Macedonian roads and where human lives are lost, can be determined after the Ministry of Interior introduces KADAS - a system that exists within the EU, which shows where and why there are the most accidents.
Although it was first announced in 2020, North Macedonia has not yet implemented it.
This database was supposed to be a "bridge" of connection between the Public Enterprise for State Roads and the Ministry of Interior, where the exchange of data should determine whether a certain location will be marked as a black spot.
Despite the unimplemented KADAS system, the Ministry of Interior says that they have a database that is being analyzed and measures are being taken.
"We are constantly analyzing where we have the biggest problems, where the most serious traffic accidents are, and plans are being made for implementation. There, traffic controls and preventive activities are being strengthened in order to reduce the number of victims," says MUP spokesman Toni Angelovski.
According to the data available to the Macedonian police, as much as 60 percent of all traffic accidents are attributed to speeding.
On average, two to four children die in traffic accidents every year.
The human factor is the biggest cause of accidents, and this includes vehicle condition and road conditions.
Average roads and old vehicles
According to EU standards, Macedonian roads have an average rating of three stars out of a possible five. According to security experts, North Macedonia should immediately speed up the construction of modern roads that have been unfinished for years.
But even if the cameras are installed along the new sections that are built to standards, the fatality on them is high due to driver inattention.
"The infrastructural network at the central and local level is quite extensive, but the condition and quality of the road network is in a bad state. What needs to be done is to improve the quality of the roadway, the quality of signaling, in order to improve safety," says Jasmina. Bunevska – Talevska, professor at the Technical Faculty in Bitola.
According to Nikola Dujovski, dean of the Faculty of Safety, by 2030 the highways that have been started must be completed, but also the conditions on all roads where major traffic accidents are recorded must be improved.
"We lack public transport. If we had public transport, the intensity of traffic on the main sections would be reduced. Skopje does not have public transport, that is very debatable. Rail transport does not work. All other types of transport in Europe are much more prevalent. Traffic should be abandoned dominantly from the road network and to go on public transport, either by bus or train," Dujovski believes.
But on the streets and roads throughout North Macedonia, cars are the dominant means of transportation. And that - second-hand.
The total import of old passenger cars is five and a half times higher than the import of new ones.
In the last five years from 2019 to 2023, according to data from the Customs Administration, about 177.000 used cars were imported, compared to 28.000 new ones.
The average age of vehicles on Macedonian roads is 20 years, and over 170.000 are from the last century.
The condition of the vehicle accounts for four percent of the overall picture of accidents.
North Macedonia has both domestic and international goals to meet in terms of eliminating road deaths.
In the Macedonian National Strategy for Transport, the goal is to reduce the number of victims on the roads by 2030 percent by 50, and not to have a single child killed in traffic accidents.
In the European framework, North Macedonia should also follow the document of the European Commission "Vision Zero", which aims to ensure that by 2050 there will be no victims in traffic accidents on European roads.
Serbia breaks records
In addition to the high death rate on the roads, North Macedonia and Serbia are also connected by the transit route Corridor 10. In the summer period, as Mirko Koković from the Serbian Traffic Safety Agency says, more than 100.000 vehicles cross it daily, a large part of which are drivers with vehicles from Serbia who go on vacation to Greece.
"In 2023, we implemented the 'Drive rested' campaign for transit passengers. We worked with the Macedonian Republic Road Safety Council to raise awareness that drivers should take 15-minute breaks every two hours, as fatigue is one of the key causes of accidents. It bore fruit and last year in the summer season we had a 10 percent reduction in casualties on Corridor 37," said Koković.
In 2022, 502 people died on the roads in Serbia, while in 2011 - 731 people. According to Koković, this "represents a significant reduction if we take into account the increase in the number of vehicles from 1,8 million in 2011 to 2,7 million in 2022".
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