Cops target dump trucks and rogue drivers

| 21/03/2018 | 57 Comments

(CNS): As police continue their traffic operations, they have been focusing over the last week on drivers in unsafe vehicles, especially dump trucks, and drunks behind the wheel. The RCIPS said officers have not only been working to “curtail road dangers” but also responding to complaints from residents in Prospect about dump trucks that are not roadworthy or are travelling through the area at unsafe speeds.

On Tuesday, 13 March, officers conducted a traffic operation in the Red Bay area, during which eight traffic tickets for various offences were issued and two people were warned for prosecution for using a vehicle in un-roadworthy condition. Fourteen dump trucks were stopped and checked and four drivers of those vehicles received tickets.

During this operation a 41-year-old man living in Bodden Town, who was not driving a dump truck, was arrested for a catalog of offences including on suspicion of driving without being qualified, driving without insurance, and using an unlicensed vehicle, along with other related offences. He was later bailed.

Police officers also made 14 DUI arrests over the past week. Half of those were made overnight on Saturday-Sunday (17-18 March). One driver was stopped after he attempted to evade officers who were on patrol on Godfrey Nixon Way. The man, aged 51 of West Bay he was breathalysed and found to have a blood alcohol reading of 0.215%. He was arrested on suspicion of DUI and later bailed.

“We would implore everyone who plans to partake in any kind of festivities and knows they will be out drinking, to have a plan for transportation that doesn’t involve driving under the influence,” said Chief Inspector Everton Spence. “We will continue to prosecute DUIs regardless of the time of year, or the excuses drivers may give for being under the influence behind the wheel.”

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Comments (57)

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  1. Anonymous says:

    The noise you here from the trucks are not caused from the air brakes, the noise is from the engine brake ( Jacobs brake )

  2. "Anonymousir" says:

    police need to stop harassing “designated drivers” for coming out and picking up drunk friends. there was this one night i picked up 3 drunk friends, and went trough a road block. i got hell because one of them was asleep in the front seat! ” he could get rowdy and grab the wheel while im driving” is what i was told. i was harassed for a while, accused that i had been drinking because they could smell the alcohol. i said yh, i can smell it too, i have 3 drunks in my car, what ya think? i was a drunk driver until i did a breath test … blew 0.00% .. but no apology. I know they have a job to do, but when designated drivers are doing the right thing (saving a friend/s) … let them do so. stopping me and giving me a breath test was cool for safety reason, that i understand.. but the way the RCIPS conducts itself is an embarrassment to the Cayman Islands. Can these guys get some professional training on how to deal with people??

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    • Anonymous says:

      I totally agree. The police treat everyone as a criminal around here. It’s unprofessional and intimidating to say the least.

  3. Anonymous says:

    It is notable that the majority of drivers who exceed the speed limits and weave in and out of lanes without warning or use of their indicators have covers on their registration plates which make their numbers unreadable from 25 yards which is the standard for eyesight tests. Why don’t we simply ban the use of these covers, and ticket drivers who have them for driving with obscured plates? Even better, make them stop and allow the police to confiscate them on the spot. At the rate the new plates are being issued it’s going to take for ever to get rid of them and in the meantime the lunatic driving we see on our roads will continue unabated.

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  4. satirony says:

    Too many dump truck drivers wait for their tyres to shred before replacing them. I drove behind one in Savannah recently, where the entire outer tread was slapping about like freshly landed fish. The next day, there it was, on the roadside, east of Hurley’s.

    I think the quarries, as well as those who buy marl, should refuse trucks that are obviously poorly maintained, with missing plates or lack safety covers. The problem would be quickly solved. The Police might consider standing near Hurley’s for a few hours, with a sound meter, to measure the machine-gun crackle of the illegal Jake brakes. If they’re not a public nuisance, then I don’t know what is. There’s that red truck that does it, day in, day out…….no respect for anyone.

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  5. Anonymous says:

    keep giving um hell….?

  6. Bertie :B says:

    I think they are called jake brakes , and can be removed from the trucks .

  7. Anonymous says:

    I thought jake brakes on trucks were illegal, they seem to be widely in fashion now.

