Man critically injured after crash with garbage truck
(CNS): One man sustained life-threatening injuries and a woman is in intensive care after the car they were in collided with a garbage truck early New Year’s Eve morning. The smash happened at around 4:20 on Saturday, 31 December, on Shamrock Road close to the junction of Poindexter Road. The couple, who were in a yellow Suzuki Swift compact car, were cut from the vehicle by the Cayman Islands Fire Service crew that attended the scene. The truck driver from the Department of Environmental Health was unhurt.
Police said that the man is believed to be in critical condition while the woman is in stable condition but sustained severe injuries and remains hospitalised.
The roadway was closed temporarily closed while the Traffic and Roads Policing Unit carried out on-scene investigations. No other information has been released.
Anyone with information is encouraged to call 649-6254 or the George Town Police Station at 949-4222. Anonymous tips can be provided to the RCIPS Confidential Tip Line at 949-7777, or the RCIPS website.
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Category: Local News
I still believe that the garbage trucks should be painted so as to be seen better.
Did anyone else see the wanker driving the F150 on the Linford this morning? Some idiot ridding in the back who I can only presume was suicidal. You may have been too busy looking at the Honda Fit trying to get inside his exhaust pipe. How many cops on the road? NONE!
they’ll only be back patrolling next Christmas.
Praying for this young man and woman. Roads on Grand Cayman is just crazy. So much road rage and bad driving its getting just like the third world countries that we import our workers from, including the government truck drivers! Sorry not Sorry for saying that. People driving like they looking a fight or to kill someone! No curtesy or respect for others. RCIP really failing us!
We are in a third world country and the sooner people realise that then maybe we can move forward
RCIPS don’t run DVDL. Whilst we continue to give driving licenses away without any kind of proper test the best police force in the world couldn’t stop the bad driving.
Why don’t the garbage trucks have brighter colors? Maybe they would be easier to see.
I’ve never driven into one, but that’s usually because I use my eyes when driving.
Do you usually drive at 4 am?
Good idea – can be quite difficult to see a 15ft high 8 ft wide vehicle. We should paint the CUC poles as well, as avoiding them seems to be a problem for Cayman drivers as well. Like those Stop signs that people keep running into, so they have had to add flashing lights to them.
Everyone blaming the garbage truck. You can’t tell anything from that photo, although it seems very unlikely the truck’s route would involve reversing back across the oncoming lane into a main road.
Idiots are blaming the truck. This looks like Classicus Caymanus Drivertium, a commonly found species on these roads.
All main roads in Cayman must have speed bumps every 500 yards.
With sections where the speed bumps automatically recede into the tarmac for emergency vehicles 🚑👍
We already do… the other name for them is light poles.
Looks like the swift was hit by a dump truck reversing across the road.
Looks to me like the Swift didn’t see the dark green truck turning in the road in the dark, and drove right into/under it.
Good thing it was a large truck and not a cyclist or pedestrian then (given your scenario of an inattentive driver of the Swift).
My scenario is that of poor visibility- a barely visible truck slowing/stopping to turn in the road. My concern is it would be difficult to see and therefore dangerous not only the other road users (the Swift) but also to the safety of the refuse workers. As I said elsewhere, they should not be dark green, they should be bright colours, flourscent stripes and bright colours everywhere so that they can easily be seen from a good braking distance- give people time to see and react.
“barely visible”, “difficult to see” TRUCK. If you can’t see the 8ft wide, 12ft high, 40ft long, 15 tonne truck in time to slow down in a 40 mph zone then the problem isn’t the truck.
In the pitch black at 4 am in the morning?
Are they brightly colored in other countries?
yes, the night shift are.
I watched this stretch of road for 5 minutes on NYE around 10.30pm. I saw at least several vehicles heading west doing at least 60mph, passing the Christmas lights. I saw a taxi pull out in front of a car, the taxi had no lights on, didn’t indicate. I saw a car parked against the flow of traffic try to pull across three lanes, forcing an oncoming car to have to brake.
This was in 5 minutes, at the spot of the crash.
I’m sure all the idiots above will be making resolutions to improve their driving.
1. The trash trucks and the workers should on the night shift should be lit up like Christmas trees. Dark green is not good. Should be flashing lights, bright colours and fluorescent stripes everywhere.
2. Teach the drivers how to drive without all the racing, braking and constant over-revving which puts serious strain on the engine (likely why they’re always breaking down and repaored/replaced at public expense).
3. Also if the workers would stop yelling at each other. People are trying to sleep, they wake us up every week.
If you cant see a truck at night, irrespective of colour or warning lights, then you shouldn’t be on the road. If you can’t stop in the distance your headlights illuminate then you’re going far too fast.
