Operation Quaker targets bad weekend driving
(CNS): The RCIPS is beginning a road safety and enforcement campaign this weekend to target the particularly bad driving at the weekends. Operation Quakers will focus on curbing reckless and dangerous driving when the worst incidents have been occurring. It will see an increased police presence and traffic enforcement during key hours, including speeding enforcement at various locations, vehicle checkpoints and high-visibility patrols. The public should be aware that police officers will be prosecuting all traffic offences, particularly DUI and speeding, throughout the weekends.
“Our most recent fatal collisions have all taken place during weekend hours and have involved persons speeding, driving under the influence, or both,” said Acting Superintendent Brad Ebanks, head of Uniform Operations. “This has made it clear that a more targeted approach to our traffic offences is needed, in order to reinforce the message that drunk driving and excessive speeding are unacceptable on Cayman’s roads. Drunk driving is everyone’s business, we encourage members of the public to immediately report any driver who they suspect to be driving under the influence by calling 911.”
The legal blood-alcohol limit in the Cayman Islands is 0.100%. If you are breath-tested and found to have a blood-alcohol content at or exceeding this amount you will be subject to arrest. Upon conviction you are liable to a fine of $1,000 and will lose your driver’s licence for a minimum period of 12 months. The penalties increase if you have previous DUI convictions.
The penalty for speeding is a fine of $20 for every mile per hour over the speed limit you are found to be travelling. If the total fine exceeds $500, you will have to attend court, and on conviction you are liable to have your licence suspended for a minimum of 12 months, along with the fine.
“When someone loses their life as a result of a fatal collision, speeding or driving under the influence are almost always a contributing factor,” said Inspector Dwayne Jones, head of the Traffic and Roads Policing Unit. “Cracking down on these offences is essential to making our roads safer, so that all road users can return home safe to their families.”
Chief Inspector Malcolm Kay of Specialist Operations pointed out that anyone who causes a fatal or serious collision will be permanently affected from almost every perspective. “We appeal to everyone to slow down and not to drink and drive. Don’t put yourself in a position where you have to face the consequences,” he warned.
According to the latest police statistics, even with the lockdown and a massive reduction of traffic on the roads for a significant part of last year there were still 2,166 road collisions and nine people were killed.
Accidents have continued to happen this year with increasing frequency and just five months into 2021 five people have already died and many more have been badly injured as a result of crashes.
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The first and last time I ever lent my car to a Caymanian she crashed it trying to turn right in the left hand lane of the ALT roundabout. “But I was indicating, he should have let me through”
Monday, it’s 2:30pm. I have seen zero police on the roads. 2 cars over took on opposite side of the road on South Sound 4 minutes apart and both were close to hitting me head on. On the the bypass, at least 4 cars overtook me going at least 10mph over the speed limit.
Time to start operation do you damn job 24/7 or nothing will change. Every innocent death from reckless drivers are blood on the police hands at this point.
>going at least 10mph over
Literally 90% of people do this, granneh..
LOL 10mph! Scramble the helicopter! I have this strange feeling you’re one of those people who dribble round 5mph under the speed limit leaving a trail of cars swerving to avoid you on every roundabout.
You’re the problem
Waaaah. Never had an accident, never had a speeding ticket and take pride in driving courteously at an appropriate speed irrespective of any arbitrary limits set so numpties like you can keep your car on the road.
Maybe you are driving too slow.
You’re the problem too.
Above comments are saying it’s OK to go 10 miles over the speed limit are contributing to the crashes on the road. It does not matter how many miles over it is when you kill someone because you’re going 50 around a corner. Who wants to bed at least one of those, noon is a police officer as well?
Yesterday WB bus #1 overtook me on Church Street WB. He nearly hit a Lets Eat delivery vehicle that had to pull to the side of the road or there would have been a head on crash.
Crazy. Crazy.
Because we got more bad drivers than Quaker got oats?
They need to crack down on teaching people to use their indicators!!! Idiots!!
Sitting waiting to turn but gotta wait for the pinhead that ends up taking a left and could have turn long ago…
USE YOUR INDICATORS!!!
