Traffic unit nets 32 drunks since start of month

| 19/04/2018 | 47 Comments

(CNS): While enforcement efforts by the RCIPS Traffic Management Unit continues, drivers are still ignoring the rules of the road and police have already arrested 32 drivers this month for getting behind the wheel after drinking. More than half of the drunk drivers were nabbed during the last two weekends, with ten arrests between 6 and 8 April and eight more this past weekend. Police have also issued 136 speeding tickets and 94 tickets for excessive tint since 1 April. Among the many arrests for DUI was one man who tried, in vain, to reverse his car away from a road block in the early hours of Sunday morning.

Police had spotted the driver of a green Honda Civic on the Esterley Tibbetts Highway near Yacht Drive during a traffic operation. As he approached the road block, he put the car in reverse and backed into the flow of traffic. The vehicle ran off the road shortly afterwards and officers found the driver unconscious in the front seat, with no signs of injury.

The officers reported a strong odor of alcohol coming from the driver, who was taken to hospital. The 32-year-old man from West Bay was later arrested on suspicion of DUI and dangerous driving and other traffic related offences. He is currently on bail as the investigation continues.

Meanwhile, on Saturday, 14 April, at about 1:50am officers on patrol along the West Bay Road pulled over a Nissan Primera that was travelling at 58mph in the 25mph zone. After detecting a strong smell of alcohol coming from the driver, a roadside breath test was conducted with a reading of 0.198%. The 25-year-old Bodden Town man was arrested on suspicion of DUI. He has since been bailed.

Inspector Ian Yearwood of the Traffic and Roads Policing Unit reminded drivers why they are clamping down on rogue road users.

“When you choose to drive under the influence, speed, or commit any other traffic offence, you are making the road that much less safe for everyone using it,” he said. “This is also true if you excessively tint your vehicle windows, which impacts visibility for not only you as the driver, but other motorists. For this reason there is no provision in the law that allows for the tint of the front windscreen below six inches from the top.”

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Category: Crime, Police

Comments (47)

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  1. Anonymous says:

    Get more speeders please. Preferably the biker kind. I see them all the time and never any cops. Seriously, how understaffed is the RCIPS?

  2. Anonymous says:

    Automatic 60 days in jail, seizing the car and deportation for expats. That would help this chronic DUI problem.

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  3. Anonymous says:

    The “taxis are too expensive” line, in relation to this issue, is tiresome.

    I’ve taken taxis from SMB to West Bay several times in the past month or so, and never been asked for a fare of more than $15. Seems pretty reasonable to me for getting home safe and not putting others at risk. It’s not difficult to plan for!

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    • Anonymous says:

      Did you send this whilst driving your cab (badly)?

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    • Anonymous says:

      $15?! That’s laughable. I can’t even get from the airport to SS for under $20 during the day.

      Are you in the wb area of smb already and only need to go 1 mile when you call this phantom cab?

  4. Anonymous says:

    Please allow me to go slightly off topic, although the subjects are related. I refer to signaling, or lack of it, by road users. Now I wouldn’t expect drivers who are drunk to bother to use their signals, but ordinary stone-cold sober drivers (including myself occasionally) should be more courteous when it comes to using turn signals: we are all human and we make mistakes. However there is a method which will drastically alert drivers to use their signals, and the solution is already in place at the new roundabout on Crewe Road/Smith Road junction, that is signs telling motorists to “signal if turning” or words similar to that. There is another sign at the junction of Dorcy Drive and Airport Road which says “Indicate Left Turns”. Sadly there is no similar sign if one is approaching the junction from the direction of Foster’s: there ought to be one saying “Indicate Right Turns” but there isn’t. I am not aware of any other such signs on the island, but I stand to be corrected if I am wrong. So what about it, NRA, Government, Service Clubs, even me, and have these signs placed Island wide, especially on roundabouts. Just my two cents worth!

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    • Anonymous says:

      You shouldn’t need a sign, it is one of the rules of the road that should have been taught to you when you learned to drive.

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      • Anonymous says:

        ………but what is taught is routinely ignored. Signs would help to get drivers out of this bad habit.

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        • Anonymous says:

          Do you need a sign that says wipe after pooping too? No you just do it because it’s just what you do!

  5. Anonymous says:

    I think it may be time for us to amend the law making a DUI a criminal offense, its obvious people are not stopping their bad habits.

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  6. Anonymous says:

    When is this crime going to become a criminal offence?

    Result: Ex-pats get booted off island and Caymanian’s loose ability to obtain travel visas when found guilty. Maybe real consequences will eventually make people recognise the irresponsible, inexcusable and potentially lethal impact of their decision to drive while under the influence.

    #zerotolerence

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    • Anonymous says:

      Punishment is harsh enough as it is. There just needs to be more roadblocks. Vast majority of people drive legally.

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  7. Steve says:

    It is about time to bring Flex in…local bus don’t work at late nights and taxi are thieving bastards.

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  8. Anonymous says:

    the protectionism lobby that keeps the current state of taxi rates so high is partially a cause for the scandalous level of DUI in Cayman….not solely the cause, but it’s a definitive contributor…..Uber and others should be welcomed here…OR, here’s a thought, we introduce residents rates in the local taxi program….all fares 50% off for anyone showing their Cayman Drivers Licence (yes, some ‘tourists’ with 2nd homes have them too…lucky them)..the taxi’s will not be losing money, they’d be making money they currently don’t get….and it will at least go some way to giving people an option NOT to make the utterly idiotic decision to DUI……as to what should happen to those arrested and proven to be over the limit? Name and shame them….put a list every month to the local insurance companies….drink driving is an utter travesty and wholly unnecessary….some say its an ‘island thing’…it’s not, its a scourge of the world and has devastating consequences far too often

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    • Anonymous says:

      Taxi pricing has never been justification for scheduled alcoholic binge drinking and drunk driving. To plan hours/days in advance to be a selfish menace on the roads is the choice of the driver, complicit unregulated bars/restaurants, and peer groups that normalize the frequently fatal behavior. Nobody has a gun to your head insisting you must drink? If they do, you need new friends. Nobody should be drinking at all if they’re planning to get back on our public roads!!

