Speed and booze caused deadly East End crash
(CNS): Chris Ollen McLaughlin (30) died as a result of misadventure, a jury found in Coroners Court Wednesday, having heard evidence that he was more than two times over the legal alcohol limit and travelling at 97mph when he crashed his car on Sea View Road in March 2016.
According to local crash reconstruction expert Collin Redden, McLaughlin lost control of his Toyota near the blowholes as he headed west from East End. Then, as he over-corrected, he went into a spin, slamming into a steel CUC pole. No other vehicle was involved in the collision, which happened in the early hours of the morning.
The impact was so great that the car was crushed to just 20 inches wide at the point where it wrapped around the utility post, which moved ten inches from its standing position. McLaughlin, who was disqualified from driving at the time and was not wearing a seatbelt, died from head and multiple other traumas and likely died almost on impact, the Coroners Court heard.
Redden explained that the crash was largely due to the speed McLaughlin was travelling and because his reactions were affected by the alcohol, and said this was a common factor in local road crashes. Having examined more than 5,500 crashes locally in his career, Redden said the combination of speed and alcohol was a common factor in many of them.
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Category: Local News
Not a single suggestion on how if there had proper public infrastructure this problem could be severely reduced?
what??
This is a full house in bad Cayman driving!
* DUI
* Disqualified
* Speeding
* No seatbelt used
* No valid insurance as a result of the disqualification
The sad thing is the number of drivers still on the road that combine one or more of these on a regular basis.
If you ever get passed on the highway on the left, you are in the wrong lane and should have your license revoked. Use the left lane
Unless you’re about to turn right… but I share your frustration. Sadly I followed an RCIPS traffic car from ALT to West Bay and he didn’t leave the right hand lane once, even though I was in it most of the way. If they can’t be bothered to abide by the Cayman Traffic code no one else is going to.
24 @ 10:24 pm – On a dual carriageway (as most in Cayman are) there’s no fast or slow lanes because traffic has the ability to merge from both lanes. As opposed to a highway which has merging facilities on one side (lane), of which there are none in Cayman
This is true especially in Cayman with “turn-off’s” on either side, from each lane.
But..I get your frustration with drivers who drive slow simultaneously in both lanes.
What is astonishing is the local drivers cant make the correlation between what speed will do to them & their vehicle when they hit a heavy stationary object , as well as the current situation of what speed has in relation to the gasoline consumption of their cars.
24 @ 9:04 pm – driving too fast for road conditions (with or without substance assistance) and crashing into solid objects is not unique to “local” (Cayman) drivers.
What’s astonishing is that you think it’s only “local drivers”
Government could lead the way by banning alcohol in any public or statutory authority building.
lmao yeah thts gunna help society..
If only you knew how many young people leave work on a Friday already intoxicated and then drive.
Hey, not just the young ones. Is old people know how to party too.
The government ain’t gonna do that, ’cause if they did, it would be the end of their political career.
Haha look at all the thumbs down. Alcohol must be permitted in government buildings. Says it all!
This took 6 years??
Surprised it didn’t take 20.
World class
Is anyone really surprised at findings? Be honest?
No, or that it took our world class civil service 6 years and untold tens of thousands of dollars to make the determinations.
Incredible man, I always wonder if people who die like this had a chance to comeback what will the say in retrospect?
RIP
In other news, the sky is blue.
literally every single fatal crash this year been drinking + driving?
NHTSA has published findings that 80% of deceased operators of vehicles in fatal traffic accidents were not just drunk driving, but simultaneously both drunk and high. Does the coroner’s report screen for THC and other synergistic drugs in their blood toxicology reports? The public should have full access to anonymized incident records to establish patterns of what is causing operational impairment and death in the Cayman Islands. We’re probably not too dissimilar to states like Colorado. If Cayman considers legalization of ganja, limits, testing equipment, and standards will need to be defined, or adopted from elsewhere, and Gazetted into amendments to Traffic Law and Regs.
Drop the existing legal limit. It might just change the culture of drink driving in our islands and save lives… RIP Mr. Mclaughlin and heartfelt condolences to your family.
I agree, drop it altogether. It should be a personal choice if we want to drink and drive.
it is a personal choice now tho lol
we see how that goes
there is also NO option for people lol
thank you