Only with everyday, all day enforcement will it make any difference. That will never happen here. Get used to the once a month program with warnings. It’s the best Cayman will ever have.
Get police on bicycles in plainclothes to cycle through traffic every morning and evening in rush out traffic from Lantern Point/Grand Harbor/Linford Pierson.
The amount of idiots on phones, putting on make up(these are mostly females), eating food from foam cartons with forks, the list goes on.
BUT…….the fines have to be increased to have any significant effect!!!, first offense $2,000…………….2nd offense $5,000 and loss of Licence for a year.
Let’s see how that would work on idiot drivers.
One more thing, to the RCIP, do not publicly announce any of your operations. That is crazy.
Well you can’t really blame the drivers for getting ready in their cars because they have to try to beat the traffic. People have kids, gotta take them to school, other jobs start early. If the government actually started getting the traffic under control, we wouldn’t have to be getting ready in the car. And don’t use the argument of ‘we could wake up earlier’. We tried that, now everyone leaves at 6:30 and traffic is the same.
Master class on getting ready en route. https://youtu.be/DNV0mc_cpQ0
Sorry that’s a pathetic excuse to drive without due care and attention.
Just curious- is it the use of foam cartons or forks that you find particularly offensive?
watched someone take a roundabout the other day while steering with their knee, phone in one hand, idk about the other. was in awe.
Operation Quaker don’t make laugh! ain’t nobody quaking out here but ridiculous idiots who don’t have a clue about lane discipline or how to steer a friggin car and as for police they need to address the wanton disregard their fellow countrymen have for road safety or other road users and stop this Fing corruption and favoritism shit that has gone on since they arrive on these shores! Quake that unnah corrupt Ras!
Ridiculous that when flex launched the government stepped in to make only existing taxi drivers able to drive for them, when they are largely Jamaican and rip people,off with ridiculous fares. Flex and Uber should be implemented where anyone with a clean driving license and suitable car, caymanian or resident, can drive for set reasonable taxi fares and earn a gold living,
The whole point of Uber is, apart from being very convenient and cost effective, you’re able to reward good courteous drivers. After a number of low ranked reviews, nobody will take up the offer of a crappy driver.
We need this to weed out the dross of “professional drivers” we have here.
thanks again joey hew and ppm…..
and thank you pact for nat doing anything different.
welcome to wonderland
I was just hit by a drunk driver tonight. It was scary. I’m ok but my back aches and my car is messed up but at least nobody died.
The police were calm and professional but the process was too slow for my liking as it was over a half hour after I was hit before they administered the breath test to each of us.
Don’t drink and drive friends.
Praise, I’m glad you are okay, albeit temporarily damaged. You are one of the lucky ones, for there has long been a trend of the drunken drivers bonelessly surviving and the innocent victims perishing.
Your insurance company will likely deem your car ‘totaled’ and give you the low blue book for it, which, of course, doesn’t even begin to replace your car.
There is a 50% or greater odds that the driver’s insurance is lapsed, and there is no help for your hospital bills or anything else.
We are failing the law-abiding drivers. There should be regular stops to check insurance and registration. Here’s an idea — where we have habitual logjams of traffic, why not insert an RCIPS check? What could it really matter in the way of traffic flow? It could matter a LOT in terms of getting noncompliant drivers off the road.
I feel for folk who are paid poorly and live on the margin. If you can’t afford to pay the dues of operating a car, you shouldn’t drive.
Glad to hear you’re ok but that half hour will only make a tiny
difference to the test. Might even read higher if they downed the last drink.
time to let UBER in
Give me Uber or Fkex and i’ll stop…
Use a Bird.
Make government lower the price it costs to take a taxi and I can afford to stop is what you mean. It shouldn’t cost $46 from prospect to yacht club drive. That’s as much as it costs to fill my tank for 2 weeks. That should be $25. Taxi drivers might get tips if it were lower as well as actual customers. Also. The government needs to stop giving them money each month for doing nothing. Lower fares and they’ll make money.
