Tackling: St. Maarten’s crashes are falling, but becoming deadlier, wider national road safety response needed

GREAT BAY--Minister of Justice Nathalie Tackling has warned that St. Maarten's road safety crisis cannot be addressed through police enforcement alone, after nine people died in eight separate traffic accidents so far this year despite an overall decline in the number of accidents.

Addressing Parliament, Tackling said the human impact of the fatalities must remain at the centre of the national discussion.

“Nine people have died on our roads this year nine people and eight separate accidents every one of them left the family behind every one of them left an empty chair at the table somewhere on this island and before we talk about the numbers or the Departments or the budgets I want that to be the starting point of this meeting because that is why we are here,” Tackling said.

The Minister said the available accident figures present a more complicated picture than the public discussion sometimes suggests.

Police registered 812 accidents in 2024. Up to week 27 of 2025, 719 accidents were recorded, compared with 681 during the same period this year.

Seven people died in six accidents in 2024, while four people died in four accidents in 2025. Nine people have already died in 2026, with half of the year still ahead.

“The honest headline is not that accidents are rising accidents are falling but the honest headline is that our accidents have become deadlier,” Tackling said.

She said five of the nine persons who died this year were scooter or motorcycle riders, underscoring the vulnerability of road users on two wheels.

According to Tackling, police analysis of the first two quarters shows that accidents without injury are generally linked to inattention or distraction, while fatal accidents are overwhelmingly associated with reckless driving.

The Minister said the circumstances surrounding this year's fatalities were not identical and cautioned against the assumption that every death could have been prevented by a traffic checkpoint or additional police enforcement.

She cited, among the cases, a driver who suffered a heart attack behind the wheel.

Tackling also defended the work being carried out by the Police Force of St. Maarten, saying approximately 60 traffic patrols were conducted during the first half of this year.

Police issued 2,448 traffic fines in 2024 and 3,236 in 2025. A total of 1,095 fines have been issued so far this year.

Traffic controls have also resulted in vehicles being removed from the road, weapons being found and seized, and arrests for other offences.

The Minister said there is a public perception that the Traffic Department is responsible for all traffic enforcement. She clarified that the department consists of four people whose responsibilities include investigating accidents and preparing official reports for the Prosecutor's Office.

The department also handles vehicle export files, inspections of parade trucks, insurance-related reports and traffic education, but does not carry out routine traffic controls.

Those controls fall under Basic Police Care, which Tackling said consists of approximately 70 officers divided across four shifts and responsible for policing the entire island 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

The same officers answer emergency calls, respond to neighbourhood complaints, maintain public order, support events and carry out traffic enforcement.

Since 2023, police officers have also been required to guard detainees held above the Philipsburg police station, a task Tackling said was transferred to the police without additional personnel, budget or positions in the police function book. Officers are also used to protect officials and dignitaries because there is no separate unit dedicated to those duties.

Tackling told Parliament that the police force is operating at 56% staffing strength. The police function book contains 332 positions, while 189 people are currently on the payroll, including 31 administrative personnel. She added that not all personnel are deployable.

The 332-position structure itself is based on the country's situation in 2010 rather than the demands of St. Maarten in 2026, she said.

Tackling said the same limited police capacity is being asked to respond to calls for stronger enforcement against dangerous driving, gun violence, robberies, noise nuisance, illegal parking and other public-order concerns.

She said every one of those concerns is legitimate, but they all draw on the same limited pool of officers.

“Our officers are carrying this island at 56% strength when the message that they hear over and over is that they are doing nothing it does something to them and it does something to how safe our residents and our visitors believe that this island is,” Tackling said.

The Minister also outlined gaps in drunk-driving enforcement, telling Parliament that the police force has no handheld roadside breathalyzers and no larger evidential breath-testing machines at the police station.

St. Maarten also lacks a legal blood alcohol limit, a legal basis for roadside breath testing and penalties linked to specific levels of alcohol measurement.

Police additionally face shortages of operational patrol vehicles, have no speed-measuring equipment and have limited storage space for seized vehicles.

Tackling said road infrastructure and signage also affect enforcement. In areas without speed limit signs, built-up area signs, school zone signs or proper road markings, traffic fines can be overturned because the rule being enforced has not been made sufficiently visible.

Against that background, Tackling stressed that Justice and police cannot carry the country's entire road safety burden.

She said explaining the division of responsibilities might sound like an attempt to shift blame, but argued that an accurate understanding of the problem is necessary to develop an effective response.

“I need to say something that may sound like deflection but I want to assure everybody that it's not and it is the map of the problem and without the map we're going to be back in this room next year having the same meeting,” she said.

“Justice enforces the traffic law that is our job and I've just accounted for it but Justice does not build or land the roads Justice does not decide what a driving lesson contains or when someone gets a license just this does not issue the permits for taxis buses quads and tour buggies that lower our road road Network further every year,” Tackling said.

She added that Justice does not determine nightlife closing hours, control the number of vehicles imported into the country, regulate insurance or grant building permits, even though each of those areas can influence traffic patterns, road behaviour and the consequences of accidents.

Tackling described road safety as being shaped by attitude, personal responsibility, prevention and enforcement, arguing that Justice and police directly control only the enforcement component.

She warned that continuously focusing on that one area will not produce the broader change the country needs.

At the same time, the Minister stressed that ministries are cooperating and said she did not want the public to conclude that Government departments were pointing fingers at each other.

“There is a lot that's happening together so I don't want to leave you with the impression that the Ministries are pointing fingers at each other the corporation is real and it's producing results and the police deserve credit for driving a lot of it,” she said.

Tackling said cooperation with VROMI resulted in a plan to make Philipsburg scooter-free through the use of barriers and closed alleys, with funding made available.

She also pointed to Cannegieter Street becoming a one-way road following analysis of the intersection with Percy Labega Street.

Other work includes advisories for new road signage and road markings across the island, including solid lines that would make overtaking rules enforceable.

The Minister also referred to an advisory for an alternative to the overloaded Welfare Road and proposals to redesign junctions involving Welfare Road and A.J.C. Brouwer Road. She said those proposals exist on paper but remain dependent on budget availability.

Tackling further highlighted joint efforts involving enforcement services to address gypsy taxis, saying coordinated controls help send a message that road and transport rules apply.

The Minister called for a national response involving Government, Parliament, law enforcement and individual road users, saying the country's traffic fatalities cannot be reduced by simply demanding more checkpoints from an understaffed police force.

“Keep the story honest our officers are carrying this island at 56% strength when the message that they hear over and over is that they are doing nothing it does something to them and it does something to how safe our residents and our visitors believe that this island is the criticism that is fair give it the picture that is false let us correct it together,” Tackling said.

“Nine people eight accidents behind every solution I have named here today there's a family that needed it sooner let us do this work together so that next year this number is smaller and the year after that smaller again,” she concluded.

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