  8. Cor Blimey! says:

    A major problem not mentioned is overloading of these dump trucks. This causes instability on cornering and increases the danger of tyre blowouts, both of which can have fatal consequences. In Britain and the U.S.and other countries they have weigh stations on major routes where dump trucks and trailers are pulled off to have their loads checked.
    Here most trucks are loaded at the port where I believe there is supposed to be a check on weight limits, but is this strictly enforced?.

  9. Anonymous says:

    solution: private traffic police force.
    cost = 0. and cig will make money out of increased fines and enforcement of traffic code.
    plus cops can actually tackle real crime or reduce their numbers by 50%

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    • Jotnar says:

      Given the traffic department only has 13 officers not sure it would make much difference to headcount or tackling crime. But is the private sector got a percentage of the fines we might actuallly see more than a handful of charges a week.

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    • Anonymous says:

      How you gonna staff that? Imports? The unemployable? Here it would be open to abuse and corruption…

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  10. Anonymous says:

    please also deal with all these trailers which don’t appear to be road worthy, have no break lights or indicators and no license plate

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  11. Anonymous says:

    I’m sure dump trucks do not have the record for the most accidents on Cayman roads…..check the stats…..cars do..& the people who drives with cell phones glue to their hands….dump trucks drivers are the safest drivers out there…dump trucks are huge units & have to be driven/operate with extra care especially here in Cayman where most car drivers do not respect or have any idea about the operating/driving of the dump truck….Safe Driving Everyone…….

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    • Anonymous says:

      “dump trucks drivers are the safest drivers out there” hahaha seriously, you know air brakes are for emergencies not for racing right?!

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    • Anonymous says:

      Quite a few generalities here, 5.53pm. Yes there are bad drivers of every class of vehicles on the road, but most dangerously so drivers of dump trucks. On the ETH only yesterday, just past the Cost u Less roundabout heading south, I was overtaken by a white dump truck: I was doing 40mph, but he was quickly out of sight going at AT LEAST 60mph. The truck was white in colour, and the name of the operator was clearly painted on the driver’s door. I shudder to think what would happen if this bully had hit anything or anybody. Should I have mentioned the name, CNS?

      CNS: Sorry, not without proof. It would be great if we could get some dashcam video.

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      • Anonymous says:

        What does it rhyme with?

      • Anonymous says:

        Same thing happened to me on EW Arterial this week. Green truck, licence plate covered in cement. Same truck then cut in front of me from the left lane ON THE ROUNDABOUT as we turned right onto Shamrock Rd.

        Someone ought to station themselves with a at these busy roundabouts at rush hour. There would be ample proof of all the nutters on the road.

    • Anonymous says:

      So that explains why they race along the roads exceeding the speed limit every day, cut up people on roundabouts and rarely have legible license plates, indicators or stop lights? Yeah mate, in this case you are such a troll.

  12. Anonymous says:

    Why don’t they ticket the omnibus drivers for speeding like crazy!! It’s very scary catching a bus ? these days they go way over the speed limit

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    • Anonymous says:

      Connections….same reason the taxi system ain’t changing

    • Anonymous says:

      They do not think the speed limits apply to them. They ignore the 25 mph on the West Bay Road & none of them appear to have indicators (as they are never used when dropping off passengers or pulling back into the traffic).
      These comments also apply to taxi drivers.

    • Anonymous says:

      Whilst I know you are right regarding a small handful of drivers, to someone who uses the buses daily from WB to NS for years, it sounds to me like you have never been in any, or many buses. The taxi drivers, now that’s another story, quite a few of them drive like dump truck drivers.

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  13. Anonymous says:

    Good job RCIP – I am amazed at how badly some of the dump truck drivers drive.

    I have one particular issue which I wish could be addressed, which is the trucks which use their air brakes, which are absolutely not necessary on the island. I have seen many car drivers and bicycle riders completely startled by the incredible noise made by these brakes. I bet they will cause an accident one day. The noise can be heard from very long distances (you can be shopping inside of Hurleys and hear them close to the roundabout), and is simply one of the most annoying sounds on the road.

    Can a driver be ticketed for that?

