4,000 speeding tickets issued this year
(CNS): The police have handed out a record-breaking number of speeding tickets since the beginning of January, but drivers are still not heeding speed limits on the roads. Over 4,000 tickets were issued in the first ten months of this year, up more than 30% from the total number of tickets issued during the whole of last year, when 3,063 were issued.
Although around 100 speeders are ticketed per week, the police say that at the recent series of community meetings, speeding was among the key topics raised by members of the public.
Attendees asked Police Commissioner Kurt Walton and his officers for greater police presence and more ticketing to reduce speeding, but Walton warned that issuing tickets alone will not solve the problem. “The complaint of speeding is nationwide,” he said. “As I have said before, we cannot ticket our way out of this problem.”
Even as police do what people want, giving out significantly more tickets and increasing the visibility of police on the roads, drivers still speed.
“As a community, we must take responsibility to change our behaviour when we get behind the wheel,” Walton said. “If every driver applied the following basic rules and advice, the result would be less collisions and less fatalities on our roads”.
He advised motorists to slow down, drive to the speed limits and road conditions, not to overtake when it is illegal to do so, follow roundabout rules and indicate turns, and not to be distracted while driving. The police commissioner told drivers to put down their phones and be patient, to think of other road users and their passengers. He said the roads are to be shared and road rules to be respected.
“We know ticketing isn’t going to solve the problem,” he added. “Education resulting in change in driving behaviour is a lot harder to achieve. It’s not a quick fix, but it is a key to success. This forms part of the vital work the RCIPS is contributing to, alongside our Cayman Islands Government colleagues, as part of the National Road Safety Strategy (NRSS),” Walton added.
The RCIPS is working with partners, including the NRA, 911, the Fire Service and DVDL, to develop and deliver the NRSS aims to ultimately reduce road fatalities, improve the road network, improve traffic legislation, enhance enforcement, and improve the overall driving experience in the Cayman Islands over the coming years.
“In the short term, there is something we can all do to improve the driving experience for all road users,” the commissioner said as he urged people to slow down. “Until we do, we will continue to see collisions and, in the worst cases, serious injuries and fatalities on our roads.”
- Fascinated
- Happy
- Sad
- Angry
- Bored
- Afraid
Increase the fine. You want higher number of tickets, post cops with radar guns outside Rubis at Grand Harbour. It’s a Bl**dy race track going east no matter the time of day.
On the Brac. Police never catch really speeders doing like 60 or 70 mph. They only catch and ticket people during like 8 or 10 miles over the speed limit.
Nose to bumper traffic along south sound this morning – two police officers standing in a shady bit trying to ‘catch speeders’. We’re all doing 2mph! Excellent use of resources as ever
I saw them too. It didn’t look like they were doing a speed trap. It looked to me like they were scanning license plate numbers looking for unlicensed vehicles or uninsured vehicles which is easy to do when traffic is going 2mph.
But I’m sure you know better.
If they were scanning license plate numbers then they probably would have pulled over the car behind me that had no license plates and maybe 8 people crammed into the car.
But I’m sure you know better – moron
What RCIP need to do is get off their #$$ and go on the Lookout Road in BT and stop cars from overtaking lines of cars going towards BT school exit.
They could fatten CIG coffers from these idiots.
How many drivers were breathalyzed after running in to stationary light poles during that same time period?
Sorry but we have magical dancing light and power poles here in Cayman. Therefore, no need to breathalyze.
how can you ever have respect for the police farce after that???
Just that? That got nuttin on some of the Cabinet status grants.
How about the vehicles speeding past Lighthouse and Red Bay school zones while lights are flashing in the afternoon?
This morning I saw an idiot the left lane in an old Civic, texting. Slightly in front and to the right lane was a woman driving a Rav4 with her phone on speaker, obviously being held in her hand. Both idiots nearly collided. This is every minute of every day.
the infamous “candy bar” speaker phone hold…
hands-free, they claim.
nope.
And how many tickets for dangerous driving or driving without due care?
