Senior cop alarmed by DUI increases

| 10/10/2019 | 84 Comments
Cayman News Service
RCIPS traffic checkpoint

(CNS): There is not sign of any reduction in the number of drivers getting behind the wheel drunk, according to the RCIPS, and Superintendent Robert Graham said he was alarmed by the amount of people consuming alcohol and then driving home. In September a total of 27 people were nabbed by officers for driving under the influence, with almost a third of them more than double the limit. Police are urging drivers to make alternative arrangements when drinking.

Superintendent Graham, who is in charge of Uniformed Operations, said that despite enforcement efforts by the traffic unit, including educating and raising awareness about drinking and driving, as well as the high visibility patrols, drivers are still not heeding the warnings.

“We continue to see an alarming increase in the amount of persons driving whilst under the influence of alcohol,” he said. “I am reminding motorists to be safe and do not drink and drive. Consider not just your own safety but the safety of other road users, pedestrians, including children, who may be affected by your actions.

“It is especially alarming for us to see so many persons driving with such high levels of intoxication, which makes being involved in a collision almost guaranteed,” the senior officer added.

Since July this year, police officers have made just over 70 citations for DUIs, and 23 of those drivers were caught because they were involved in traffic collisions.

The police urged drivers not to drink and instead use public transport and taxis or secure a lift with a designated driver who is not drinking.


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Category: Crime, Police

Comments (84)

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  1. Al Catraz says:

    If the taxis were not an extortionate scam, perhaps more persons might use them after an evening out.

    Imagine if you will, the existence of a religious faith of some kind, in which its followers were dedicated to the loving service of others in need, and which organized a volunteer pool of persons willing to drive others who found themselves in need of a ride in such circumstances.

    Imagine further that this same religious faith made a priority of reaching out to people in need and ministering to sinners.

    Wouldn’t it be a literal godsend to have such persons around? Here the island is producing, six nights a week and twice on Fridays, a ripe field for missionary harvest and caring service to others, and it is being left to waste.

    Tsk, tsk. Oh well. Perhaps there is a wedding to crash and disrupt somewhere.

  2. Anonymous says:

    Just get a taxi or a bus, easy…..oh wait, no bus and taxi is a rip off…..

    Even if I could afford a taxi with my drinks here, noone likes to be ripped off, not even the richest of the rich….

  3. Anonymous says:

    A fleet of RCIPS at Royal Palms on Sundays.
    Where Expats hang out, weekly. From all levels of Employment.

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  4. Anonymous says:

    Well it is a British territory after all.

  5. Anonymous says:

    Directly correlated to ongoing failing RCIPS enforcement. It is literally how efficacy is measured. Why was Byrne renewed for four more?

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    • Bishop Nicholas Sykes says:

      It’s drivers’ responsibility first and foremost. That can be positively reinforced by a statement on every licence or renewal that the licence is “conditional on this driver adhering to the road code”, or some such statement.

  6. Anonymous says:

    here is the reality…excuse the political incorrectness
    if drink drive you will only be in trouble if you in an accident or caught in a road block(which are easy to avoid).
    so 95% of the time you will be fine which leads to exaggerated confidence in drink driving each time.(vicious cycle).
    people have island mentality too where they think everything is around the corner….
    solutions:
    uber and let public buses run late.
    plus huge enforcement by police and serious fines….jail or $10k fine.
    people will get the message.

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    • Anonymous says:

      20 dollars for a 9 minute taxi ride is pure theft. Plus you need a taxi the next day to get your vehicle. Sensible Taxi prices would go a long way to fix this issue.

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  7. DONT DUI! says:

    “Senior cop alarmed” I’m surprised they only caught 27 person, shoot, I’d expect 27 per day easily (and that’s from one bar).
    Driving under the influence is a culture on this island as it is in the Caribbean (I’m not saying its right).
    A majority of Caymanians are stubborn, they don’t want to car pool, they don’t want to take the bus, take a taxi and definitely won’t leave their car at a bar overnight.
    Now yes expats are also getting caught, there is a little difference though, when most expats arrive they won’t drink and drive but after several months of living on the island they seem to get our mentality and start doing it more frequently.
    If the police are serious about this issue, would hold road blocks at the same time and location every week, we all know and just don’t drive home at that time.
    Are there solutions, of course, better bus service, cheaper taxis, larger fines other penalties such as immediate seizing the person vehicle until proven inoccent.

