Campaign launched to save lives in Spotts
(CNS): Residents on and off the almost two-mile stretch of Shamrock Road known as the “Spotts Straight” have launched a petition calling on the Cayman Islands Government to introduce a range of traffic calming measures along the road, which they say is plagued by speeding and dysfunctional driving. Sophie Miles, one of a number of people living in the area with major concerns, is spearheading the campaign and asking everyone to sign a petition.
Miles said that, given the high number of crashes and deaths on this stretch of road over the last few years, the authorities need to act now to stop any more preventable tragedies.
Following yet another recent fatality, Miles is worried that a combination of speeding and driving while drunk will lead to more collisions. She said much more needs to be done to save lives on this very dangerous stretch of road. But despite the efforts of campaigners who live in the area and suggestions presented to the National Roads Authority, little action has been taken.
Ideas proposed include restricting the use of the centre lane for turning and not overtaking, but Miles said the NRA told them they are not able to do that, though they did not explain why not. She noted that it had taken the NRA more than 18 months to install signs pointing to the hidden driveways along the road.
Miles said that although the campaigners don’t expect things to happen quickly, even with this campaign, but they felt compelled to try.
In the short term, Miles wants to see an increased police presence in the area and officers enforcing all of the traffic laws, including seatbelts, because that can make the difference between a bad outcome and a fatal one.
In addition, campaigners are calling for traffic calming measures to shorten what they call the “racetrack”, such as cutting the speed limit from 40 to 30mph and using speed check cameras, rumble strips or even a mini-roundabout in the area.
Other measures that could reduce the number of deadly collisions throughout the Cayman Islands include an improved bus service and a cut in the outrageous taxi rates to make it more affordable for people who live in the Eastern Districts to get home after they have been drinking without driving themselves.
Miles also noted how precarious it is for pedestrians trying to cross this road because there are many blind spots for both drivers and pedestrians.
The campaigners are hoping that at least 500 people will sign the petition to convince the government to take it seriously. As such, they are urging everyone to take a minute to read the petition and sign on to help save lives.
See the petition here.
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Category: Local News
Place 3 squad cars along that stretch, on a 24-hour constant watch. Introduce shift work for this so RCIP don’t get tired.
CONSTANT WATCH WILL STOP THIS. GET RCIP TO STEP UP AND MAKE AN EXTRA EFFORT.
Drivers here seem to think there’s a thick fog blanketing the island, such is the number of vehicles with their foglights on, that are usually maladjusted and aim at oncoming vehicles. This is sometimes in conjunction with high beams. This is in addition to no seatbelts, and no front license plate, and at least one brake light out, and on the phone, or eating at the wheel, or kids not restrained, or have the seat back in a gangster lean, or in an overloaded dump truck…
My point is, the drivers are the problem, enabled by the police. Whatever the solution here had better be good, or the morons will keep up their stellar driving.
This is quite frankly the case throughout the whole of the island – it particularly comes from North American influences and standards of traffic engineering and urban design.
These design trends should most certainly be reversed and current roads redesigned to match known safer standards (not just for drivers but also for pedestrians).
The suggestions listed here are good, but there are other things that can be done too – making the lanes less wide and adding objects to the side of the road between the road and the sidewalk, such as trees, would also make drivers more attentive and drive slower (trees would also add shade to the sidewalks and just make the location look nicer).
As a group of residents who live on or just off Shamrock in the Spotts area, we wanted to come up with a number of suggestions in this petition from which we can then take it to the relevant departments/ministries for them to take action once we get enough support from the community.
If you care to click on this link provided you will see that there are a number of suggestions to remedy a number of the problems that anyone who drives along Shamrock Road has to deal with, not just the residents. Multiple problems need multiple solutions!
You don’t have to agree with all of the suggestions, but can’t we all agree that change needs to happen, and fast?
On this link you can also read the comments from other people who have been affected by the lack of enforcement and traffic calming measures – some sad stories.
At the very least, we hope that those reading this will take responsibility for their own safe driving practices and from the ‘powers that be’ take note that there is community support for fast and effective action.
May I personally thank all of the good people that have Signed, Shared and Supported this petition so far and welcome more to do so!
PS Two more crashes this evening, right opposite where a police car was seen on Monday for the fist time. Would these two crashes have happened if the police were there??
RCIPS walked away from traffic enforcement about 20 years ago. This has resulted in a driving culture of mayhem and outright lawlessness.
Self-regulation has failed. It will take several years to bring this under control. And that assumes daily attention to traffic law enforcement by RCIPS.