The elephant in the room here is that half the drivers here are unsafe at any speed, including below the speed limit. We accept licenses from countries you can buy one for less than a tank of gas and our test is a complete joke. Until we change THIS we will continue to be plagued by accident rates 10 TIMES Europe. Speed tickets change nothing, they are just to be seen to be doing something.
A few weeks ago I was behind an RCIPS car all the way from Caymana Bay to Yacht Club roundabout. Despite the left lane being clear he drove in the right hand lane the entire way. Indicated incorrectly at EVERY SINGLE roundabout. Finally turning left at Yacht Club roundabout… from the right hand lane, without indicating at all. These people in charge of our roads couldn’t pass a basic UK driving test if their lives depended on it!
I was behind the Toyota Rush marked up police car the other day. It was traveling at 45 to 50mph on the LPH, in the area by the new school. It’s clearly marked as a 25mph zone. I know that nobody drives at 25, but I wasn’t expecting a police vehicle to be going so far over when not on a call.
What is it with this nonsense of people slowing down or stopping on a main road to allow traffic out of a side road?
A stupid habit that would be a fail on a driving test in any other country.
This!
THIS IS SOOOO ANNOYING….If people didn’t do this, traffic would be way better… breaks come in the traffic naturally. Roundabouts and lights on the main junctions help create that break allowing traffic to flow. IT’s such a stupid thing to do when traffic is busy.
Serious question… How does anyone break the speed limit with all the damn traffic!?
You acquire a Honda Fit, apparently, spend your next two paychecks entirely on speakers and sound system, then apply profound pressure upon the fuel pedal.
A 250,000 mile Accord with spiked wheel nuts or one of those stupid little van things work well too.
explains why we have all the robberies and assaults going on! police here only drive around in the air-con all day looking for tints and speeders. I mean all laws should be enforced but it seems like they have way too much lose time on their hands. Most from JA and here for the incredible paycheck, and the missing kilos that vanish from time to time.
Ex-RCIPS. Pissing in the wind. You could ticket all day, every day, it wouldn’t make a dent into improving the roads. The traffic laws need to change, as do the punishments.
There’s plenty of people prosecuted, but guess what? They keep on driving… and getting caught… and getting caught etc etc etc
Start revoking work permits and sending them home!. It’s not just work permit holders but in the absence of hanging Caymanians by the neck until dead we have to start somewhere with something.
If you are on a work permit, and you get caught X times doing Y you should be sent home. It may not be a criminal offence but it still counts.
So, who in the force is advocating to change the laws? Doesn’t sound like Kurt wants to.
This is, yet again, a way of the police making themselves look busy, without dealing with any of the actual issues on our roads. I am sure that over 75% of these tickets issued are for people doing 35 in a 30 on a relatively safe bit of road, where the officer can stand in the shade and point their little gun without needing to do much.
We know where the terrible driving is most prevalent. You could sit at ALTs roundabout and issue 4000 tickets in an afternoon. And I wonder then how many of the dangerous drivers would show up with other infractions like no insurance, vehicle not licensed etc.
That’s like a leaf in a 40 mph wind. It nothing and blows away. As i have stated before the RCIPs could right tickets in Cayman until their fingers fall off. As soon as they set up a speed trap everyone starts flashing their lights to let you know they are there. What about Blacked out windows, Cell phones passing on solid lines the list goes on. Funnies thing i got stopped so they could scan my plate tag. Asked if they wanted to see my drivers licence the response was NO just checking registrations. I guess as long as you have a valid plate and insurance a drivers licence isn’t required.
I watched with dismay as a Consolidated Water pickup was flashing cars to alert them to a police speed trap.
This happened during the end of the school day, by Savannah Primary.
Warning speeding drivers in a school zone. Can you imagine??? Idiot needs to allow nature to runs its course.
It’s called freedom of expression. If the police weren’t so obvious the flashing would not work. What about ticketing for not indicating on a round about which increases traffic?
