Cops keep up pressure on drunk drivers
(CNS): Over the last two weeks police have arrested 15 drivers for DUI and another ten people for other traffic related offences. Despite the recent spike in violent crime, traffic police have continued their efforts to reduce the number of drunk drivers on the roads. Six of the fifteen were arrested this weekend, and four of those drivers were over twice the legal limit. Half of the drivers arrested were also involved in road crashes, according to an RCIPS release. Police said that traffic operations will continue to target drunk drivers and other road offenses, including reports of speeding in school zones.
“We are responding to residents who are alarmed by speeding on their neighbourhood streets, but are also regularly seeing drunk driving and high levels of intoxication,” said Chief Inspector Everton Spence. “Sadly, choosing to drive under the influence very often ends with a traffic collision, and can result in major damage, serious injury, or death. You will also lose your licence for a minimum of 12 months when caught.”
Over the weekend there were a number of serious collisions. While managing traffic around the scene of a crash on the Esterley Tibbetts Highway near Canal Point Road around 11pm on Saturday night, police pulled over a car being driven without the headlights illuminated. Officers signaled the vehicle to stop and when they spoke to the driver she appeared confused and showed signs of intoxication. She was breath tested with a result of 0.215%. The 32-year-old woman was arrested on suspicion of DUI and later bailed.
On Sunday afternoon at around 2pm during a proactive radar operation in North Side, police spotted a silver BMW travelling at 48mph in a 30mph zone. The car was signaled to stop but the driver sped past the officers and subsequently collided with the median at the intersection of Hutland Road. One of the passengers of the vehicle was taken to the Cayman Islands Hospital and treated for minor injuries.
The 18-year-old driver turned out to have only a learner’s permit, while the car had no insurance and both the vehicle registration and certificate of roadworthiness were expired. The driver was subsequently arrested on suspicion of driving without being qualified, driving without insurance, and dangerous driving. He was later released on bail.
During a proactive operation on 4 March in North Side along Rum Point Road, 22 speeding tickets were issued, three tickets for excessive tint, one for an expired registration and one for failing to display licence plates. Three people were also warned for prosecution for other driving offences, while two people were arrested for unspecified traffic offenses.
Almost got pushed off the road by a church of god bus last evening.
No police in sight…
ridiculous that they still driving around drunk .. .knowing the police is out there??? keep up the good work RCIP!!!☺
Could some media (Compass or CNS) please publicise the names of those convicted in court of the offence of DWI. Naming and shaming is a great deterrent.
Summary Court, the lowest in the judicial hierarchy, sits three times daily, one of which is a Traffic Court. Culturally, being mentioned is not necessarily considered a “serious” indictment – DUI being just one of the possible reasons for a mention there. Grand Court is for more serious offenses and there are published weekly Cause Lists:
https://www.judicial.ky/courts/cause-lists-all
RCIPS’s limited endurance “traffic blitzes”, at what they characterize as full operational pressure, net about one DUI a day – half of those detections by admission of coincidence from crash sites. How many shifts and participating officers are involved in these coordinated dragnets? How much is it costing us to field such a low arrest conversion rate? Any of us driving 5 minutes to the supermarkets see (or have to defensively avoid) 4 or 5 swerving vehicles a day. Why can’t our officers see what we’re seeing? The RCIPS are not even close to making a noticeable impact, and there continues to be no effective strategy to address public demands for a proportionate road response – which would curtail ALL CRIME.
I think we all understand that there are interests within Government to maintain the taxi cartel…maybe the AG or ACC should investigate? There is no logical reason for competitive services not to be introduced.
Nice to see the RCIPS out doing some targeted roadblocks, but are they ever just patrolling and pulling over drivers who commit moving violations? It seems a large number of the tickets issued come from expired registrations from roadblocks.
If the RCIP placed, daily and all day, patrol cars along Fair Banks Road and Easterly Tibbett’s Hwy they would issue enough tickets to pay for the new police station in one years time. These two roads host insanely bad drivers
It really is time for Uber CIG. If you want to be seen tourist friendly, forward thinking country, act like one.
Uber, Lyft, Flintstone mobile, anything is better than the taxi sharks we have circling the islands now. Bring it and bring it NOW!
I agree totally with bringing in Uber or at least metering the cabs here with logical per 1/4 mile rates. If there were cabs available at reasonable rates we would order them.
Let’s do something about the taxi system and encourage people to get Uber/taxi home.
all the Uber drivers would be drunk. Uber is not safe. Look at the UK the City of London kick them out because of their on safe practice/s.
Have you even used Lyft or Uber before? All drivers are rated after a drop off. They shoot for 5/5s because if their rating falls below 4/5 average, they can no longer drive for the service. In my experience, they were 100x more professional and courteous than Taxis. Great to be able to have your ride tracked by GPS also.. greatly reduces risk of a rogue driver and being ripped off.
keep up the enforcement.
bring in uber and kill the taxi cartel….this will reduce drinking driving by 75% overnight.
It will never happen because the taxi cartel votes for our elected officials.
As one Customs officer once yelled at me “you caan bring dat in you need a lisense”. Excuse my spelling but that’s how they said it, really.