253 crashes recorded during holiday campaign
(CNS): During the last month of 2022, a year in which 14 people were killed on local roads, the RCIPS recorded another 253 crashes, including one fatal collision. The month-long seasonal campaign to crack down on crime and promote road safety, Operation Winter Guardian, came at the end of one of the worst years on Cayman’s roads for serious collisions and an increase in gun-related crime and robberies.
By the end of the operation on Monday, 2 January, officers had made 35 arrests for driving under the influence of alcohol and over 180 incidents of speeding were recorded. Six people were arrested and charged with various offences, including those relating to firearms, drugs and robbery. The RCIPS also received a number of reports about serious assaults in December and several arrests have been made. One man was charged with attempted murder and possession of an unlicensed firearm.
The final robbery of the year took place on 14 December, and police continue to work on prosecuting those they believe have been involved in the stick-ups. Officers executed five search warrants at home addresses in relation to the spate of robberies and other firearm-related crimes.
One gun was recovered along with several rounds of ammunition, and several vehicles, clothing and masks were taken for forensic examination. Six other searches were carried out in relation to drugs and other criminal activities.
The operation focused on high visibility policing on foot and in cars in both commercial and residential areas. Officers conducted a number of “spontaneous vehicle checkpoints both for traffic enforcement and education”, the RCIPS said.
The was an increase in the number of Firearm Response Units deployed, providing cover and reassurance for both unarmed officers and the community. The RCIPS also shut down some of its administrative offices to boost the number of police officers to form part of the overall operation.
“Our officers were committed to keeping the public safe and providing the reassurance they needed to go about their holidays without fear,” said Deputy Commissioner Kurt Walton. “I want to thank all our officers who sacrifice their holidays, a time of family and celebration, to keep us safe every year, and thank the community for their continued support. On behalf of the Senior Command Team with the RCIPS, we wish everyone a Happy New Year ahead.”
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First things first, our tiny island is playing host to over a hundred nationalities and while this is a great thing it also means 100 different standards of driving which can be quite confusing:
A German and a French have completely different ways of handling similar road situations, The German will be very polite in general in yielding and mind their braking distance at all times but will take speed limits as an indication if not in high density driving conditions, the French, not that much in terms of yielding and right of way rules but will be more observant of speed limits.
This led me to install rear view cameras on all of our household’s cars completely eliminating the dead angles issues. It also made me realize how much people on island drive in each other’s dead angles.
Now as to the road worthiness of vehicles on island, I have to say that I don’t quite get by which criteria the inspections operate.
Another thing that I find puzzling here is systemic conversion of drivers licenses from Jamaica and no standard UK standard driving test. The drivers in my household had to take the theory driving tests (UK+Cayman specific driving test for our drivers licenses) why not apply that standard all around and provide equal requirements ?
Excellent attempt to be diplomatic but let’s be honest here, European drivers are not causing, or for the most part even caught up in, our shocking RTA stats.
I would suggest very clear painted markings on the roads giving constant visible guidance to road users, many more speed limit signs especially along West Bay Road (you seriously have to hunt for these), and traffic calming road bumps at entrances to all traffic circles.
Speed limit signs are useless here. The highest allowed speed is 50 MPH and you will see the indicator signs showing speeds at 50+ in 30 MPH zones and 70-100+ in 40 and 50 MPH ones daily.
The answers are robust enforcement and speed cameras on every roadway in multiple areas to snap photos of offenders and warrants issued and served.
“traffic calming road bumps at entrances to all traffic circles.”
Sometimes people say there are no stupid ideas. They are wrong. Think about it. Speed bumps exactly at the point people need to accelerate to safely join the roundabout. The simple fact is roundabouts are the most efficient and safest intersection when used by competent drivers. It’s not the road’s fault the drivers are incompetent, it’s DVDL’s for giving people who can’t drive a license to drive here.
Armed bandits on south sound road 1-4 pm daily.
And nightly speeders up to 100 mph
Throw some piles of leaves in the road, that’ll show em.
I contacted NRA last month about erecting no parking signs at Balboa Beach where taxis and buses park on the sidewalk. No response of course. Typical civil service.
Sooner or later there will be an accident especially as the crossing has no flashing lights.
The owner of the property also has an obligation but he is always above the law as we know from his illegally constructed building. Has CPA done anything about that? NO OF COURSE NOT. They do not answer emails either.
