Speed check radar coming to WB road

| 05/11/2019 | 55 Comments
Cayman News Service
Example of radar speed check

(CNS): The government has announced plans to introduce speed check radar signs on the West Bay Road and some other locations where excessive speeding is prevalent. Speaking at the National Roads Authority’s recent road safety conference, the minister responsible for roads, Joey Hew, said that studies have shown that drivers will slow down 80% of the time when encountering a radar sign that alerts them to their excessive speed. 

It is not clear when the radar will be installed, but the minister said it was one of several measures government is already taking to address the number of collisions on local roads.

Hew pointed to the implementation of fluorescent yellow-green lighted pedestrian crossings at schools and other locations, the installation of 20,000 feet of new highway safety guardrail, anti-skid surfacing, and the use of transverse thermoplastic striping at high traffic intersections like roundabouts.

Officials said improving road safety was “at the nucleus of the conference”, which hosted local and international speakers from the public and private sectors. Michael Dreznes of the International Road Federation (IRF), the keynote speaker, called on the delegates to address the idea that deaths from road traffic collisions are “inevitable”. 

He said that at the current rate of mortality, 15,000 people will have died in road traffic collisions globally over the four-day conference period, which means traffic collisions are the second worst epidemic in mankind’s history. He called upon governments to step up to their responsibility to “vaccinate” against the problem, regardless of the cost.


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Category: Crime, Crime Prevention

Comments (55)

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  1. Anonymous says:

    Have a camera added in the mix and send out automated tickets. If people don’t pay the impound the vehicle and a hefty fine. What’s the problem

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    • Anonymous says:

      Here are some problems:
      1. cars are allowed (forgiven by Cabinet) to be unlicensed for years
      2. Unlicensed/prohibited drivers operating said vehicles, likely without insurance, possibly drunk or high
      3. Original registrant and registered address possibly long gone and of no use (if plates even belong to vehicle using them)
      4. No rcips tow trucks
      5. No impound lot
      6. No political Will to correct any of the above

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  2. Anonymous says:

    Even if these radars were useful and could generate automatic fines they’d still be useless as a) you’d never get the ticket due to the shite postal service and b) if you’ve only given your physical address or not updated your drivers license then the ticket would end up in a black hole. It also perhaps foolishly assumes everyone updates their correct details on their drivers license which is a dangerous assumption especially when it takes a full day in the DVL to do anything like that.

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  3. Anonymous says:

    Not related to this – but why aren’t comments allowed on the article re the XXXX

    CNS: You are wrong. For legal reasons comments are always blocked on articles after someone has been arrested unless the charges are dropped or until there is a verdict or a plea in a court case.

  4. Anonymous says:

    I understand that the light placed at the junction of West Bay Road and Eastern Ave is to protect people using the crossing across the top of Eastern Ave, but you can’t even see it when you are stopped on the line! Could they not have positioned it better? Even simple works are executed so poorly.

    • Anonymous says:

      The stop lights there are optional, pay them no mind.

    • Anonymous says:

      The left lane give way is now a stop light which, during some hours, unnecessarily detains traffic all the way up to Marriott. Why?!? Only idiots turn right northbound from south church street…

    • Anonymous says:

      exceeding the speed limit in Cayman does not mean you were speeding.

  5. Anonymous says:

    I’m one of those people stuck in traffic from Prospect all the way past GT and as I was coming back from the brand new Foster’s I realised all the cops are focusing on driving up and down that stretch and there’s no one that is radaring Linford Pearson by the dump! everyone was flying by me at 100 miles an hour. Way to go police farce. At least if you’re going to be driving up and down all the slow ass traffic you should start issuing tickets for people not using their indicator on roundabouts and not going when there is space to go. I mean, you’re standing right there directing traffic but you can’t tell off the many idiots who don’t go when they have space on the roundabout? Or how about ticket the people 50 feet away from you that overtake everyone waiting in line to enter the roundabout on shamrock rd just to go and enter from the oncoming side of the road entrance and cut everyone off!

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  6. Anonymous says:

    Brought to you (again) by the never-ending Unity think-tank of dumb, unsightly, expensive, and ineffectual ideas.

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  7. Anonymous says:

    I’m jealous – at least there’s an opportunity to break the speed limit in WB, driving to / from Prospect everyday I think the quickest speed I get to is about 14 mph (on a good day).

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  8. Anonymous says:

    Actual enforcement is what breeds conformity, not flashy radar signs or repeated warnings. The speed often is a product of impairment, which this expensive passive system does nothing to resolve.

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  9. Anonymous says:

    Are there speed limit signs on West Bay Road? I know there is one just before you enter George town new Kirks Supermarket but where are the others?

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    • Anonymous says:

      Anywhere else, this would be the $200 solution. But why spend $200 on a logical first step, when you can skip ahead to a problem that doesn’t really need fixing at ten times the cost? Senseless capex is the PPM credo. The bigger, and looser accounted, the better.

  10. Anonymous says:

    Ugh. How about cops issue tickets to actual speeders? How about they radar often? Oh it’s too hot outside, sorry.

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  11. Anonymous says:

    I always drive the speed limit, but in kilometers per hour instead of miles per hour just to be extra safe. I also make sure I to drive in the right lane on dual carriageways at all times as it is farthest from pedestrians and therefore safest. Persons that drive in the left lane when the road is empty are endangering walkers. SMH.

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    • Anonymous says:

      Congratulations..you are slowing the traffic flow 30% un-necessarily and also violating a road rule by not keeping to the left , as a slower vehicle.