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    • Anonymous says:

      We regularly take taxis in the SMB corridor and find the fares to be very reasonable compared to major urban centers around the world. We don’t have to worry about parking, or leaving a car, and can feel free to share a bottle of wine on a date night without issues. We have our favorite taxis on speed dial. No taxi issues in 25+ years. In fact, some now know us so well, that they have delivered us home on the occasion we didn’t have full cash, and we paid them the next day. Where else can you do that? All our taxis need are credit card POS swiping machines and life would be perfect – since it’s not always convenient (nor necessarily safe) to find a bank machine.

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      • Anonymous says:

        What’s reasonable to you? And if you live in smb, only stay in smb, then yes it’s probably cheaper for you than the rest of us.

        • Anonymous says:

          Well under $20 each way is a perfectly reasonable fee to me, to not have to park, or be burdened by the responsibility of transportation, and arrive home alive not having crashed, or killed anyone/anything. This is less than the gratuity on the first of several round of drinks our DUIers are regularly accustomed to consuming at bars and restaurants on any given Friday night. Maybe if people had to pay for parking, or get towed, attitudes would change. The taxi-critics that are staying out until 4am, slapping down Benjamins for bottles of Veuve in the VIP, really shouldn’t be pretending that safe transport is out of reach for them. It sounds like they’d be too cheap to pay any price for personal transport, regardless of the existence of Taxis, or surge-pricing on Uber, Lyft, or Flex. If they are out spending their last dime on booze, their priorities are truly out of whack.

      • Anonymous says:

        My goodness, a taxi driver that can write. Meanwhile the rest of the population gets ripped off as usual.

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        • Anonymous says:

          Strange to believe there are responsible adults? We have had some last minute driver substitutions, and attempts at “misquotes”, but knowing how much our well-trod routes should actually cost, from repetition, we are quick to point out the correct fare. Can you say the same? Do you actually know how much your preferred route should cost? How many miles is it? How long does it take?

  9. Anonymous says:

    Q. Is there any good reason why RCIPS officers, in marked cars, can’t set a perfect example by learning to use their indicators, or refraining from texting while moving in traffic?

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  10. Anonymous says:

    Arrest is the first step. We need to make sure there are convictions with loss of license and jail for multiple convictions.

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    • Anonymous says:

      This happens to those convicted already. Maybe the fact we have no jail space is a controlling factor on why we are not seeing more go to the big hotel.

  11. Anonymous says:

    If the police want to catch a lot more ppl for DUI just block off the exits to all the night clubs at4am or wait outside after happy hour!!!

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  12. Anonymous says:

    Exactly what are the consequences of a DUI charge? How many of these drivers who are charged end up having the charges dismissed?

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    • Anonymous says:

      Embarrassment, shame, psychological distress, repeated trips to report for bail, repeated trips to court, repeated references in the court lists published online, a lawyer’s fee if you can afford one, if you don’t plead guilty a trial, if you do a fine and disqualification, more shame that you have officially been convicted of a crime, the costs of transport for the period of disqualification (financially and emotionally on you of being immobile and dependent on others, and time, space and emotionally for family members and friends who now have to drive you like you’re a child), attendance 6 times at the DUI rehabilitation course, other orders the judge could possibly make, risk of job loss depending on your job (or even certain job loss), so lost earnings, and from that everything can spiral out of control. In the DUI class they make you add up what it has cost you and everyone had a figure over $10k and some over $20k or more except for a couple of people who had little to lose when they got caught. Basically it’s quite enough punishment when you put it all together.

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      • Anonymous says:

        Most people keep driving around like nothing happened. The number of people that get pulled over a second, third, or fourth time while disqualified is staggering.

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  13. Anonymous says:

    Lol. I could have got that many in an hour. Hint: Happy Hour…

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  14. Anonymous says:

    excellent Job RCIP!?????

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    • Anonymous says:

      Are you sure 32 in 20 days qualifies as a productive effort for our 400+ officers? Deficient at best!

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    • Shhhhhhhhhh. says:

      It’s amusing that this info is released slightly ahead of the following release :- “The Royal Cayman Islands Police Service recorded more than double the number of crashes on the roads in 2017 compared to the previous year, and although the number of fatal accidents dropped from seven to three, only one less person lost their lives compared to 2016. With 2,725 collisions”. Great P.R. management! Anyway, no one should be surprised, as the deterrent factor is just about gone with the manpower of the Traffic Mgt. Unit being stripped to a dismal level. Dah wah ya get!

  15. Anonymous says:

    Catching DUIs on Grand Cayman is a bit like shooting fish in a barrel.

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  16. Fake News Caymanian says:

    Good job RCIPS, much more needed.
    The question now how can we prevent this for continuing?
    Well 1 solution was out there a couple of years ago the guys on the mini scooters driving you home, unfortunately becuase of our culture this company hasn’t succeeded.
    2nd is the new company put forward by a couple of young Caymanians and of course government has denied it. Of course becuase of the taxi mafia.
    Maybe it’s time, if you caught DUI, you car is automatically seized for a period of 6 Month and licesne immediately taken as other countries do.

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  17. West Bay Premier says:

    Good job RCIPS , but you still have 118 more to meet the quota for the month .

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  18. Anonymous says:

    Nice work police, keep up the good work and don’t let up. Constant presence on the roads is needed on this island.

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