How about speed bumps on road surface and speed cameras. What’s so difficult in that! The U.K. have them all over the country and are very effective.
The vast majority of crashes happen below the speed limit. (In the UK it’s 93%) Forcing everyone to drive to the level of the worst drivers isn’t the answer. Raising the standards of those drivers to that of other countries is and you do that by simply not giving driving licenses to people who can’t drive safely at any speed. It should come as no surprise that countries with real driving tests do not suffer this absurd level of incompetent driving.
Spot the incompetent driver.
253 crashes in one month on this tiny little island. Is this called a success here? Asking for a friend.
On today’s circuit, a motorbike passed a line of cars obeying the speed limit at a high rate of speed in front of the south sound boardwalk on a solid lined road and a loaded dump truck tailgaited cars obeying the speed limit on the same road.
Both of these crimes are similar in that they both got away with it.
Tune in later for the Honda Fit F1 races on LPH, ET, and Queen’s Highway.
Speed is not really the issue. Biggest iditos I see is 1) not using the left most lane available on highway and 2) Not indicating correctly on roundabouts – no idea why caymanians indicate right when going straight on at roundabouts, or don’t signal left or right when turning that way on a roundabout. Creates hesitancy in other drivers, increased traffic and crashes. I’m from the Uk, been to much of asia, africa and south america before – locals in cayman are worst drivers i’ve ever seen. make them take a UK test – we follow k road system – that would remove 30% of drivers immediately and make roads safer.
Totally agree. If they mirrored the UK vehicle inspections and road code + 4-way as well, that in itself would fix 80% of the problems- bad drivers, unroadworthy cars, the noisy polluting marl trucks, road accidents, reduce number of cars on road and likely increase use of public transport… if we really had it. I know there’s talk but that’s usually as far as anything goes.
The Cayman Road Code is almost identical to the UK Highway Code. Dual carriageway lane discipline and roundabout rules are identical. For some idiotic reason driving instructors here think they know better.
https://www.dvdl.gov.ky/documents/Road-Code-2012-1-2021-02-25-02-10-56.pdf
I agree but also disagree. Speed is absolutely a problem here… along with following too close while speeding.
There are bad drivers of all nationalities, but no functional Traffic Department taking sustained action to course-correct or instruct public change – not even to improve safety and quality of life. Even RCIPS officers don’t knwo how to use roundabouts, when to yield, or where the turn signal indicators are.
Our Traffic Law, and it’s leaflet of ticketable-offences, does not translate – it is like nowhere else on Earth, and our Traffic Unit and their managers haven’t even read the 3 applicable pages that could generate in tens of millions in CI Revenue. So much easier to just keep getting paid while playing dominoes at the station. No disincentives…except perhaps louder and stronger public outrage at the rigid broken status quo.
…they indicate right because you’re supposed to indicate right when entering a roundabout and left when leaving a roundabout unless making a left-hand turn.
WRONG. If you indicate left you’re turning left. if you indicate right you’re turning right. If you don’t indicate, you’re supposed to be going straight ahead but you can indicate when exiting as a courtesy to those giving way to you. It’s as simple as that. Watch and learn: https://youtube.com/watch?v=sCXtcXD17qU
Dear god. NO YOU’RE NOT. Learn to drive.
Why signal right if you’re going straight? Do you also signal right if you’re actually turning right? That could cause confusion to oncoming cars.
Why do you need to indicate when entering the roundabout? What else would you be doing if that’s where the road leads??
I understand the need to indicate when turning right or left, but definitely not when entering the roundabout when going straight through, especially on the small ones which have no exits!
Wrong. You don’t indicate right entering a roundabout if you are going straight on. Only if turning right. Left for first exit, if second exit is at Ruth’s through roundabout you don’t indicate right as you approach a roundabout. That is completely wrong.
I hope you don’t have a driving license. That is ridiculous to say indicate right entering a roundabout if not going right round the roundabout
WRONG. What utter rubbish.
Cayman Road Code page 41.
https://www.dvdl.gov.ky/documents/Road-Code-2012-1-2021-02-25-02-10-56.pdf
UK Highway code
https://www.highwaycodeuk.co.uk/roundabouts.html
That is completely wrong. You don’t indicate right anywhere unless you are turning right. To turn right at a roundabout you have to go at least round it past the exit that would be straight on, being the third exit at least usually. What you are saying is the same as saying you should indicate right at a 4 way stop if you are going straight on. By the way 4 way stops are ridiculous and should all be replaced by mini roundabouts. Most stupid traffic invention ever seen is the 4 way stop and only exists in the cayman islands.