This is a land where people now refuse to disfigure their fancy cars with front license plates. And the latest trend is scrubbing off the numbers to render them illegible.
The Spotts drag strip.
The only one way to stop this its to put a automated speed camera in place that is reviewed or monitored 24/7
Sorry for the ones left behind but if these peanuts would follow the rules of the road, stop speeding, stop drinking and driving there would far fewer accidents. Lets not make all of the responsible drivers be penalized.
The rozzers should be more stealthy and set up on the stretch of the speedways from the dump roundabout to Camana Bay, at the Governors Square roundabout to Batabano exit, South Sound at the boardwalk to North Church street, and Walkers Road.
Or, 6:48, the speedway through Bodden Town between Mostyn’s Gas Station and the Post Office. The speed many trucks (and cars of course) hit on that stretch is astonishing.
For those saying a reduction in the speed limit won’t do anything, you’re missing the point.
Currently a car speeds at 59mph in a 40mph zone and it can be ticketed, it’ll be a significant amount, too. However, if a driver is now caught doing 59mph in a 30mph zone, it suddenly becomes a matter for the courts, with all the issues that entails for the driver.
Bring it down to 30mph. It’ll possibly slow a commute on a clear road by a minute or two, but let’s face it, it’s never clear. It will also save most of the times the road slows to a crawl because some idiot cannot control his/her automatic econobox and steers it into a wall or other road user.
Signed – A Shamrock Road resident
Make all the good drivers pay for it instead of just the speedsters right? Just because no one can make the police here actually do a functional job of stopping the bad drivers. How third world and really your only option here.
In many cases a reduction of speed limits actually helps traffic flow. It really wouldn’t punish decent drivers either.
The Poindexter roundabout idea is good too.
Overall, the idea is to encourage traffic to use the actual purpose built bypass. You want to do 40? do it on a suitable road.
We don’t need more mini-roundabouts! It’s obvious they don’t work because people just speed through them anyway without even looking (check Dump Rd by Mirco Centre and the one where the cyclist just crashed). A 4-way might be more effective and will probably help traffic flow a little better. Yes there will be a minute or two delay, but a small price to pay for the safety of our community.
4 way? LMAO. The one at Hospital Road is a comedy.
A 4 way is a terrible idea.
The dump road one is virtually impossible to see, and is a stupid place to have one with so many industrial sized vehicles driven by Jamaicans.
Poindexter makes sense as it is an easy link to the bypass, and for the most part cars should just flow through the roundabout area, just not at 50mph +, which is the whole point!
If you’re in court for killing someone, it’s already too late, and your change in road policy on a HIGHWAY that caused an increase in commutes times turned out to be pointless.
Unna just need to stop driving so sh!tty. Because a few can’t, I must drive at a snail pace? FOH
Signed – A Caymanian with common sense.
It wouldn’t increase commute time at all, and would probably reduce it. It would take longer to go along Shamrock if the road was empty, but that’s rarely the case anyhow.
The court isn’t just for those who kill, it is for those who speed excessively.
You can have lunatics going 60mph and crashing, then your commute turns into hours…or you can have everyone cruising along at about 30 to 35 and get home in daylight hours.
It’s not ‘a few’ who can’t drive, it’s the majority. If you think you’re a good driver based on the average skill level here, then I’m pretty sure you’re overstating your own skillset. Go watch a roundabout, about 80% of vehicles either don’t indicate, or indicate incorrectly.
I thought it was referred to as “Shamrock Speedway” not “Spotts Straight”??
Put speedbumps down the entire stretch, slow the morons down.
Or have an automatic device, that when anyone going over 40mph some 6 inch nails pop up out of the road.
I’ve been here decades now and always knew it as Spotts Straight. Shamrock speedway came later I think.
Good luck with that. Just today, a white Audi suv was literally on the back bumpers of cars that were obeying the speed limit and weaving back and forth like a race car driver on north Church street.
Was an investigation every launched into that crash in the photo?
Was the person just driving stupid and ran into the back of the dump truck or was the dump truck doing something r3tarded and reversing?
rumble strips and 30 mph speed limit….
Drunk driving is the issue. If they are driving so drunk they cannot keep their car on the road, how will a roundabout or rumble strips do anything? A roundabout will just be a launching point for them.
Same with the speed limit – no one will drive any slower.
Also, traffic is already terrible enough. You really want more chokepoints?
40mph is already slow enough.