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    • Anonymous says:

      Try living anywhere near Shamrock Road. The noise from the trucks using their air brakes can be deafening. On top of that, they love to salute each other with their horns. No respect for anyone living near the main road.

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      • Anonymous says:

        Exhaust brakes assist regular foot (air brake) braking on steep declines. No need to use them on Cayman’s flat roads. It’s all about making a noise for these drivers.

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    • Anonymous says:

      Air brakes are much more effective in bringing a loaded dump truck to a stop.

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      • Anonymous says:

        Only if they are traveling to fast for conditions. Use of air breaks are banned in many communities in the US, requiring drivers to travel ar safe speeds on local roads. Cayman has all local roads with no real highways.

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      • Anonymous says:

        In other countries, where speeds are MUCH higher, the trucks are not allowed to use their air brakes in rural towns. And yet they can safely come to a complete stop. Imagine that.

        The fact that they need the air brakes to stop on a flat road at relatively low speeds is absolute nonsense. I think they use them for the sake of making the noise, period, especially as not all the truck drivers use them. Unless of course you’re saying that some of the truck drivers on Cayman are not as able as drivers elsewhere?

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        • Anonymous says:

          You all are confusing the (noisy) exhaust brake with the very much needed air brake. The original post about air brakes being needed to stop a loaded truck is correct.

          • Anonymous says:

            Yes, you’re right – I’m the original poster and I realise I should have said “exhaust brakes”. We used to refer to them as Jake Brakes, but I wasn’t sure that was a common term so I used the wrong technical term. Sorry!

            However, hopefully the most important part of my point got through….there is no need to use those types of brakes here! They are banned in many places, where speeds limits are much higher, due to the noise they cause.

            I wish we could get a law passed that would ban them here!

    • Anonymous says:

      The spikes on the rims and the spotlights all over the cab need banning too.

  14. Anonymous says:

    If the cops just sat in Bodden Town by the Coe wood beach with radar guns pointing east and west they would pickup 20 speeding trucks a day through the narrow street of Bodden Town. But they never do. Why? Probably because they couldn’t handle the number of offenders.

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    • SSM345 says:

      That’s a lot of tickets and reports to handle; that’s why they don’t do it.

      Our RCIPS have an aversion to the nitty gritty required of their roles; its almost a year now since I was robbed and to date have not received my police report which in turn meant that the insurance claim went out the window.

      I also witnessed last week a unlicensed, uninsured SUV parked up on the pavement completely inside the double yellow lines at the LA Building (end closest to the liquor store) and heard the policewoman telling her friend (the driver; who had purchased liquor) that she had better go get her car licensed and insured on Saturday (this was on a Tuesday). Didn’t have my phone otherwise I would have filmed it and their conversation. At the very same time a bus came flying round the corner and almost ran over tourists walking across the zebra crossing in front of LA Building; again nothing from said policewoman and she witnessed it; instead she laughed with her friend in the uninsured / unlicensed car and carried on.

      And we wonder why nothing gets done.

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    • Anonymous says:

      Amen, amen amen @3.44.

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  15. Anonymous says:

    Why is it that Government after Government will not address the fundamental issue of traffic safety. It is the ‘miracle’ in the room that their are not more road fatalities than the ones already:

    # Public buses with speed limiters set at 30 mph.
    # All trucks over 7.5 tonnes to have speed limiters set again at 30 mph.
    # Permanent Police checkpoints located on the West Bay road before the bridge by the Kimpton Hotel entrance. Second checkpoint on the Prospect side of Hurleys roundabout.

    I am sure that if all the above were implemented, the rest of the island would have a relaxed and stress free driving experience.

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    • Anonymous says:

      Why would we limit vehicles to 60% of the max speed limit on a good portion of their journey from out East? 50mph governor I could get behind, if such a thing were possible. I agree it’s much less than what they are going now! Also, Kimpton is not technically on West Bay Road…it’s ETH North, and I don’t want to argue on why that is so!

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  16. Anonymous says:

    Please do this every day.