Completely wrong. You don’t indicate right if going straight on!!! That is the stupidest comment I’ve ever seen on here saying indicate right entering a roundabout. No wonder there are so many crashes
4.05pm Please learn the difference between a Caymanian and a Jamaican before lumping us in the same boat. 65% of our population hails from JA FYI
I know the difference. I loaned my car to a Caymanian friend, she crashed it the next day trying to turn right on a roundabout using the left lane.
Perhaps indicate right on roundabout when going straight ahead because idiots from wrong lane try and turn left in front wnd cut you off….at least it does create hesitancy for them to turn left behind not in front from wrong lane.
How about you just drive properly?
It’s about 20 times the rate of accidents per capita in Cayman versus a normal developed european country, the Uk, or US. Make all Caymanians take a UK standard driving test or it won’t end.
Morning Drag Racing started back on ETH Jan 3rd. Monday – Friday 7am.
Cool, so has the road course races on the roundabouts. Hondas v lorries
There are so many wrongs on this island when it comes to traffic enforcement. I got stopped 3 days ago to check if my plates were current. Watched the officers scan the vehicle ahead with Blacked out-front windows clearly on the closed rider’s window. Regardless they let them go even though the car did not look like it could pass an inspection. All good cause the plates scanned current. Not looking for anything else probably wasn’t in the morning briefing to enforce other traffic laws.
Now let’s talk about the grossly overloaded. These guys are driving them like a 1,600 pound Indy car. Amazes me they don’t run over more people and only 1 or 2 get laid over in a traffic circle every year.
Anyone that really cares about traffic enforcement on this island could write tickets daily until their fingers cramp from writer’s cramp.
Even more insane is the insurance company telling you that they cant find their client to process a claim.
What is more insane than traffic police website not showing cost of an Incident report and still not receiving the report more than 1 month and counting since the policeman did not record it yet.
the nationalities of those involved will tell you a lot.
why do we accept the jamiacan license and the uk does not?
Agree. Jamaican license should not be allowed, and all caymanians and jamiacans should have t take a UK standard driving test.
What was the nationality of the guy who crashed in to a light pole late at night but was not breathalyzed?
free money making solution:
bring in private run traffic police who are funded by fines.
cig will makes 10x times as much on fines.
police can then do real work or we can reduce their numbers.
win-win-win.
Nope, nope, nope.
Traffic offenses and criminality often go hand in hand. Many traffic stops would yield criminal investigations. A private business isn’t going to be arresting anyone, nor be given access to the police database.
The DVDL and police need to do what they’re supposed to do. This means a much more aggressive approach to roads policing.
Our driving licenses are a joke. Many of our drivers who learned in Cayman/Jam/Philippines are simply not safe on the road. They have no clue what they are doing. 10 minutes on our roads and you witness a dozen instanstances of driving so poor they would instantly fail any European test. Until our driver training and test changes the number of crashes will continue to be insane.
Let’s leave the white bias out of this. There are bad drivers of all nationalities and flavors because there is no enforcement. That’s it.
Nothing to do with colour my friend. The evidence is right there in the accident statistics. Jamaican and Philippine KSI stats are 4-5 times worse than the UK’s and most of Europe and Cayman’s is higher again.
Doubling down on the racism, not a good look. Nobody is inherently bad because of their passport. They are bad because there aren’t consequences for doing whatever one likes on our streets. It’s a winning bet in Cayman, and mostly because the European officer management is so poor and doesn’t want to get their hands dirty by leaving the clubhouse and showing up. Fix that.
See plenty of expats in luxury cars and Jeeps driving like jerks daily
Hmm and yet how many of those do you see wrapped round cuc poles, beached on roundabouts, buried in walls and a fatality on the front page of cns every Saturday Sunday and Monday morning? Sorry but it’s invariably some crappy Honda.
KSI per capita and per mile statistics are very easy to Google and they don’t care if you call them racist. I strongly suspect you won’t though because that would challenge this sad delusion you seem to be living in where you can dismiss simple facts as racist. Nothing will ever change here with this pathetic level of public discourse.
The simple fact is, half the drivers here could not pass a European driving test. While we continue to give licenses to people who can’t drive safely we will continue to have an absurd number of stupid crashes.