It’s not freedom of expression. It could be interpreted as obstruction of justice.
If you want speeding drivers in school zones, go ahead and condone this foolishness.
The problem with speeding tickets alone is that it is effectively just a payment made to be permitted to drive fast. For it to be a deterrent there needs to be a points system where a set number of speeding offences causes a driving ban.
Very true. Unless you go to court, it’s just an administrative fine. If you’re rich, it’s of no consequence.
I wonder what ever happened to that clown who crashed the McLaren a few months ago and then abused the police. Anything, nothing? I’m guessing nothing.
“If the penalty for a crime is a fine, that law only exists for the lower classes.”
Let’s get proper speed cameras installed that can monitor roads for speeding 24 hrs a day and automatically issue tickets and fines. They will soon pay for themselves. Let’s get a lot of them so these idiots can’t avoid them and speed between the cameras.
And let’s encourage good drivers to install dashcams, and then allow for the footage to be sent to an agency (private company if needed) who can then use that footage to prosecute bad and dangerous driving too.
Fining these repeat offenders over and over and over again until the only way to pay the fines is to sell their car – or go to jail. Both ways it gets them off the road for a while making it safer for the rest of us.
Speed cameras have done nothing to improve road safety in the UK. There is a lot more to road safety than exceeding some largely arbitrary number. The fact that half of you haven’t even passed a real driving test would be the first place to start!
I don’t know if this is necessarily a bad thing,- increase in population, increase in drivers = increase in revenue. Isn’t this just part of the paradigm we’re longing for ? 🙄
treble the fines and people will soon learn. plus cig gets more $$$….easy/free win-win.
Time to start taking licenses and cars. Zero tolerance – if you continuously break the laws and endanger the lives of other road users, you do not deserve to be on the road.
This should extend beyond just speeding but also to reckless driving – dangerous overtaking and weaving between vehicles.
The standard of driving here is appalling. Worse driving I’ve seen during the day is usually by Jamaicans. Buses, taxis and large lorries are terrible too.
I give credit for the extra speed traps and tickets. Bravo. Need more but its a start.
But here is what will really help. Give the police the power to start taking and holding any vehicle that is being driven when not insured or is not safe for the roads, or is being driven recklessly, or is being driven by an unlicensed driver. Only then will a real difference be seen by all.
Repeat offenders are repeat offenders because they don’t care about the consequences.
Take their vehicle and then they be riding the bus and not continuing to menace the roads.
While it’s good to hear it’s going in the right direction that’s just about 11 tickets per day. I saw 11 people driving way over the limit, tailgating and generally just being dangerous jerks on my commute this morning.
Keep going. Keep ticketing and start ticketing for reckless driving and not signaling. Ticket more for lack of insurance and lack of license/inspection and make it hurt badly for everyone breaking the rules.
It’ll eventually start to help
Ya you saw them because people drive differently when there is a Police car in sight or when people are flashing lights a mile up the road.
Of course you are going to see more than a marked Police car would seen. T Part of the solution is more UN-MARKED police cars. Then they will catch people in the act far more often.
And not that grey one they have. Everyone knows about that one.
I think a point system where people risk losing their license would make a difference.
Also needs to be upheld. There are many divers on the road without valid driver’s licenses already. I don’t have much faith in the police dealing with this.
And restrict low points drivers to only being allowed to drive at certain hours of the day. (i.e- low point drivers between 9:00 and 3:00, drivers with no loss of points anytime, for example.) Need your car to get to work?- Better learn to drive then!
That will alleviate traffic congestion at rush hour. Gauging the drivers on this island, rush hour roads would become empty like driving on a Sunday!
Unfortunately, Cayman doesn’t do consequences and responsibility.
Literally could get 4000 a month if they did their job.
“Walton warned that issuing tickets alone will not solve the problem. “The complaint of speeding is nationwide,” he said. “As I have said before, we cannot ticket our way out of this problem.”