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    • Anonymous says:

      Sounds like your the sort of driver that forces others to under take

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    • Anonymous says:

      Granny, a you dat?

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    • Road-user says:

      Then you are breaking the law. Vehicles should drive in the left lane unless overtaking or approaching a right turn junction.

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    • Anonymous says:

      You should always drive on the left unless overtaking or entering a roundabout to turn right. The pedestrians are fine as long as they stay off the road. And driving 40 % slower than the speed limit is causing an obstruction to traffic flow. Both would be traffic offences in the UK.

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    • Anonymous says:

      Hate to break it to ya, but you ain’t driving at the speed limit.

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    • Anonymous says:

      Your one of those who actually cause accidents. People trying to pass you and taking chances because your not doing the speed limit.

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    • Anonymous says:

      You’re either a troll, which is most likely, or an idiot. Or an idiot troll.

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    • Anonymous says:

      Hopefully there’s enough replies from others, that the moron who posted the original comment now understands that they are possibly one of the worst drivers in the world.

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    • Anonymous says:

      Anonymous, I thought you were joking, but based on the responses to this comment everyone else has taken you seriously. So consider this a formal reprimand and do the exact opposite of what you said.

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  12. Anonymous says:

    These come with larger, brighter screens, longer battery life, advanced weatherproofing, and upgraded air conditioning.

  13. Anonymous says:

    Why can’t we leave mashed up cars from serious crashes by the side of the road. Food for thought for idiots, that is, if they can make the correlation.

    It’s also festive season, so we’ll soon be seeing cars at various angles as part of light displays on roundabouts.

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  14. Johnny be good says:

    More dumb cop technology so the real ones can scive off. These contraptions don’t do anything to habitual speeders, no photo, no fine in the mail or logging on your licence. What a total waste of money to be relegated to the dump in less than 2 years.

    What’s wrong with installing equipment that actually catches and records, are they afraid they might clog up the courts. Well of course they will!

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  15. Anonymous says:

    CNS, it’s a pity you didn’t post a story on Michael Dreznes’ full speech at the road safety conference because he made a heck of a lot more sense than any of the self-styled road safety ‘experts’ on these islands ever have.

    The problem is that all his suggestions are going to fall victim to the traditional NIH (Not Invented Here) attitude that prevails within CIG and RCIPS.

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  16. Anonymous says:

    just bring in private traffic cops…they will enforce the laws , pay for themselves and generate millions in revenue for cig

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  17. Anonymous says:

    don’t they have a bunch of these already..I remember seeing them some years ago..

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  18. John Evans says:

    I covered the introduction of the first one of these by RCIPS back in 2007. It was initially tested on the LInford Pearson Highway.

    In the UK we have them everywhere. They’re commonly referred to as SIDs (Speed Indicator Devices) and it’s fair to say in the rural area where I live now they’re pretty effective.

    What happened when they were introduced on Grand Cayman? Drivers and riders used them to check out how fast their machines could go. If I remember correctly within two weeks of the kit going into use it clocked someone doing 127mph.

    This is going to be interesting to follow.

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    • Anonymous says:

      Apologies, that should read, LInford Pierson Highway.’ Getting sloppy in my old age here and checked the spelling on Bing not Google!

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  19. Anonymous says:

    Why not have these speed cameras just issue tickets automatically like the rest of the modern world? I am sick of law breakers just being warned. Warnings have been going on for decades.

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  20. Anonymous says:

    If we can’t do it anywhere else, West Bay Road MUST have safe north-south bicycle lanes for tourists, segway tours, and commuters. All the hotels have bikes now. Can CITA please wake up Joey?

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  21. Anonymous says:

    Slow down? 100% of those studies were not done in Cayman. Here it’s considered a challenge.

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  22. Anonymous says:

    Yawn!

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  23. Anonymous says:

    Let me guess, southern end near Captains Bakery? Give it a rest Joey.

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  24. Anonymous says:

    Put in place photo radar. They have this in the city I am from in Alberta Canada.

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    • Anonymous says:

      In the UK we use speed over distance cameras but you need a proper vehicle registration database to make it work and they don’t have that here.

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      • Anonymous says:

        Dial it back a few basic expectation notches…that assumes that nobody would be brash enough to risk operating an unlicensed car, or be an unlicensed/prohibited driver. The Traffic Court Cause Lists would suggest both are exceedingly common, along with impaired and uninsured for the win!

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      • Anonymous says:

        Why don’t we have a proper database. It is not complicated, especially given the relatively low numbers. Hell, I could do it myself in an excel spreadsheet in 6 months!

        Where is the accountability? Why does no one ever enforce anything effectively, ever?

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        • Anonymous says:

          Could you? Fill yer boots mucker.

          • Anonymous says:

            50,000 vehicles

            1. license plate number, 2. type,
            3. model-year and
            4. color.

            Yes – 6 months of data entry. 8,000 vehicles a month. 2000 a week. 400 a day. 50 an hour. 18 seconds for each field. Cat you type “Honda” in 18 seconds. If you can then you too could do it in 6 months even without a drop down menu.

    • Anonymous says:

      Great idea, you’d get a photo of an indiscernible driver of vehicle licensed once upon a time 3 years ago to someone no longer on island…what then? The RCIPS have barely been doing any Traffic enforcement for over a decade and this is the state of affairs. So bad that Joey opened the amnesty window for all those hundreds driving around in unlicensed vehicles!

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