Balkan region experiences spate of traffic accidents and police crackdowns
A series of serious road incidents have struck the Balkans. In Serbia, a crash on the Belgrade‑Niš highway near Paraćin killed a child, while a separate weekend accident in Niš involved three severely intoxicated drivers and resulted in multiple arrests. Croatia reported several severe collisions: a 52‑year‑old driver hit two Nepalese pedestrians near Varaždin, a chain‑reaction crash in Divoš injured seven, and a teenage rider on an electric scooter suffered life‑threatening injuries in Osijek. Police operations across the region intensified, with speed checks on Croatia’s state roads, amplified monitoring of electric scooters, and the seizure of illegal rotating lights in Austria used by a Bosnian driver. Slovenia’s driver with 1.74 ‰ alcohol caused a heavy crash on Krk island, injuring an Austrian motorcyclist. In response, Croatia’s parliament is preparing a new traffic law that would raise fines for excessive speed to €2,700 and tighten penalties for repeat offences, while authorities in Croatia and Serbia continue to issue hundreds of traffic citations and suspend dozens of drivers for speeding, drink‑driving and unsafe vehicle modifications.