That is rubbish! That is absolutely the only way out of this! RCIPS tickets those who break the law and if they don’t pay or they get a certain amount of tickets: take the car! It is simple, but the fact that they just don’t want to work hard is the most telling of how Kurt will handle the traffic situation.
Police can’t just impound anyone’s car unless it is being held for evidence or if its stuck blocking the road.
You have to have the law changed first before the police can hold someone’s car for not paying fines.
in other words, speeding is not the real issue. It’s lack of driving skills and knowledge of the road code that cause the accidents. Only driving education and mandatory re-education for serial offenders will help solve the problem.
Well quite. A real driving test you had to actually train with a competent professional for in order to pass would be a start.
He is talking about the greater picture. Issuing tickets alone will not round up even half of the lawbreakers. It’s a good start, and I agree that RCIPS needs to do more. Even on the Brac, speeding and booming music is rampant.
Commissioner Walton will push in other directions — ways in which he’s been previously curtailed — and those investigations will not nor should they be common knowledge, but I am confident we will see the result.
I think we should give Mr. Kurt time to show his chops, now that it’s his game. I have a huge amount of respect and faith in him.
why isn’t Kurt trying to get the laws changed then?
Please release ticket data for:
– Illegally parked police vehicles
– Police not using their turn signals
– Police using mobile phones while driving
– Police vehicles with illegal tint
– Buses overtaking in middle lanes
– Buses using parking lots as shortcuts
– Buses not using turn signals
– Buses pulling over on crossings to pick people up
There is not enough ticket books for this and if they were to create an use a mobile App the data would likely cripple the system for the buses alone!
I think I would be more impressed if they handed out some dangerous or reckless driving tickets vs speeding. Let’s face it everyone speeds every day, even a few miles over the limit, but what most people get upset with are the handful of idiots who don’t know how to drive or do know and still do it. Tailgating, racing, running red lights, no lights when raining (yes, it is a requirement), lights at dusk/night – the stuff that endangers the rest of us! I’m sure people can add to the list of ‘dangerous’ but fining someone doing 45 on a straight section of the bypass in good weather isn’t going to make the roads safer.
The problem isn’t speeding, its bad driving. Speeding can be bad driving but it takes many other forms too. The driving test in Cayman is a joke and no one, including the police, knows how to use their indicators, roundabouts or what each lane is for.
Stop pointlessly ticketing people for doing 55 down a wide open dual carriageway to raise funds and maybe hang out by schools or places were a real risk of danger to the public exists from speeding and other forms of bad driving.
Spot on and 100% agree.
The problem with these bad drivers is the good drivers have to drive badly now too to get anywhere.
I’m sorry but just go the speed limit why do you need to go 55? That’s still dangerous.
A competent driver can easily drive on many of our roads quite safely at 55 when traffic conditions allow. The people who are quite obviously the real problem can’t drive safely at any speed.
If you think people doing 55 on a dual carriageway is dangerous then I strongly suspect you are part of the problem!
If you think this small island needs 55mph on a short road with roundabouts every mile or so you are mad.
and you are apparently an incompetent driver.
Our dual carriageways would be 60 limits in the UK and they have almost 1/10th the deaths per capita we do… maybe have some extra driving lessons if 40 is too fast for you?
Or maybe I know by driving the speed limit I will end up next to you no matter what because the island is too small. Why are you people so agro?
“Ticketing will not solve the problem”
YES IT WILL!
If the penalties and consistency of enforcement are enough, it will end the problem – as it does in many other countries with less funding and per capita manpower than we. We just need to enforce our laws!
How long have you been here? Has ticketing helped? Do you indicate your intentions when driving? Do you drive under the speed limit with a line of cars behind you?
50 years
Yes – but not enough. Penalties need to be higher, as does the rate of enforcement.
Yes.
No.
with all do respect, it’s not law enforcements responsibility ask people to act sensibly, it’s their responsibility to ENFORCE LAWS. If they were actively doing that instead of making excuses as blaming the public for their poor job performance these captain obvious statements at community meetings wouldn’t even be necessary.
Bare excuses.