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  17. Anonymous says:

    Unfortunately, the headcount, acuity, and performance of what the RCIPS characterize as “operations”; and what the public, and bad apples might view as a meaningful deterrents, remain far from reconciled. It’s not eight tickets, I can tell you that. Why do the Police feel they have this audacious discretion to choose from a short list of “offense du jour” or grandiosely announce that they are about to start addressing an area of their paid responsibility?

    What if you had a coworker that quietly decided to themselves that today they would only be colouring in duotang folder tabs, taking a long lunch, and not answering phones or performing any of their other contracted functions? Can anyone guess what would happen to that employee?

    The Traffic Law is only a few pages long – better learn those pages well if enforcement is the full time career for you. We are tired of these empty warnings Everton – you guys need to get out there and take the task seriously. Stats of 100’s of tickets per “operation” would help. Staff accordingly.

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  18. Anonymous says:

    RCIPS might want to do early morning drives out on the bypass near newlands the amount of people driving without lights on is scary. Around 4-5.30 am would be great!

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  19. Anonymous says:

    Good start, now please keep this up all day and every day. You might want to check in on the usual problem roundabouts for rogue lane changers.

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  20. Anonymous says:

    Thank you to the very dedicated police.

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  21. Anonymous says:

    I’ll tell you what, if a taxi company opened that decided to make the fares cheaper than the typical farcical ride they would make way more then all of them. Call it undercutter rides and it would only cost $10 from Camana Bay to South Sound, not $27. Everyone would take a cab because everyone could fricken afford it then.

    Taxi rant aside, keep up the good work getting those idiot drivers. Try any road any time of the day to catch them.

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    • Anonymous says:

      To the children that spend $200/night dining and partying past midnight to whine about a $20 cab home; or worse, plan to drive drunk every weekend – you need to grow up, or destiny will pay you a visit.

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      • Anonymous says:

        That’s the point though, it’s never $20. Ever.

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      • Anonymous says:

        It’s NEVER just $20 dollars. Notice the mention of $27 from CB to SS? How about CB to Bodden Town or Red bay?? LOL, not on my bank account. And I don’t have to spend $200 too get crunk. So crunk budget needs to included cheaper fare home.

      • Jotnar says:

        So by your logic taxis should be like a consumption tax – dine at the Ritz and pay a fortune for your taxi, dine at Popeyes and pay a couple of bucks. Cayman taxi drivers are the Marxist collective – from each according to their means! How about they just charge everyone a fair amount instead?

      • Anonymous says:

        $20 won’t get you far. It’s $50 to BT before midnight, more after. Lord knows how much to get beyond. Unlike WB, the fastest growing district has little to no public buses on a night. With the two combined anyone going out for a drink and a dance would have to drive. Not everyone has a nominated safe driver handy over there. I am a teetotaller by the way. Whilst I think there is no excuse for drinking and driving, I am just trying to sit on the fence and look at it logically.

    • Anonymous says:

      Allow Uber or Lyft to operate here. Every Caymanian with a smart phone & car could make money giving rides. So easily accomplished.
      Put money in people’s pockets.
      Solve the no taxis available in the evening problem.
      Make roads safer by getting rid of crazy bus drivers from Jamaica.
      Break the monopolies the taxi company’s have. Let them shuttle cruise passengers.

      Problems solved. Your welcome.

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      • Anonymous says:

        Yep! But the taxi bus board seems to have some peeing on the bed video of the government because they always back down. How many Caymanians say these people aren’t from Cayman but yet the government seems to care about their vote.

      • Fred the piemaker says:

        Problem solved eh. First, of CIG couldn’t get the taxi firms to install meters do you honestly think they have the cojones to introduce Uber? And as for the other benefits you claim, first how would you limit it to Caymanians, and second what makes you think the Uber drivers would be any safer or more responsible (or even different people!) from the current taxi crew? It’s a lovely idea but a little more complex in political and regulatory terms than you think.

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        • Anonymous says:

          No, it’s pretty simple. It’s done around the world and works great. It just pisses off taxi/bus drivers. But that part makes me smile.

  22. Anonymous says:

    Buses and taxis must be priority #1

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  23. Anonymous says:

    give them hell! as a caymanian, i am happy with the police lately and their excellent work!?

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