I filled my Honda’s empty tank yesterday for $75CI ad should last me 2+ weeks so I’m not sure how you get 2 weeks driving out of $46 but that’s great.
You know cars are different makes and sizes, right?
I filled my car with about $15 of CUC’s finest electricity last night and that should last me about 300 miles 🙂
Flex is operating.
You mean taxi with a Flex sticker on their windshield.
The same rude taxi drivers…
I was genuinely hoping that Flex would be able to change/upgrade the situation. Give the old cabbies a run for their money. Maybe even cause them to change their attitude.
Yeah, NO.
Screw you and your ultimatums. I’m hoping you are just an internet troll who takes their jollies from stirring the soup of contentious issues.
God help us if you are an actual driver, who will stop driving drunk when Uber or Flex are available here. On the off chance that you are a real driver that often drives drunk, consider that you are more of a danger to the community than to yourself.
What am I saying? You don’t care. You’ve already demonstrated that. I hope you get caught and that arrest doesn’t come from having injured or killed someone else. I will wish for that.
Finally the penny had dropped but the plods have put their foot on it by making a public announcement to warn everyone!.
The RCIPS shouldn’t need a special police operation to enforce basic traffic laws. This tasking, carried out everyday would have such a positive impact on everyones driving standards – but driving standards start from the onset on driving instruction and testing.
While the police should enforce the traffic laws, there is obviously a need to address fundmental driving standards from the onset at DVLD.
Of course a public transport system would also of great benefit – just not with the current set of bus drivers.
Slow down, you’re using a weapon.
You wouldn’t like it if I waved a gun around in the air.
So why do people use these metal boxes like there not dangerous?
Get off your phone, turn off your radio.
Stop driving in a stressed-out state everyone.
What’s the rush that my life must be risked for your small gain?
Turn off the radio – lol
Just park at any roadside any junction or roundabout and the govt will make millions over Saturday
Guess I’m day drinking then.
I sure you already do.
The police should be enforcing all infractions to the letter of the law and collecting the prescribed fines. This will improve road safety and supplement the department’s budget. Isn’t it policing 101 – enforce the law and collect the fines. The Cayman police never seemed to get it. Drivers park all over yellow lines, stop in the middle of the road, fail to indicate (especially on round abouts) and speed all hours of the day and night. Lots to do if they wanted to.
I hate roundabouts.
Or they indicate right when going straight on a roundabout…
How does one go straight when going around a roundabout? Always indicate on a roundabout. Then no doubt about your intentions.
idiot…you must always indicate when leaving a roundabout.
Yeah left, not right… idiot.
The problem with enforcing roundabout signalling is Caymanians appear to have been taught to do it differently to every other country on the planet and it’s a mess. The whole of Europe manages just fine with the sames rules !
It’s a matter of reading. People that read look up the rules for the local area. Not everyone owns a computer, and I understand that; those that do are fully capable of researching and learning how to signal and navigate through roundabouts in the Cayman Islands.
https://www.caymanroads.com/traffic-safety/use-of-roundabouts
Europe uses the same rules??? UK travels clockwise and the others counter-clockwise. Cars entering a roundabout in Greece has right of way.
Our problem is simply too little enforcement of the rules.
How do you indicate when the exit you will be using is only one second away from the last? You cannot indicate until you pass the first exit or you risk traffic misinterpreting, which causes accidents. The only safe rule is that you yield to any vehicle already in the roundabout. Stay away from signaling.
People should learn to drive properly. Have officers on roundabouts fining people for cutting up other lanes, and for all the other idiots that don’t know on a two-lane highway slow traffic stays to the left!
Better yet……. get rid of the damn roundabouts!
Or teach police officers how to use round
Get rid of roundabouts? What do you suggest… more third world four way stops? We follow the British Highway Code here… people need to learn to drive properly and use the correct lanes and indicate on roundabouts.
That’s not a law here.
You are clearly part of the problem.
I find the name operation quaker offensive and racist and the police should really understand the words they use as press releases.
Love it. Someone who doesn’t understand the meaning of the word racist wants to tell the police they need to understand the meaning of words.
You don’t remember Christmas cracker?
