St. Kitts and Nevis (WINN)—The Royal St. Christopher and Nevis Police Force has confirmed a decline in road fatalities for 2025 compared to the previous year, but officials say growing concerns remain as more vehicles continue to enter the Federation.
For 2025, seven traffic fatalities were recorded, down from the 13 the previous year. This reduction aligns with a broader decline in traffic accidents.
Although the figures are still preliminary, Deputy Commissioner of Police Cromwell Henry revealed that 1,767 traffic accidents were recorded in 2024, compared to 1,599 in 2025.
“So again, another significant reduction in the number of fatal traffic accidents. So, in all, we are satisfied that we’ve had a reduction generally both in terms of the fatalities and the number of accidents. We haven’t completed the breakdown in terms of the slight, the serious and the non-injury accidents. So those are still to be disaggregated, but in general we’ve realised a reduction in the number of accidents.”
However, even as the police force welcomed the decline, officials know that a significant increase in vehicles is expected in the coming weeks, adding to the growing challenge of navigating the already congested areas, particularly in Basseterre.
Henry added that approximately 250 to 260 vehicles are expected to arrive on board an incoming car vessel.
On average, between 150 and 200 vehicles are registered each month.
“Yes, we are seeing significant growth in the vehicle population. I could report that last year alone, 2,254 new vehicles were registered. When I say new vehicles, I don’t necessarily mean brand-new vehicles, but additional vehicles coming on the road. We expect this week about 250 or 60 vehicles from the car vessel that is expected. So we’ve seen an average about 150 to 200 new vehicles are being registered. Last year, the total was 2,254. We currently have over 26,000 vehicles that are actually licensed and running, closer to 27,000 vehicles. That’s about half of the population of persons.”
Compounding the issue is a growing number of drivers.
Police records show that there are more than 37,000 licensed drivers, with that figure increasing by at least 500 each year.
“So we could see the challenge in managing and enforcing traffic laws, but we’ve managed to do a decent job of that last year. We intend to continue that trend using technology to assist in our enforcement. We now have most of our management systems digitised. Vehicle inspection, the driver’s tests, both the written tests and the road tests, are digitised. As I said, the vehicle inspection, insurance, all aspects of traffic management with respect to vehicles are digitised. We’ve introduced photo radar, where we are now taking the digitisation or the use of technology beyond just administrative, but more in the operational realm. So we are now using technology to manage vehicle speed and speed law enforcement. We also intend that we have started the process of using technology to manage violations at the lights, the traffic lights. We’ve seen a number of accidents at the junctions that are signalised and most of the violations, most of the accidents at these junctions are caused by persons violating the lights signals. And so we are introducing, we will be introducing technology to capture those persons who cause accidents or violate the traffic signals at junctions. So we intend to use a combination of technology.”
The challenge is further reflected in the number of traffic tickets issued, which remain significant.
Meanwhile, the increase in imported vehicles has also brought renewed attention to the issue of derelict vehicles.
Commissioner of Police James Sutton acknowledged that this is an area under active monitoring.
“With increased influx of vehicles, we have an increase in number of derelict vehicles and that has become a challenge for us because the solid waste, we are working in conjunction with solid waste to get rid of some of these vehicles because if it travels many of our roads, you will see a number of derelict vehicles that could come, that could create a health hazard for the environment. So that is an area that we have to focus on. And just to add what Mr Henry has said, we have tasked our vehicle inspectors to take photos of vehicles when they go to license. So any change to the photo, for example, tinting on the colour of the vehicle, when we do check the VCPs or vehicle checkpoint, we’re able to access our database to see, to verify the information when the vehicle was licensed, to see what’s in our database. So it’s a collective effort we are dealing with.”
