Cops net 13 drunk drivers in ten days
(CNS): Just ten days into July, the RCIPS said its officers have already arrested thirteen drunk drivers this month, after arresting 24 during the month of June as part of the continuing clampdown on rogue road users. Last month police also issued 152 tickets for illegal tint and 263 tickets for speeding, bringing the total for May and June to 546. They also gave out 25 tickets for dangerous driving, another 41 for careless driving, and 67 motorists were ticketed for using a mobile phone while driving.
“Along with speeding and drunk driving, illegal tint remains one of our areas of focus,” said Inspector Ian Yearwood of the Traffic and Roads Policing Unit. “While the Traffic Law does allow for a certain degree of tinting on vehicles, excessive tinting can cause various issues, including affecting the safety of road users, facilitating crime, and interfering with police officers’ ability to assess and respond to situations in which a heavily tinted vehicle is involved.”
But the police are also battling against drivers who consume alcohol and then proceed to break the traffic laws. In one case, a 24-year-old man from George Town was arrested on suspicion of a catalog of offences by officers on patrol at around 4:30am, Wednesday 27 June. The police saw a Chevrolet Colorado speeding along Shedden Road before it turned south onto Thomas Russel Avenue. The officers stopped the truck, and while speaking to the driver, detected the scent of alcohol on his breath and ganja in the vehicle.
A search of the vehicle turned up an undisclosed quantity of ganja, and police also learned that the licence plates on the truck belonged to another vehicle. The driver was arrested on suspicion of DUI, possession of ganja, dangerous driving, and using a licence plate with intent to deceive. He has since been bailed, police stated.
I know it’s relatively minor, but people sitting in the wrong lane, and the acceptance of undertaking really bugs me. There needs to be some kind of compulsory guidance of how driving on the left varies for people who learned to drive on the right.
What we need is a sustained campaign of driver awareness and education. The attitude to driving here is hilariously bad.
To get a driving license here is pathetically easy. The driving test takes 10 minutes, and if you smile nicely, you can do what you like, and get your license.
Indicators, lane discipline, seatbelt use, car condition, speed, awareness, and road manners are so bad it’s no wonder we have so many accidents. Would also help if there weren’t so many left hand drive cars here, or their drivers had some clue about the differences of positioning a LHD car within their lane.
police need a new hiding spot….they still speeding down linford pierson hwy…..one cross me at 40 mph as if i eas parked this morning???!!!????????
ho ho ho and a bottle of rum oye matiye blackbeards one forte nite to hispanola…????
Good to see police dealing with DUI and tint and speeding. But what about all the reckless driving on the highways at excessive speed, the taxi, bus and van and lorry drivers who must be the worst drivers i have ever seen. They have no idea of the rules, never use their indicators and bus drivers not only block the roads when picking up passengers but they also race each other on the roads to grab the next passenger. Also using indicators anywhere particularly at roundabouts seems to be non existant.
Police checks are not frequent enough. I am on the raod frequently everyday and cannot remember the last roadblock i came upon. At least six months or more. Driving is just as bad during the day as 3am in the morning.
I do think the police are doing some good work and we need to continue to support them.
A bunch of police, public works and other government vehicles have ridiculous tint on them. How does that work? I have 20 percent which is “illegal” but can be seen through clearly enough at most times.
More proof they need to overhaul the taxi mafia on island. People still risking their and our lives because it is too much to get a ride home. What happened to Flex?! Screw it all and bring in Uber.
I say great job RCIPS! I do hope that when you’re giving people tickets for illegal tint that you’re using the machine to show the driver that their tint is illegal, because sometimes it depends how the sun shines on the glass, it can look darker than it really is.
How may of these were expats
2 and they were Croatian and we know why they got prosecuted?
just increase all fines…hit offenders in the pocket. it works.
It doesn’t though.
What about the grayish BMW driving around with what appears to be a UK license plate XXXXXXX. The driver should be charged also for using the plate that is not issued by DVDL.
There is also the blue Camaro with an illegal UK style plate as well as someone else in a new Range Rover Evoque. Both license plates look like they were ordered from Amazon.
I think I know the Evoque you mention.
At least he has plates: what about the many cars that haven’t bothered to put on a front plate? At what point will the police clamp down on that? And how on earth are these cars being passed inspection?
Gunmen all on bikes…why hassle tintman in cars or trucks? They the cool dudes not the bad man demthey ride bikes easy to tell stevie.
What about those plate covers that obscure the numbers?
It would be fun to walk along various parking lots snapping those babies open with one of those emergency hammers they use to break windshields in case of emergency.
Its sunny out so their plate needs protection. lol.
Just like Mac needs his church time!
I think it may be time for the Government to amend the traffic law and/or regulations relating to driving under the influence, its obvious the current punishment is not a deterrent. It may be time to shift the classification from a traffic to criminal offense, which is utilized by other countries/territories.
The headline in any other jurisdiction would read:
“Police do their jobs”
not that they would feel the need to write this type of article because in other jurisdictions the police are expected to do their jobs unlike here where it is a pleasant surprise when they do the bare minimum
They feel some sense of achievement because they catch all of these drivers on their own. If you call them with an issue, give them evidence, then they can’t take full credit besides finding the person and arresting them. It’s really sad actually.
They are drawing attention to how many people continue to break the law, an noting they are continuing to write tickets in an attempt to deter people.
What an excellent result RCIPS. You certainly are clamping down on these traffic violators. However, reading some posts, some people are never satisfied whatever you do. You can’t do right for doing wrong. Keep up the good work.
Glad to hear they are going after excessive tinting as a lot of this is connected with illegal activity. The question is what happens after they get a ticket?, if the glass itself is overtinted do they have to replace it?, and if so how is this achieved and how long does the driver get to drive around before fixing it?.
keep up great job rcip! give um hell….????
If that 10 days included 2 weekends , and only nets 13 drunk driver , the police needs to step it up .
WOW! 13 drunks caught behind the wheel! That must be almost 1% of those out there!
3:25 More like 0.1%! Where I was drinking last Saturday they could have picked up 13 drivers leaving the place clearly DUI in 10 minutes and one of them was an RCIPS employee.
It’s a joke because as long as there’s no proper public transport and the taxi service is a rip-off people will (and I admit to doing it) drink and drive
While I agree the public transport service is lacking, and taxi drivers are, at times, essentially highway robbers, neither fact justifies people drinking and driving. People do it because they have no regard for the laws of the road and/or are selfish.
I think you got the point, then dropped it. Sure, there’s no justification, but if we want to solve the problem, arrests CLEARLY hasn’t and won’t stop it. The only solution is better public transport.
Likewise with marijuana arrests. The solution is NOT jailing for a spliff, but regulation exactly like how we do with tobacco cigs. You think if tobacco suddenly became illegal, everyone would stop smoking it?
Please say you’re Caymanian and run for MLA.
I say, Hic……. You left out “stupid”!
Exactly. I see at least half a dozen drunk drivers just trying to get home from work on a Friday night, and the same again Saturday and perhaps a dozen Sundays. Mixed in with poor standards of driving, ignorance, impatience and pure ineptitude of most of the other drivers it’s a nightmare trying to drive anywhere most days, especially headed East from town.
The fines need to increase substantially and cars of drunk drivers need to be impounded only to be released for a hefty price tag
That should be an hour’s work at best.