Curaçao has talked about traffic safety for years. We have had campaigns, warnings, statistics, discussions and promises. Meanwhile, our roads are becoming busier, accidents are increasing and families continue to suffer the consequences.
The latest figures should be a wake-up call for the government. Between January 1 and June 30, the Ministry of Traffic, Transportation and Urban Planning (VVRP) registered 6,682 traffic-related incidents involving 12,372 vehicles.
After excluding vehicle theft, vandalism, arson and other incidents unrelated to traffic, Curaçao was left with 6,351 actual traffic accidents in only six months.
That is more than 35 accidents every single day.
More troubling is the direction in which we are moving. During the first half of 2025, there were 5,174 accidents. This means Curaçao recorded 1,177 more accidents during the same period this year, an increase of nearly 23 percent.
Nearly 2,000 people were injured.
These are no longer numbers that can be dismissed as the unavoidable consequence of having more vehicles on the road. Something is going seriously wrong, and the people of Curaçao cannot wait any longer for a comprehensive solution.
The statistics also tell us where some of the problems are.
Rear-end collisions accounted for 1,578 accidents, followed by 1,279 side-impact collisions and 1,096 accidents involving vehicles reversing. Inattention was identified as a contributing factor in 6,298 incidents, while failure to yield was cited 990 times.
Caracasbaaiweg recorded 247 accidents in six months. F.D. Rooseveltweg had 227, Schottegatweg Noord 203, Winston Churchillweg 179 and Santa Rosaweg 168.
Government therefore knows where many accidents are occurring. It knows what types of accidents are most common. It knows which driver behaviors repeatedly contribute to them.
The question is: what are we going to do with that information?
Road Safety Week is useful. Awareness campaigns are useful. Telling motorists to put down their phones, pay attention and obey traffic regulations is necessary. But Curaçao has reached a point where campaigns alone are clearly not enough.
We need enforcement.
We need visible police presence on roads where dangerous behavior is common. We need consistent action against speeding, reckless overtaking, distracted driving, driving under the influence and motorists who repeatedly ignore basic traffic regulations.
But enforcement is only one part of the solution.
Government must examine the roads themselves. If hundreds of accidents repeatedly occur on the same corridors, VVRP should conduct detailed safety assessments of those locations. Are intersections properly designed? Is lighting adequate? Are road markings visible? Are traffic lights properly synchronized? Are there dangerous access points? Are speed limits appropriate and enforced? Could relatively inexpensive engineering changes prevent collisions?
Every major accident corridor should have an action plan.
There is also the larger problem of congestion. Curaçao cannot continue adding vehicles to essentially the same road network and expect traffic conditions to improve by themselves. Congestion creates frustration, encourages risky maneuvers and makes already difficult intersections even more chaotic during peak hours.
The government needs a serious mobility strategy that looks beyond repairing potholes and resurfacing individual roads. Curaçao needs to decide how traffic should move around the island five, ten and twenty years from now.
That means examining alternative routes, problematic intersections, public transportation, traffic-light management, school traffic, commercial development along major roads, pedestrian safety and the continued growth in the number of vehicles.
Education must also return to the center of the strategy.
Vereniging Veilig Verkeer Curaçao says it has received no government subsidy since 2010. Limited finances and an aging volunteer base have forced an organization dedicated to road safety to reduce its activities.
That deserves attention. If driver behavior is overwhelmingly identified as a factor in accidents, then education cannot be treated as an afterthought.
Road safety should begin long before someone receives a driver's license. Children should learn basic traffic safety at school. New drivers need stronger preparation. Experienced motorists need continuous reminders that driving is not simply a personal activity; their decisions can determine whether someone else reaches home safely.
And when another fatal accident occurs, we should resist the familiar cycle: expressions of shock, public discussion for several days, another call for motorists to be careful, and then silence until the next tragedy.
The government now has enough statistics.
What Curaçao needs is action.
VVRP, the Ministry of Justice, the police, road-safety organizations and other relevant agencies should develop one coordinated road-safety and mobility plan with measurable targets. The public should know what will be done, where it will be done, how much it will cost and by when.
Set targets for reducing accidents and injuries. Identify the most dangerous roads and intersections. Publish the interventions. Strengthen enforcement. Restore sustained traffic education. Improve infrastructure. Measure the results every six months and tell the public whether the strategy is working.
Because 6,351 accidents in six months cannot become our new normal.
Nearly 2,000 injured people cannot simply become another statistic.
The people cannot wait anymore.
Curaçao needs a solution to its traffic problem, and the government must take the lead in delivering it.