Inherently bad because of their passport? Absolutely not! Just bad because they learned to drive in a country where they have had no real driver training, have only ever taken a joke test and where the police tolerate bad and dangerous driving…
How many Europeans/North Americans died on our roads last year?
Ah yes the simple fact that Jamaicans and Philippinos are demonstrably poor drivers with accident stats multiple times worse than European countries, in their own countries, and demonstrably poor drivers here in Cayman is obviously the fault of European police here and absolutely nothing to do with the fact that our driving test is a pathetic joke and we give licenses to people who can’t drive safely. You carry on whinging about racism though, I’m sure that will help. Of the 13/14? dead, how many European/UK drivers died on our roads last year?
Racism? Give it a rest. What was the nationality of the 10-15 deaths we had on the roads last year? Are those CUC poles and walls jumping out in front of them racist or is that just anyone who makes the observation that maybe there’s some kind of problem with the quality of driving test in the countries these people were deemed competent to drive?
253 accidents in 1 month wow ! So roughly 200 accidents per month x 12 months 2400 accidents per year 6 -7 accidents per day . Caymanians question is is it worth it ??
And this is only recorded ones. smh
Is the RCIPS trying to tell our political dingbats something or just embarrassing themselves ?? No matter what police action or operations they mount this is and will always be an IMMIGRATION issue for these islands. Cayman is not for everybody and they can’t let me repeat cannot expect to all come here and live. Those now who believe they are going come here and displace and turn Caymanians into refugees are now witnessing the consequences. The increase traffic accidents more serious crime and serious social problems The Sad reality of Cayman now is coming home to all because our politicians are refusing to look after their own people. Wake up Cayman
70K people, and 253 crashes. that is seriously insane
Recorded crashes
Exactly. I lose count of the number of infractions and unroadworthy vehicles I see on the road EVERY day, and they’re not getting pulled over. It’s a fraction of the real figure, and THAT IS SCARY!🥺
What are the police thinking, there’s no way they should be strangling that duty revenue stream, – 253 crashes x $20,000 (av car price) = $5M x 30 duty (car value alone) = $1.5M month or 18M year ! Never mind dependence on the tourism & finacial industries, Cayman just needs to crash more 🙄
Crash does not necessarily mean total write-off. Lots of cars with missing panels, dents, and dings that don’t even bother repairing.
and now that the police did their job last year we won’t see them until December again.
“The month-long seasonal campaign to crack down on crime and promote road safety, Operation Winter Guardian, came at the end of one of the worst years on Cayman’s roads for serious collisions and an increase in gun-related crime and robberies”.
I’m gonna go out on a limb here and guess the “Seasonal campaign” thing isn’t working? So suggest MORE campaigns – with no announcements as to when or where. And use more “unmarked” vehicles instead of those with amazingly bright blue lights that can be seen coming from a mile away!
How about a campaign named “24/7/365” where ALL Traffic Law is enforced?
No go, bobo
Use to be 23 crashes for the entire year. Now it’s that every day almost…
Crappy drivers, need investigations to follow up with the DMV with all these new licenses from the past 5 years.
I was on island the last week of the year. With the increase of the RCIP, I noticed better driving on the roads than my previous trip in August. More visibility of cruisers and roadblocks seemed to slow down drivers, imo.
Not what I saw! Same thing but different!
Just wake up in the morning and drive down the road to witness the after mass of the night before.
aftermath 😉
Can they do these spontaneous roadblocks at actual different places, and 24/7. I’ve noticed no improvement in driving habits of late. Still a stupid incident is witnessed every journey.
Today it was workers in the back of a flat bed van. We only crackdown on these after a serious crash?
my next journey, police and ambulance were on scene at a crash on North Sound Road shortly before 7pm.
the journey after that, a rental Honda Fit being driven by Verstappen, or possibly Leclerc, on LPH.
How many males arrested for putting Flunitrazepam in drinks? Let’s print the ambulance dispatch reports collecting victims and police reports inducting the same establishments week after week. Yeah a few weeks of disappointing Purple Ribbon BS and we feel safe for the year Kurt.
everybody’s heard about the ….
Drink spiking locations need to be identified to the public, then boycotted.
Names of businesses please, asking for a friend
I’m sure 90% of them were easily avoidable with a bit more common sense and courtesy. So sad.