Why aren’t you out protesting at Foster’s or Cost-U-Less then, seeing as they are selling QUAKER Oats?
Chin up, buttercup. You’re offended much too easily.
Ok snowflake…
“Operation Quaker
This was a British and Canadian cover plan for Lieutenant General Sir Miles Dempsey’s British 2nd Army and Lieutenant General H. D. G. Crerar’s Canadian 1st Army as they readied themselves for the start of ‘Overlord’ (May/June 1944).
Not a part of ‘Fortitude’, ‘Quaker’ was the British and Canadian counterpart of the US ‘Williams’ and was thus designed to obviate radio silence before D-Day, cover the movement of the assault formations to their embarkation ports, and avoid any extended periods of radio silence should anything cause the postponement of ‘Overlord’.
tl;dr: RCIPS literally acknowledged this is all to look good with their choice of name.. lol can’t make this up
They were going to call it Operation Quacker, but ducks and bad doctors complained it was racist.
Position a police car by the Stop sign at the top of Hurst Road and ticket away (by Cimboco). So many times drivers ignore the Stop sign (even though it’s flashing) and just keep going forcing me to hit the brakes. They can see me advancing close enough that they know I will have to brake in order to avoid an accident. Drivers also tend to ignore the Stop sign at the crossover to get to Hurst Road from the other side.
The bypass and Hirst Road should be a 4-way stop immediately.
Ridiculous it hasn’t been done yet.
3 way stop sorry.
Every. Day.
Hoi! RCIPS, Get your ass on to South Church Street and South Sound Road and see some of the most appalling driving known to man. I’ve driven on every continent and this island wins hands down for tailgating, no indicating, cell phones, speeding, women putting on make-up, people eating…almost every traffic offence you can imagine. From Boilers Road to Hurley’s roundabout must be the most dangerous 4 miles on the planet. Sort it out!
There’s no law against eating while driving or putting on makeup while you’re driving. So what do you want the Police to do about it?
Eating a patty or putting on lipstick while driving is about the 139246th worst thing drivers in Cayman do.
Speeding, mobile phone use and stuff is rampant though. Focus resources on that.
S77(1) Traffic Law. Driving without due care and attention. I’m pretty sure eating your patty and putting on the warpaint is covered by that.
Does that mean I should stop shaving when going to work. The traffic is so slow it saves me time.
You’re wrong. Just because there’s nothing that says specifically “don’t apply lipstick while driving” doesn’t mean you cannot be prosecuted.
It could be construed as inconsiderate driving. That’s ticketable.
Obviously you’ve never driven in Asia!!! Not condoning the poor standards here but Cayman is certainly not the worst. I mean driving in Miami is a daily gamble also just saying
They just like to run Cayman down while they eat from her plate!!! #gohome
7 53pm Have you driven in JA? Most of our drivers hail from there but keep getting called Caymanian on CNS.
Police are the worst offender for signaling violations! My God , they are awful. I need to turn on to Goring from Walkers Road. They never indicate. Maybe a little man in the mirror is needed.
Brad everyone knows the laws, this one time event will not change anything. Stop warning people of ensuing police actions, and be consistent.
Truth is regardless of police action some idiot will find an early grave or worse put an innocent person in it otherwise you would not be in business.
Ticket EVERY person with no seatbelt. Start with the small things, and make people realize that there are consequences to stupidity.
The lack of seatbelt use here would net thousands of dollars every day. It would also prevent Jonny and Janey Idiot from being ejected when another fool drives recklessly. It would also save many hundreds of thousands of dollars in investigation expenses if it stops a single fatality.
I pray that Jonny and Janey Idiot don’t start a family. The last thing we need is more idiots running around.
Ironic when the police cars I see every day don’t indicate or drive properly. The locals driving in cayman is so bad… as a British expat I guarantee they would all crash within 5 minutes if they ever drive on a UK motorway
You’re not wrong. That’s why the cayman driving licence isn’t valid in the U.K. or EU
Hmm not really, CIG has not sent the requisite regulations to the UK enabling Caymanian drivers license to be recognized, nothing more.