Should take a leaf out of Just Stop Oil’s book – let’s glue Kenny & McKeeva to the road.
Thought the idea was to slow traffic down?
People…… look at these numbers each are representing cars and distance between and speed.
50……50……25……..40…..35….25.
You should realize that cars doing 25mph will be overtaken as well as they will not. So our traffic looks like.
40..40.40.45.3935252522…25….50.
Higher speed limits can make sense if people actually get off of their phones and pay attention. Also Police should also enforce penalties for driving too slow as this also can cause many accidents. Basically a slow driver causes other drivers to overtake. Overtakers are not always speeders, the road is meant for travel not a slow cruise vacation.
Now model this down to 30mph and you should realise that your traffic will compound due to inefficiency…..
Keep strangling yourselves and eventually you will have outlawed driving and, will then complain about why you have to take public transport everyday and, that the bus drivers need to speed up cause you have places to go.
Or, maybe the police can actually do their jobs for a change… these “solutions” proposed will only add to the massive congestion problem we have now. The fatal accidents tend to take place late and night so police need to be out there more between 8pm – 3am. Why punish working commuters even more than they already are?
No don’t sign a petition, that might cause us to have to actually think and work to find a solution. Reminiscent of road workers leaning on shovels watching while their colleagues do the work. Idle twits! Sign the petition but in the end if a petition doesn’t effect any action it’s Another Authority and police department dereliction of duty case.
In many first world jurisdictions where there are no blys for driving like an idiot, police actually enforce traffic laws. Many types of countermeasures do exist for speed control from speed control jumps to radar cameras but an actual police presence works the best. Are the police actually afraid of catching someone they know or maybe a VIP idiot?
Well folks it looks like there’s another ‘crackdown’ or ‘operation’ on the books, but let’s see how long that lasts. Why not cop out and play the long game NRA & RCIPS, when there’s enough cars on the road to cause a 24/7 traffic jam there will be no more room to speed?
I saw Police doing radar by spotts yesterday and I saw a police truck with a car pulled over right by Poindexter when I drove by later. I hope they continue. Some drivers need to get a big hit in the pocket book.
I believe that a roundabout at Poindexter would help. That way residents of Ocean club and Southern Shore can use the roundabout to turn back and enter their driveway safely heading west instead of stopping to make a right turn and blocking traffic heading east.
I am sure once the new by pass road open they will change shamrock road into 2 lane with turning lane and reduce speed so more traffic will go on new bypass road.
No, no no! This endless nonsensical roundabout business needs to just stop. At the rate you rabble-rousers are going, the roadways will just be one giant parking lot.
The roads are there just use them and move on.
Speed Cameras and not speed “notifiers” would solve this problem.
I call those signs the high score board.
Aluminum foil, bobo
A lower speed limit will not stop speeders in the same manner that a BAC limit doesn’t prevent people from driving drunk.
Radar guns? Cute. I see your green vest from a mile away.
Speed bumps on a major arterial road? Seriously? Traffic is already horrible and you want another bottleneck?
Speed cameras? Lol.. again, pass it and you’re home free. Let’s spend 100 million on a system to cover 100 feet of road, and let’s disregard people with 1) no plates 2) aluminum foil covering the RFID strip and 3) retractable or covered plates.
Another roundabout?? Oh for f-..
I don’t speed. I just know how to drive and do it well because I understand the consequences of my actions.
Similarly, if you need police or, especially, the threat of eternal damnation by an “all-loving” sky fairy to not do wrong, perhaps you’re just a horrible human. Do better.
Yeah, that’s going to work.
The same NRA that keeps Frank Sound Rd as a 50mph zone through a major school area and what is now a fully built up residential community? Good luck with that.
It’s 2023. There should be no 50mph zones on what is now a heavily populated island with congested roads.
The speed limit is reduced when the lights are on, just as they do round other schools.
No one obeys the 15mph limit. If you attempt to do so, the other cars just fly by.
Just freaking block the road for an hour and they surely will pay attention.
…. don’t expect things to happen quickly, even with this campaign, ..
why? What happened to the “We The People”? Are WE the docile sheep or CIG and its departments are Our Servants?
“We the People” is from the preamble of the Constitution of the United States. If you want to know what happened to them, you may travel to there and find out.
In Cayman, the Constitution begins with “Her Majesty.” And if you want to know what happened to her, I believe the events of the weekend past should have made that clear.
Bravo! Bunch a donkeys running the show with false promises. Clear out the nepotism before more lives lost 😠