Overview:
Deadly crashes on Haiti’s Nationwide Street 6 are every day tragedies brought on by poor infrastructure, free-range livestock and weak visitors regulation enforcement. As soon as very important for commerce, the street has grow to be a hall of grief, claiming younger lives in preventable accidents.
FORT-LIBERTÉ — Nationwide Street No. 6 (RN6), which runs over 61 miles and connects Cap-Haïtien to Ouanaminthe, is one in every of Haiti’s most essential routes for commerce and every day journey. However within the northeast, it has grow to be infamous as a web site of preventable tragedies.
Regardless of the nation’s restricted visitors accident knowledge and challenges with real-time nationwide reporting, present information emphasize the seriousness of the difficulty.
From 2024 to early 2025, almost 400 accidents have been reported on RN6—additionally connecting the Artibonite and Centre departments—leading to a minimum of 40 fatalities—most of them younger motorcyclists, in keeping with the Northeast Departmental Police Directorate.
“Each time an accident happens on the street, a household turns into poorer, a household is in mourning,” stated Dr. Garnel Michel, government director of the nonprofit group Cease Accident, in a 2023 interview with native outlet Media Precision Info.
These accidents typically occur due to structural failures
Instances aren’t restricted to the Nationwide Street No. 6. Folks in almost each area of the nation are paying the worth with their lives for a breakdown in visitors administration. In Port-au-Prince, as an example, such incidents are widespread. As not too long ago as Aug. 9, 2025, a street crash killed at least five people on the Morne Canapé-Vert street. A number of others have been injured in a collision between a trailer truck and a minibus.
The causes of lethal toll transcend dangerous luck. Poor infrastructure, lack of regulation visitors enforcement and unsafe driver habits all contribute.
Free-range farming, banned in 1962 however nonetheless widespread, is among the primary visitors hazards. Animals ceaselessly wander onto the street, with lethal penalties.
“My brother died as a result of negligence of the authorities, who permit out of doors farming,” stated Lucenie Dorsainvil, whose brother Abed was killed when his motorbike collided with a cow.
“My brother died as a result of negligence of the authorities, who permit out of doors farming.”
Lucenie Dorsainvil, Resident of Fort-Liberté
Different risks embody potholes, particles and deserted wreckage or disabled automobiles left on the street. “A truck that had been damaged down for a very long time wasn’t eliminated,” witness Yvenel Louis informed The Haitian Occasions. “It brought on the loss of life of two younger individuals”.
The dearth of visitors police makes the issue worse. With out patrols, dashing, reckless driving and drunk driving go unchecked. “If the visitors police had all the time been there, Rodeney wouldn’t have died,” Erlste-go Etienne stated, mourning his good friend Rodeney Saint-Ilmont, who was killed in a dashing accident on the RN6.
Lives lower brief amid the ripple impact
Behind each statistic lies a narrative of heartbreak. Victims in 2025 included:
- Rodeney Saint-Ilmont, former technical director of Radio Idéale in Ouanaminhe.
- Louis Jean Joseph, a civilian worker on the Fort-Liberté police station, was the daddy of two youngsters.
- Abed Dorsainvil, a shopkeeper.
- Cardy Jean Henry, survived by her two youngsters.
- Neylu Gabeaud, a younger photographer.
- Ans-Guerlin Delmas, 30, a medical scholar.
“Street Nationwide No. 6 is changing into a loss of life row for the youth of the Northeast Division,” stated Theluckson Francisque, who misplaced a detailed good friend in a current crash.
“Street Nationwide No. 6 is changing into a loss of life row for the youth of the Northeast Division.”
Théluckson Francisque, who misplaced a detailed good friend in a current crash.
Every crash ripples past the sufferer, placing entire communities. With many victims as major earners, their deaths deepen hardship in a area already struggling. Most have been of their 20s — Haiti’s subsequent era of execs, dad and mom and leaders.
“Each time an accident happens on the street, a household is affected not simply emotionally, however economically as properly,” Dr. Michel stated.
What should change
Specialists like Dr. Michel agree with residents that the tragedies are preventable if the state takes duty. Proposed measures embody:
- A specialised street police unit with correct tools.
- Enforcement of the ban on free-range farming.
- Street patrols to take away deserted automobiles and different visitors hazards.
- Public consciousness campaigns on visitors security.
- Funding in street repairs and emergency medical companies.
With out these modifications, households say, RN6 will stay what they now name it: “loss of life row.”