Police begin another crackdown on rogue drivers
(CNS): The RCIPS has launched its third road safety campaign for the year as police and other government agencies continue efforts to improve the poor standard of driving on local roads. More than 60 collisions are reported each week, and the aim is to reduce serious injuries and fatalities and encourage safer driving behaviour.
Police began high-visibility initiatives and traffic enforcement across the islands on Monday, focused on persistent road safety offences such as speeding, DUI, inconsiderate and distracted driving.
Chief Superintendent Brad Ebanks said this additional road safety campaign in the annual schedule demonstrated the RCIPS’s commitment to the community and that the police are doing their part, through enforcement, to hold motorists accountable.
“I implore motorists to do their part by making a conscious effort to change their adverse driving behaviour and make our roadways safer for all who use them,” he said. “Motorists who exhibit poor driving behaviour are not only putting themselves and their passengers, who can at times be children, at risk but also the lives of others. And for what reason? To get to a destination two minutes faster?
“All drivers should play their part in ensuring that they or persons they know don’t drink and drive, drive within the speed limits and exercise considerate driving of other road users. And passengers, you have a role to play too. Call out unsafe driving behaviour when you see and experience it,” Ebanks added.
Reallocation of resources will allow for increased police numbers on the road over this period. Those officers will be tasked with proactively focusing on motorists who disregard the law and endanger other road users. They will also increase their visible presence to remind the public of the need for safe driving behaviour.
Head of Traffic and Road Policing Inspector Andre Tahal said his officers attend over 60 MVAs per week, which, in addition to causing damage to vehicles and personal injury, also causes delays and diverts officers from proactive road policing.
“This road safety campaign will enhance police presence at known hotspots to target offenders, making the roadways safer for all road users,” he said “The poor driving behaviour occurring every day on our roadways is not only irresponsible but self-centred and demonstrates lack of consideration for others when drivers choose to speed, drive under the influence, take their attention off the road to their phones or overtake where it is clearly not safe to do so,” he added.
The campaign will once again include partner agencies, such as DVDL and the Public Transport Dept, who will target unroadworthy vehicles and unsafe loads to address the variety of factors that make Cayman roads dangerous. The operation is being conducted as a continued part of the National Road Safety Strategy, ‘Safe Roads, Safe Cayman: The Road to Zero’.
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Category: Crime, Crime Prevention, Police
I’ll make a deal with ya Police Farce, you obey the rules and I’ll obey the rules. Obviously I jest, but they are among the worst drivers we have, and RCIPS “leadership” do not appear to give a funk.
In 20 minutes of trying to get around the end of the runaway this evening, I noted 57 traffic violations. Not a po po in sight.
…unless you’re a senior public officer, then you’re free to go, we will give you a 30 minute head start, and see that the young lady gets home.
If any comments make sense, it for sure won’t happen.
This week it was seen that the police officer assigned to assist in this so called PR campaign would even get out of his car by the North Side school zone because it was raining. Bring back the Brits, atleast they can handle the rain. Police are a joke here. Most men coppers just flirt with females that they pull over. Does anyone that can make a positive change see this, or is there a secret religious handshake or prayer that is happening. It’s only getting worse. With more and more poor country occupying government jobs, the writing is on the wall.
We deep in it now, and it’s too late cause no one going against d’juju, and the witchcraft.
Racist colonial officers are the architects of the management failure. They enjoy their Caribbean tour on 6 figures, while entry level hires are supposed to do their heavy lifting. It doesn’t seem like anyone is checking the work, or offering suggestions. No performance targets except matching some previous year’s dubious statistic. Crime is stable.
I taught we had one of us leading the charge. he ‘na colonist.
Simple reading and writing tests would get rid of 50% of current lot. takes 40 minutes to write a ticket FFS. no quota goin’ be reached. never mind no quota. no jam, no butta’
They need to crack down on drivers (usually Jamaican) who ignore traffic rules and cause more traffic in the morning.
-Using the middle turning lane outside Red Bay Primary to skip traffic and then turning left to the roundabout just slows traffic.
– Using Prospect Point as a cut through stops free flowing traffic when they have to exit at the other end.
– Driving in the middle lane all the way up LPH then stopping ON THE ROUNDABOUT to try and cut in to turn down Agnes Way block free flowing traffic.
These are some of the main causes for traffic as the completely block what would be free flowing movement. These places are where the police should be every morning, not issuing tint tickets right outside their own offices.
Highly visible speed traps are a joke. Get in those marked and unmarked cars and do traffic patrols.
Enlist the helicopter for patrols for reckless drivers on all the known raceways.
The above won’t happen so nothing will change. Years of weak enforcement have consequences. Reckless driving is a cultural thing and it’s entrenched now.