CIG may not know what the requisite regulations are.
Not true! I’ve used my Cayman driver’s license to rent vehicles in UK and EU with no trouble.
Really? I always manage to rent cars using it, and given the rental agencies have a country code for Cayman it seems surprising that they would accept a licence from an invalid jurisdiction.
That’s complete BS.
https://www.google.ca/amp/s/www.admiral.com/magazine/guides/motor/driving-in-britain-with-a-non-uk-licence%3famp
That’s because the roads in England are smaller than ours, because they were designed for a horse and buggy.
Hahaha you are so funny!!! Whilst there are some small rural roads in the U.K., there are also miles & miles of motorways & dual carriageways. At least there they know slow drivers stay in the left lane (s) & over take on the right ones.
Yes and we drive on the left for good reason. I Englend we rode horses but due to Vagabonds like the Sheriff of Nottingham we all needed swords which assuming you were not left handed was kept in a scabbard on your left. To start a fight where your horse is on the right of the road would be more difficult.
The US drove on the right because they are anti establishment.
You are right Hancock. That is portrayed in the movies when Robin Hood was beating up the Sheriff. Having looked carefully at the movie I note the distinct lack of potholes in the roads unlike parts of West Bay Road.
LMAO Unfortunately alot still believe that bcos travelled nowhere.
How about we stop drinking period.
A woman driving a small rental car nearly ran me down this week whilst I was crossing the road leaving a pharmacy. One car stopped to allow me to cross, and it wasn’t a main road a she zoomed right on by, then ran a stop sign and nearly t-boned another vehicle. The woman was definitely not from the region. Driving standards here are bad all round, the idiots are from all over so I strongly disagree with your generalisation.
Anglo white male.
29/05@8:19am – Amen! Thank you.
As a “local” who drives during every regular UK visit, your comment is BS. I would pit my driving habits against yours any day. While I agree that many on our roads have terrible habits, do not single out “locals”. Many expats also have terrible habits. Including some of those from the UK.
@6:42 – Really? Clearly poor driving here is not only the “locals”…..unless if by “locals” you mean any resident. Are you so experienced in ethnicities as to tell the difference between a Caymanian driver and say, a Jamaican or Barbadian driver just by looking at them? I would bet not.
There’s actually plenty of opportunity to spot people by their country of origin.
There’s the guy in the F150 with about 6 Cayman flags on it. He never wears his seatbelt.
There’s the idiots who have 876Streets on their cars thinking it imbues their vehicle with not only 20% more power, but 100% more style. Jamaican, or jamaican wannabe.
There’s a lot of others with their nationalities proudly displayed through air fresheners and similar hanging down from their mirror. This is great, as it usually alerts me to third world drivers.
The police are not locals. Their driving is not indicative (pun intended).
Locals?
How about being on shamrock road across spotts dock from 6:30 am to 7:30 am and see the speeding and the reckless driving.
And are just driving home form where they “sleep it off’. So still intoxicated. Every Sunday morning the South Sound speeding increases
How about giving ppl another option other than driving, like a proper public transport system. Maybe privatize transportation so something will actually get done. How about operation make sure taxis aren’t ripping ppl off
People have an option.
It’s NOT driving drunk. Call someone for a ride. Take a cab. Take a bus. Walk. Crawl. Sleep it off.
Any option is better than driving home (or anywhere) while being intoxicated. And every single person who drives drunk had the option NOT to before the started the engine. It was a choice they made.
Yes, more options would be a good thing. I 100% agree. But using the lack of options to justify driving while you’re drunk off your bunky is ridiculous, selfish, unacceptable and criminal.
they literally offered a free bus and barely anyone used it
Literally drove around gt. That’s it.
After DUI and speeding, the next could be phone usage, texting, etc. just a fraction of s moment the eyes are off the road could cause problems.
Cell phone usage ticket is $150. That’s nothing when you consider the chances of being caught.
Either link the offense to suspension of license, or make the fine nearer to $500, and more of a public awareness campaign to make it something that is seen as antisocial.