    Unfortunately this problem is going to continue.

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    • Anonymous says:

      amen…..i never once thought of drink driving back home…but out here it became a norm.
      taxi and public transport here is a sick bad joke, that is costing people their lives every year.

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      • Anonymous says:

        NO! It is not taxi and public transport “costing people their lives every year”, it is people who drink. If they have money to drink, they have money to get home, they have friends and family who could drive them, or they can drink at home.

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        • Anonymous says:

          But 4 beers is like $20 and the cab home is $50 so it is about public transport.

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        • Anonymous says:

          Ur not gona stop people for drinking…..but at least try stop them drink driving
          …people will spend the price of a drink on a cab or bus ride home…not the price of 5 drinks +

  8. Anonymous says:

    What is drunk? Is drunk, driving all over the road? Some people can drink and drive. Some people can’t.

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    • Anonymous says:

      how many have you had today already???

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    • Anonymous says:

      I take drugs like a champ, just because a couple idiots overdosed means I can’t do it anymore. Thanks, Steve.

    • Anonymous says:

      Alcohol intoxication impairs brain function. Your judgement is one of the first things to go when you’re drunk. Even if you’ve only had two or three drinks.

      I know one, well known Caymanian, who is a High-Functioning Alcoholic. You would never know that he is drunk, unless you saw, with your own eyes how much he drinks. And he drives while intoxicated.

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  9. Anonymous says:

    free solution for cig:
    uber/lyft.

    this will
    enhance tourist experience for visitors.
    reduce dui incidents
    reduce traffic
    reduce dui accidents

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    • Anonymous says:

      A Taxi app would just digitize the PTU’s uncomplicated rate sheet. It doesn’t move your home any closer to your watering hole.

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      • Anonymous says:

        agree, not in cayman.

      • Anonymous says:

        This isn’t an app,UBER allows ordinary people to become taxis when they want to make a few extra dollars. Would provide ordinary people a stream of income, and lower prices for everyone else.

        Of course taxi drivers don’t want this system at all……

  10. Anonymous says:

    there is no excuse but ppl will always risk it when they are faced with little or no alternative.
    i have been out at 1.30am on a week night only to be told by taxi company that ‘you could be waiting a while because we only have 2 drivers on right now’!!!….
    thats when i risk it and drive home myself…which i feel terrible about.

    end the rip-off taxi cartel now!!

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  11. DD says:

    They need to start naming and shaming these people. Print their names and mug shots in the paper and on facebook…

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    • Anonymous says:

      They need to start arresting- mandatory 3 days in jail, fining- 3mo salary, and forfeit driver license for 1 year.
      Drink or not to drink is a personal choice.

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    • Anonymous says:

      Sounds like a good plan but don’t think you can legally do that in this day and age unless your name is CMR

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  12. Anonymous says:

    EXCUSES EXCUSES, NO EXCUSE FOR DRUNK DRIVING!

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  13. Anonymous says:

    Until you sort out a reliable, affordable public transportation nothing is going to change because people will always chance it. Do something about the taxis and the public buses. It shouldn’t cost me $30+ to get from Camana Bay to Patrick’s island! That’s robbery.

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    • Anonymous says:

      When people value human life they won’t drink and drive. Draconian fines and automatic license forfeiture plus jail time would cure those who don’t.

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      • Yo ho ho, and a bottle of... says:

        People will always turn to their vices in order to offset their problems, it’s human nature. Penalising the incapacitated never works. Providing economical, easy solutions for these people to do what they will, will save lives. Make taxis compete with ride share programs, if they can’t then too bad, they too will be forced to join a ride share program or change professions.

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        • Anonymous says:

          Bring back HOME SAFE please! For those of you who weren’t aware, Home Safe was a superb service with fold-up motorbikes who would drive you home safely, in your own car…..and it was affordable and quite quick and reliable.

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    • Anonymous says:

      That’s 20km or so and likely takes over half an hour to get back to somewhere there will be another fare for the driver. I don’t think $30 would be unreasonable.

      Unfortunately I bet it is often a lot more.

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      • Anonymous says:

        Depends on time of day. But you can go to their app and find out the price. That being said, there should be no excuse for them to charge me almost a full tank of gas to get that far, that is not a full tank of gas let alone even a quarter. Full effin stop.