Buckle up, be alert, and stay off the roads after midnight and after dark on weekends and holidays.
No clearer example of the mediocrity of the RCIPS than uniformed officers using radar devices at the Cost U Less roundabout yesterday and a certain big shot in a ridiculous black Tesla truck followed by a Porsche 4 door saloon were driving at speeds likely 20 mph or more towards the roundabout, weaving in and out of traffic and the officers didn’t do a damned thing about it.
I’ll tell you what. Most likely, you were going below the limit as the speedometer in vehicles are usually 5mph slower than actual speed. Take a look at the roadside speed monitors next time you drive by. If those cars were doing 1mph over the limit you can guarantee the RCIPS would fine the driver. Swapping lanes to get around persons driving below the limit is not a crime.
Set up cameras with ANPR that can recognise people driving without insurance. Plus the technology is there to spot people using their mobile phones whilst driving. It would free up Police time and it would be completely impartial. No asking someone you know to let you off. Also bring in a points system like the U.K. where you will lose your licence when enough points have accumulated. Plus these people’s insurance premiums should increase as well. There is currently no deterrent to stop these appalling drivers
It’s difficult to apply real world expectations in the West Indies. Take Bluetooth for example, around for decades, and yet many users prefer to impede one of their useful hands to hold a smartphone (with a speaker function) in front of their lips, while driving, typing at their desk, or in line at the take out place. It’s to project dominance over the unseen recipient, for whatever that audience is. That’s someone not to be messed with. It doesn’t need to make sense. Similarly, last one to switch on their headlights after sunset is the King/Queen of cool in these humble islands. Nobody knows why.
makes you wonder why you would ever leave your country that possess these real-world expectations to come and live amongst us backward people. remind us again where you’re from?
Louder please; unfortunately their bluetooth headset can’t connect since their head is so far up their own ass.
Campaign? Just do your job every day. Sigh.
As usual the real culprit is completely ignored. We don’t have a real driving test. Of course standards are a joke. Nothing will ever improve until the driving test means people can actually drive safely. Our accident stats are almost 10 times worse than the UK despite having, slower speeds, better roads and better weather.
Well, to be fair, there is a driving test, but it costs $75 and takes some time. The Traffic Court Cause List dockets prove that many on our roads never bothered to seek a valid pass/conversion, or are currently disqualified and don’t care – because who is going to stop them if they don’t? Not the no-show RCIPS!
have police ever heard of dashcams?,,,,they record everything.
one camera set up on any roundabout in cayman can record hundreds of incidents of reckless/dangerous driving.
Except, in Cayman, the prosecutions division is geared towards criminality, preferring to rely on least-reliable eye witness recollection than empirical video footage. That way, the bad guys, often locals, go free.
Speed cameras are the best option with the points system so that eventually you lose your licence if you keep offending.
The only people who are voting down your comment are the criminals themselves.
I think it’s more to do with the fact that the only people who can be caught by a speed camera are those that have a licenced car, no licence/inspection/insurance no-one to send the fine to!
I’m in favour of that as well, however I believe there are a substantial amount of cars with expired registrations/uninsured/uninspected, and many cars which wouldn’t or shouldn’t pass inspection. POS cars on the road in which the drivers don’t care about and it shows in their driving.
A high percentage of Road Users either never qualified or are continuing to drive disqualified, without insurance, and/or registrations paid. The RFID chips will read last valid registration of vehicle, if that person still lives here. We need the 400+ full-time RCIPS officers to go to work, every day, with vehicles distributed in the community at all hours, to raise the likelihood of getting caught, to above 5% All sorts of behaviour would change, in a positive way. The CI Public pays >$200mln a year for a job that isn’t getting done.
So, if RCIPS know they’re dealing with 60 MVAs a week, and it takes away from proactive roads policing…maybe make the department larger? So the necessary proactive part is possible, which should also generate more dollars and reduce the MVAs in the first place.
It’s not hard. It’s the only real revenue generating arm of the police. The biggest issue would be recruiting suitably skilled officers who can do the job, and maybe show their colleagues how to drive a patrol car.
No doubt most accidents are caused by bad driving but dont underestimate how many are caused by poor road signage, marking and lighting. Just drive from Bodden Town at night and god forbid if its raining.
lol. Funny the rest of the world manages to cope without streetlights outside of towns with a tiny fraction of our accident rates.
free simple solutions to terrible driving standards:
1.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.
2. treble all existing traffic fines
3. as per the uk, do not accept jamaican driving license
4. if you cause an accident or get charged with careless driving , you must automatically re-sit driving test
This is a terrible idea which is why no other country on earth does it. Private traffic police will be absolutely riddled with corruption. Speed really isn’t the problem here. The lack of any real driving test means half our drivers are simply not safe at any speed.
private sector will out perform public entities every day of the week.
your fear of corruption is baseless with proper controls and are laughable when you see what goes on with current rcips set up.