Photo radar, photo radar, photo radar….
I have been saying for years, you want to significantly reduce the speeding on any given road, install a photo radar system. The system will measure a motorist’s average speed between two points, and if it exceeds a certain threshold, the car’s registered owner is ticketed (an automatic photo is taken together with average speed).
Can’t renew registration or transfer ownership unless any unpaid fines are paid.
Cost? The ticket penalties will more than pay for it. If you dont want to contribute to cost, just dont speed.
Technology and process has been in place for years in many places.
Do it already instead of “studying” it for years.
Average speed test wouldn’t work as there are so many places to enter and exit Shamrock Road. Fixed cameras would be something, one by Ocean Club, one by Spotts Beach, as a minimum.
Good point. Fixed cameras, supplemented by occasional radar by police officers.
This wouldn’t be needed at the same point if the fixed cameras actually worked.
To the 3 downvotes, you obviously don’t live in the area by OC and SS. It’s miserable seeing and hearing idiots go flying by for the sake of saving 30 seconds off a commute, or for a thrill and endangering joggers and cyclists.
And you “obviously” think that slavishly driving slower than an arbitrary number is “safe driving”. People might be more inclined to obey the limits if they made sense. Take SS by Bel Air Dr could easily be a 40 but by Smiths even a 25. ETH would be at least a 50 even 60 anywhere else in the world. The problem isn’t the roads or even the limits, it’s drivers who are unsafe at any speed and incapable of choosing a speed appropriate to the conditions and their ability.
Dickwad, outside SS and OC is a 40 zone, and that’s fine. The point is many go past at 60+. That’s 60+ in an area with cars pulling out in both directions, cyclists, buses, pedestrians…
As for South Sound by Bel Air drive, it’s an area with plenty of people walking dogs, jogging, strolling with babies etc. You post it 40, people will do 50, many will do 60 or more. The current limit is fine, you’re not going anywhere fast anyhow with the density of traffic.
Ticket penalties I think go to government not police, so police budget wont cover it. Need to change accounting system so police get money from tickets so they can invest in speed cameras / red light cameras so self funding to install more and more. This way maybe people will get the message.
details on how it happened? garbage trucks on my residential road drive like bloody maniacs. so if the garbage truck was reversing without care we need to know and something must be done to slow these idiots down.
From the picture, it looks as though the car crashed into the back of the garbage truck at high speed. Garbage trucks are unlikely to reverse down the highway at a rapid pace. Also, at 4:20 in the morning there is not going to be any traffic on the road, so dangerous driving by one or the other has to be at fault here.
Well, make your pick, 12.04 pm, so we will know what to do about this.
Sincerely,
The Police
Bring back the LOL button!
I’m done with the lack of any meaningful solutions to this stretch of road.
It needs traffic calming measures, lanes to turn into for Ocean Club and South Shore, actual enforcement of speed limits other than a crackdown every few weeks. The speed radars have zero effect at pricking the conscience of pricks.
Even now, with the light display and loads of families visiting the Crighton home, idiots regularly speed past in both directions, in addition to the idiots parking wherever they want.
FOI how many accidents happened at the two strata addressees, it’ll be phenomenal. This is just another ridiculous incident.
Wouldn’t it be safer if government work vehicles had brighter colors making them easily seen? Look at the picture again.
I can see it just fine. you’re going to fast if you can’t see huge objects.
Looks like a white Suzuki Swift to me, these ‘hot’ hatches are deadly and not so hot.
There’s isn’t one variant of the Swift that is anything approaching a hot hatch. Unfortunately, as is the case with 99% of all vehicles here, you hit the back of a garbage truck and you will learn about various scientific disciplines very quickly, in this case physics and metallurgy.
Lets stop blaming the vehicles and take a closer look at all the not so hot drivers.
I often drive on this stretch of road at this time of day en route to meet my running pals, the speeds and moronic driving is unbelievable.
Agreed, it isn’t even 50 or 60 mph, maniacs come down the hill from Spotts at 70, 80 +. Where are the police, to enforce the speed limit in the area?
To be fair to the police, it’s a dangerous place to stop a car, and the rubber neckers would cause more crashes. However, why not have a spotter unit deployed, who radio a unit to pull them over by Prospect Point Road/South Shore area. They could then deal with multiple stops.
The police says: We don’t want to make anyone angry, or anything like that, so we mind our own business. And it would take up too much of our time.
“50mph maniacs”. lol.
Good thing he did that last night because the police won’t be tolerating it tonight.