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    • Anonymous says:

      7:47am, and where the thieves are from? You have the answer. They bring their back habits with them.

    • Anonymous says:

      I am astounded that so many agree with this flawed view of the world. In what urban setting can you hail a taxi and drive 10 miles for under $30? Where are these unrealistic expectations coming from? My Uber ride receipt catalogs $35-45 trips (many of shorter distance) in cities all across the world. And so what if it does cost $30 to safely transfer you home?

      Intemperance isn’t caused by Cayman Taxi pricing, it’s because of a dangerous underlying drinking problem! Culturally, far too many seem to acquit the idea that habituated event drinking, esp to annihilation, isn’t an inherently deadly choice, despite the widespread permissibility. That is the problem we should honestly focus on. It’s why so many people have died prematurely and unnecessarily on and around our roads.

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      • Anonymous says:

        You must be a taxi driver because my Uber’s around the world are always considerably cheaper. There is a reason taxi drivers in South Africa are killing uber drivers, because people would rather take an affordable ride home then take a rip off ride home.

        Make uber standard and then the taxis can sign up to drive for them too when they don’t have another fare.

      • Anonymous says:

        Fact: Uber from Miami to Fort Lauderdale $45 US. Cayman taxis would be $150 CI

  14. Anonymous says:

    Why would there be a reduction? Taxis are more expensive than before and just as painful, traffic is worse than before, public transport has not been improved – horrible at the best of times and non-existent after dark. There have been no changes to infrastructure which cause regular folks to drink and drive. Why would the RCIP think there would be a reduction just because of an increase from zero to barely non-zero of enforcement??

    I say this as someone who doesn’t drink alcohol and doesn’t approve of drinking and driving, but the system needs to be improved to allow other reasonable options.

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  15. Anonymous says:

    Give me Uber or Flex and I’ll stop.

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  16. Anonymous says:

    Give people an alternative!!!!!!

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  17. Anonymous says:

    how many times do people have to say it, in this paper.
    NO ONE wants to take those rip off cabs. NO ONE……..
    Allow uber, or some other ride program on cayman. And watch the number of drunk driving incidents decrease over night.

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  18. Anonymous says:

    27 in a month is not a bad haul but I can think of a few popular hang outs where they could probably nab more than that on pretty much any night of the week, and RCIPS know exactly which ones I mean because you see cops drinking in them.

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  19. Anonymous says:

    Only 70 since July? There should have been more arrests with far more speeding tickets, for me, that’s not good enough. Put the police on the road.

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  20. Anonymous says:

    What a pile of bull ! all these people complaining about the price of transportation, the transportation is cheaper than all the booze they consume and definitely cheaper than losing your license or seriously injuring yourself or someone else or the worse case killing some one, when one of these things happens to people they are wishing they spent $ 200 on a cab , so please stop using this lame excuse

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  21. Anonymous says:

    He can’t be serious. The only reason there is more people being caught DUI is because the police are doing more enforcement, not because people are drinking and driving more. I the police were to stake out every local bar they would find drunks driving home at the end of the night every night, just as it has been for the past 40 years. Glad the cops are doing something about it right now, but this too shall pass.

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  22. Anonymous says:

    Is this guy new here? We have always driven drunk and will continue to do so until Joey fixes our public transport system. Best part? They can’t catch us all.

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  23. Anonymous says:

    Public transportation? That’s a joke. If you want DUIs to stop you have to provide a reliable and affordable mode of public transportation.

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  24. J|) says:

    As long as it costs $50 in a taxi to get home on this small island there will be DUIs

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  25. Anonymous says:

    One word: Uber

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  26. Anonymous says:

    This is actually good news cops. You are catching more! Imagine how high the numbers could be!

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    • Anonymous says:

      I am glad to see this statistic finally published. 33% of the people they “caught” were the direct result of these drunken morons crashing. That leaves 43 people actually caught due to police intervention over 3 months. Imagine what those numbers could be if they actually tried? Pretty sure with some effort they could catch 43 in a single Friday night!

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      • Anonymous says:

        Yup. Law enforcement is too sporadic. The police are alarmed they have caught so many. I am alarmed they have caught so few!

        If they did their jobs all day, every day, we would never have got to this stage where the offense (and many others) are so prevalent.

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