The CI Public already pays >$200mln annually to have “the real work” covered, with the latest hardware and technology, a CI Regiment, Coast Guard, two helicopters, etc etc. The exploited flaw, is that there is no public performance review taking place that the Police Commissioner needs to answer to, and no accountability checks in the Senior RCIPS division head management suites, all pulling in 6-figures. Where are the performance reports? The RCIPS won’t even say how many of the >400+ fulltime officers are allocated to the Traffic Department, or what they have done, generally, in any given quarter. These are serious persistent management problems.
maybe they should crack down on their own rogue driving first….police here can’t even signal properly on a roundabout!
Reason: Jamaican and Philippine drivers.
Reason : no observed police enforcement to deter bad habits.
The point was that someone needs to watch the police as their driving habits are horrendous.
Those LIDAR speed guns work perfectly well at night, RCIPS. Maybe try being less predictable?
Judging by the tire marks by Barcam Esso, there’s plenty of stupidity you could look for in that area.
Tried pulling over dump trucks with no plates?
Prosecuted anyone with high beams causing migraines and near misses in equal proportion?
Prosecuted pickup truck drivers with overhanging loads not having a red tether to warn people?
Stopped anyone with lighting that’s against regulations? Light other than red or amber at the back of a vehicle? or perhaps any idiots with green/red/blue lights at the front???
Crackdown. LOL.
Those using fog lights at any time. Better yet declare them illegal and have them disconnected at inspection.
Haha those turning on any lights at all should be congratulated!
Inspection, LMAO
Hiding behind blind corners on a weekday morning does not a crackdown make.
Yesterday evening a rogue driver of a green Honda Fit decided to use the coned off lane on the LPH as his own personal by-pass, only to push his way back into traffic when blocked by a broken down jeep and then back into his personal by-pass lane once again.
Speaking of rogue transportation and recent news – has anyone asked whether Cayman Airways is one of the ‘foreign’ airlines flying potentially faulty 737 aircraft? Yesterday the US announced that there are a lot of potentially faulty 737’s in use by non-US fleets.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/ntsb-boeing-737-airplanes-safety-1.7338397
This is the NTSB warning of the newly discovered problems with some 737 Max 8 aircraft – hopefully Cayman Airways is aware of this issue
https://www.ntsb.gov/news/press-releases/Pages/NR20240926.aspx
CNN is also carrying this story
https://edition.cnn.com/2024/09/30/business/boeing-737-rudder-faa-ntsb/index.html
RCIPS couldn’t crack down on an egg.
If they could educate the red light runners, the high beam dazzlers, the broken headlight/ brake light/tail light idiots, the death trap drivers, the seatbelt optional, window tint numpties etc. I’d believe it.
Don’t hold your breath. You will only see them in the mornings and afternoons while people are traveling to and from work, causing more traffic. You will NEVER see them apprehend anyone for what you mentioned above. This is a plain and simple money grab and has been for as long as the RCIPS have been around. They have no interest in the real poor drivers with poor driving habits.
Only half agree with you on this one…. RCIPS wasn’t always this bad. Over the decades as less and less credible and upstanding Caymanians and Bajan persons who had pride in their positions and respect for the uniform joined the service, it has become a deplorable, corrupt, and revenue & time-waster!! The few Caymanians that is left is trying to lead a bunch of “bandits”. The service has become so laughable as if it was a joke.
I disagree. Whenever they announce one of these “crackdowns,” I notice that the police had a lot of moms pulled over on Walkers Road, because, as we all know, the worst problem with rogue drivers is lead-footed mothers of school children.
You’re mistaken. It’s often the hired help taking the kids to school.
Those driving badasses, like little Filipina nannies.
Lets see if the majority of our Jamaican police will enforce the traffic laws on the rogue Jamaican drivers, especially the bus drivers. I somehow doubt it but lets see what happens.
They only want the low hanging fruit, which is persons going with the flow of traffic, at 5 mph over the limit. You can see this pattern with other enforcement arms of the government like the DPP and ACC. Real corruption will never be prosecuted on this island.
They become “philanthropists” and hide behind that.
We don’t need another Campaign.
We need a professional police presence who will enforce the traffic laws irrespective of a drivers high office, or country of origin.
Tesla will present the autonomous robotaxi in a couple of weeks. That would solve the issue. Oh wait, robotaxis like Uber or Starlink will never be allowed in Grand Cayman….
John John better be on the lookout. Wait, never mind.
Surely JohnJohn should be the first to be prosecuted. Or is he the face of this campaign?
Duhwayne just makes a call to the right person. Wayne Pantsdown should have been embarrassed to take that phone call.