People who yak on their cellphones when driving are stupid……….. and you can’t fix stupid!
8.33pm Most of them we and the police are blissfully ignorant of, thanks to illegal tinting.
How about reducing the speed limit – maybe 15 mph in residential areas and 20 mph on other roads and slightly higher on highways. Several countries have low speed limits in residential areas. South Sound and South Church Street are residential,areas, isn’t it?
The impact of the collision reduces depending on the speed.
Nope. 30mph on South Sound is fine, if you drive at 30mph. Reducing it to 20mph is ridiculous, as it will penalize all the laws abiding drivers, whilst doing zero to those who speed, because they’ll still speed no matter what the posted limit is.
The thing that really gets me is when I’m overtaken by a person lacking brain cells, within a minute or so I’m in stop start traffic behind said imbecile. It literally gets them one place ahead. One place, or about 3 seconds in time. All that stupidity, for that net effect.
So your solution to people already breaking the traffic laws is to reduce the speed limits further? Because the guy that drives over 4o on the bypass is going to drive at 25 if the limit is reduced?
How about the radical idea that RCIPS enforces the traffic laws we already have, and all the time rather than on special occasions?
And bring in speed cameras, what reasonable excuse can there be not to introduce them?
No reliable postal service. Number plates that aren’t present or are impossible to read. Tinted glass making it hard to photograph the driver. Vehicles no longer driven by the registered owner. Laws not up to date. If it’s a fixed camera people would literally slow down for that one little section. Courts already swamped with stupid drivers.
Need any more?
Because dumbing down driving to nothin more than watching your speedo leads to even worse standards of driving. How about proper driver training and testing?
… it’s quite simple, probably all of the MLAs would be caught speeding and of course, they didn’t become MLAs to be held to account for their misdemeanours!
Because the ticket has to be delivered by mail and respinded to within a set number of days. When did you last go to your PO Box, are they even up to date and does every driver have one… it won’t work without a proper mail system.
Because we have over 400 police officers so shouldn’t need them?
Ohhhh, this traffic operation will surely have all the bad drivers afraid to be out this weekend!
“The public should be aware that police officers will be prosecuting all traffic offences, particularly DUI and speeding” No change here.
Aren’t they supposed to do this all time and not just during holidays and special “Quaker” weekends? Who comes up with these operation names anyway?
I often see the police doing radar traps and pulling vehicles over in West Bay, but I rarely see them in George Town except in the same place by the apartments on the bypass. Same with Bodden Town and out East. It’s rare I see any police enforecement.
Coincidentally, I see way less reckless driving in West Bay than I do in town or in Bodden Town and East End. In my opinion, it really shows that regular enforcement works.
I’m very glad to hear of these efforts. Hopefully some more of these drunks or street racers can be taken off of the streets through this initiative.
Bodden town and East end full of jamaicans coincidentally.
West Bay is still bad. Construction workers heading to work at 7am is a race between each other.
How about operating 24/7/365 until all the idiots are cleared off our roads or might that create a backlog in the courts and overload the prison? I’d really like the CoP to weigh in on why they can’t crack down all year long.
Yes, and believe it or not, the Brac needs this desperately.
Being subjected to a road block every night infringes on my freedom of movement. Don’t think you wanna go down that rabbit hole..
This is spot on. The problems with accidents are four times as bad as the UK where there are less cops per head of population, more roads and millions more vehicles.
What we want from the COP is a commitment PUBLISHED PUBLICLY, advertising this opedation EVERY weekend with the number of tickets issued and the number of DUI’s arrested.
We need to know they are proactively policing banned drivers to catch them driving while disqualified through DUI.
Finally, the number of vehicles that are uninsured and/or not registered that have been seized and/or the driver prosecuted.
The police are under performing and only by public oversight and professional embarrassment will they improve.
My last comment would be to the bereaved. My condolences. You have been let down by poor policing in these islands and you should be vocal to prevent further carnage on Cayman’s roads. Only through consistent public accountability will the police improve here and you could help prevent another terrible loss of life.
Drink driving has to be culturally unacceptable. It’s time for the COP to lead.
100% agree