The numbers are no longer a warning. They are an indictment.
Nearly 12,000 traffic incidents in 2025. Almost 22,000 vehicles involved. Close to 94,000 insured cars on an island whose roads, neighborhoods, and infrastructure were never designed for this kind of pressure. And that figure does not even include the unknown — and deeply troubling — number of uninsured vehicles still moving freely on Curaçao’s roads.
This is no longer just a traffic issue. It is a governance failure.
Year after year, the data tells the same story: more cars, more accidents, more injuries, more damage. Yet policy remains frozen. There is no bold intervention, no coherent strategy, no political courage. The problem is right in front of the government — visible every morning in traffic jams, every evening in near-misses, and every week in accident reports — but action remains absent.
Let’s be clear: Curaçao has too many cars for the island it is today.
The road network is overstretched. Residential areas have become shortcuts. Parking chaos is normalized. Emergency services lose precious minutes navigating congestion. And still, vehicle imports continue unchecked, while public transportation remains weak, unattractive, and unreliable.
Even more alarming is the silent crisis of uninsured drivers.
A significant number of motorists are driving without insurance, transferring risk directly onto innocent victims. When accidents happen — and they happen daily — it is law-abiding, insured drivers who pay the price, either through higher premiums or unrecoverable damages. Driving uninsured is not a minor administrative lapse. It is a direct threat to public safety and economic fairness, and it should be treated as a serious offense.
Other countries understand this. Curaçao, apparently, does not.
Enforcement is sporadic. Controls are predictable. Penalties lack deterrent effect. And the message sent is simple and dangerous: you can break the rules, and nothing will happen.
Meanwhile, nearly one in five traffic incidents still results in injuries. These are not statistics. These are people. Families. Workers. Children.
The government cannot keep hiding behind studies, consultations, and excuses. This is not a complex mystery that needs years of analysis. The diagnosis is obvious. What is missing is political will.
Action is needed — now.
That means stricter enforcement against uninsured vehicles. Real consequences, not symbolic fines. It means controlling vehicle growth instead of passively enabling it. It means investing seriously in public transport and traffic management. And yes, it means confronting an uncomfortable reality: unlimited car growth on a small island is unsustainable.
Leadership is not about avoiding conflict. It is about facing reality before reality imposes a far higher cost.
Curaçao is paying that cost already — in accidents, injuries, insurance claims, congestion, and frustration. Every month of inaction compounds the damage.
The government does not lack information. It lacks courage.
And until that changes, the island will continue to suffer the consequences of a problem everyone sees — and no one in power seems willing to confront.