Curaçao cannot wait any longer for a Solution to its Traffic Congestion Crisis

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 (*12% of total registered) 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.

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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%.

Nearly 2,000 people were injured and many others whom also lost their lives.

These are no longer numbers that can be dismissed as due to mass tourism (1 Million per year, with a local population of 160.000)) the unavoidable consequence of having more (heavy trucks for building more hotels and rental) vehicles on the road.

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Something is going seriously wrong, and the local 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 (4%) in six months. F.D. Rooseveltweg had 227 (3.5%), Schottegatweg Noord 203 (3.1%), Winston Churchillweg 179 (2.8%) and Santa Rosaweg 168 (*2.6%) routes to the airport and hotels.

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The Government seated in Fort Amsterdam 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?

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.

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.

Curacao Chronicle / ABC Flash Point News 2026.