Today, the Minister of Internal Affairs, Panche Toshkovski, and the President of RSPBS, Gordana Kožuvarovska, together with the Minister of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Serbia, Ivica Dacic, and the Acting Director of the Traffic Safety Agency of the Republic of Serbia, Dusko Pesic, initiated the joint preventive campaign “Drive Rested” at the Tabanovce border crossing.

– Today we are present at the border with the aim of providing support and especially drawing the public’s attention to the preventive action that we are implementing by the two bodies in Macedonia and Serbia under the title “Drive rested” or “Drive rested”. We believe that it is also important to focus on the prevention of these unwanted events, which of course occur in terms of victims, etc., especially due to the fatigue of the drivers, especially during the summer time periods. We all know that in the summer we have more activity, we all know that we have a higher frequency of vehicles, so I think that this preventive action is necessary in order to reduce the number of victims that we have as such. I thank Minister Dacic once again for the opportunity to discuss all topics that are important for all friendly countries, so I am convinced that we will have fruitful cooperation, said Minister Toshkovski.

Practice shows that fatigue is one of the main causes of traffic accidents, especially during the summer period when people travel for vacation. These preventive activities are particularly focused on the section from the Tabanovce border crossing to the Bogorodica border crossing, where the number of vehicles passing through this corridor increases enormously during the summer.

Minister Toshkovski emphasized that this joint campaign is significant for promoting police cooperation between the two friendly countries and thanked Minister Dacic for the assistance that the Ministry of the Interior of Serbia provided to Macedonia in extinguishing the forest fires. Minister Ivica Dacic expressed her satisfaction with this joint action between the Republic of Serbia and the Republic of Macedonia, highlighting that during the summer season, a large number of traffic accidents with fatal consequences occur. He noted that data shows that, on average, almost two people lose their lives every day on Serbian roads during this period. As part of the activity, water, leaflets with educational advice, and advertising material were distributed to the drivers crossing the border as part of the “Drive Rested” campaign.