RCIPS shifts focus onto roads as crashes continue
(CNS): The RCIPS’ Winter Guardian operation has been hi-jacked by a stream of fatal and serious smashes since it began earlier this month. And while police are also focused on crime prevention the number of crashes has now seen officers diverted to the roads and the main focus of the campaign has shifted to what they said is even more visible enforcement. With four road deaths this month alone and police responding to around 125 crashes in the first ten days of the campaign a senior officer described the situation as appalling.
As the campaign heads into its last week police have said it is increasing police visibility and enforcement, and the focus of the remaining week will be on road safety.
“In addition to the officers that are already deployed on Operation Winter Guardian, we are placing even more officers on duty specifically targeting unsafe drivers who speed or drive under the influence, with a zero tolerance approach,” said Chief Superintendent Brad Ebanks.
“The entire community has been shocked by the two fatal single-vehicle collisions which occurred on [Boxing Day],” says Chief Superintendent Brad Ebanks. “It is truly a tragedy every single time someone loses their life on our roads. However, I must say that the behaviour we have recently been observing on the roads has been appalling. There have been 14 road fatalities for this year, with fout being in December alone. Clearly, there has been a deterioration of driving standards, and even multiple fatal collisions do not seem to have had any impact on the behaviour of many road users, who continue to display a disregard for road safety.”
With more officers on the road in addition to those already deployed on Operation Winter Guardia Ebanks said they would be specifically targeting unsafe drivers who speed or drive under the influence, with a zero tolerance approach.
Meanwhile, all liquor license holders have been granted extensions for New Years Eve. Booze shops will be able to sell alcohol up to 11pm on Grand Cayman but just 9pm on Cayman Brac.
On Grand Cayman, bars, restaurants, and hotels are permitted to sell liquor until 2:45am and play music until 3am on the morning of Wednesday, 1 January. Nightclubs will continue to operate within their normal hours as they are permitted to play music up to 4am and sell liquor up to 3:45am. For the Sister Islands, bars, restaurants, and hotels are permitted to sell liquor until 1:50am and play music until 2am on the morning of Wednesday, 1 January 2025.
The free purple ribbon bus service organized by the National Drug council will also be operating all through the night on New Years Eve from 9pm until 5am, reducing the need for people to drive. For routes and information, visit the website with a map showing the near 20 different local as well as island wide routes that also link to most resorts as well as the districts.
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Category: Local News
Fixed in three easy steps
1. Dismantle the taxi cartel
2. Introduce a 21st century bus service
3. Exterminate the corrupt ‘inspection’ system
but there are wotes to think about and there isn’t the intellect to properly set up an MOT system like the UK. So suck up the carnage Cayman 🇰🇾.
No way I would go out on New Year’s Eve here unless I had a M1A Abrams tank.
Zero tolerance means RCIPS will do ZERO!
Ride a donkey and you will not get breathalyzed, Cayman Kind
That’s the best of the best in Cayman????? You elected him.
Which country ever has the “best of the best” as their elected representatives?
11.09am If the police take you to the hospital you won’t get breathalysed either.
Spot speed camaras and static average speed cameras. Will end 95% of speeding. Cant renew or transfer registration unless all tickets plus late penalties are paid. More that 3 outstanding tickets at spot traffic checks, automobile is immediately impounded.
Test this out on the Spotts speedway. Stop ‘studying’ and just do it. It works in other countries.
There is no way stationary speed cameras our radar works on this Island. The first vehicle that goes by will start flashing their lights at all on coming traffic. Have seen it every time the RCIP’s has someone stopped.
The solution is simple. Turn them pretty Blue lights off on the top of the police vehicles and start doing Radar control out of a moving car. In other words just do your job every day.
How about installing traffic cameras on the roads and then actually going after the offenders and impounding cars from repeat offenders.
The fact that 70% (at time of writing) elected to hit the snooze button when reading this should tell us all we need to know. The majority don’t care.
Elected members, those in leadership at RCIPS and the electorate all need to accept speed enforcement cameras as the way forward. Currently, for a variety of “reasons” and when pushed, none of the above are truly willing. This would however require a successful technology project implementation and we all know how that goes.
Make Minister Seymour minister of traffic and roads, that should solve all our problems
Now that is interesting and funny !
Thanks for the laugh !
Now that is comedy gold !
Thanks for the laugh! 😂
On a more serious note that is entirely possible!
Simple solution let all Jamaican stay off the road for 12 hours ,and make a note of the outcome ? Road Safety 101
That won’t stop the other nationalities who are also violators.
It started to sound like a broken record.
By the Authority of the Ordo Ridiculus: RCIPS’ Focus on Roads—The Great Shift into Reverse
Ah, the RCIPS, now donning its metaphorical neon vest and bravely proclaiming, “We’re focusing on roads!” after a holiday season already stained with crashes, fatalities, and driving behavior that could make even an Ork Warboss flinch. Welcome to the Operation Winter Guardian—a campaign so reactive, it feels like patching a leaking spaceship with duct tape and prayer. Let us not hold back; the Adeptus Ridiculous has thoughts to share!
125 Crashes in 10 Days: The Carnival of Chaos
Yes, you read that right—125 crashes in 10 days. That’s not a road safety campaign; it’s a demolition derby with a Caymanian twist. Four fatalities in December alone should have been the alarm bell heard across the island, but instead, the RCIPS decided to adopt the age-old tactic of too little, too late. Why focus on road safety now, you ask? Because apparently, the idea of proactive enforcement is as foreign as a Tyranid hive fleet.
Driving Standards: Plummeting Like a Stray Meteor
Chief Superintendent Brad Ebanks calls recent driving behavior “appalling.” You don’t say, Brad! It’s as though decades of lax enforcement, selective accountability, and an unshakable belief that roundabouts are optional speed bumps have culminated in this symphony of chaos. When drivers ignore every rule in the book, perhaps it’s because they’ve realized no one’s reading it.
The RCIPS Playbook: Zero Tolerance (After Zero Enforcement)
The RCIPS has now pledged to adopt a zero-tolerance approach toward speeding and drunk driving. Admirable, if only this energy had arrived before the crash tally started to rival an Ork battlefield.
1. Increased Visibility:
It’s one thing to increase visibility; it’s another to actually enforce the law. Flashing lights are lovely, but they’re no substitute for pulling over the guy treating the highway like the Nürburgring.
2. DUI Checks:
A handful of random checkpoints sprinkled like garnish on a plate of chaos won’t cut it. If your best deterrent is hoping someone isn’t driving drunk, you’re playing a losing game.
3. The Winter Guardian Operation:
Initially aimed at crime prevention, now awkwardly pivoted to road safety. Multitasking is admirable, but when the roads resemble a scene out of Mad Max: Fury Road, maybe it’s time for a dedicated task force.
Purple Ribbon Bus: A Beacon of Hope
Credit where credit is due: the Purple Ribbon Bus is a noble initiative. Running from 9:00 PM to 5:00 AM, it offers a free, safe alternative for partygoers. But let’s be honest: the bus alone can’t counterbalance a culture of reckless driving and selective enforcement. It’s a bandaid on a gaping wound.
Adeptus Ridiculous Proposals: Let the Roads Breathe
1. Operation “Guardians of the Roundabout”:
Deploy officers to every major roundabout with the singular task of reminding drivers that these aren’t racetracks or landing pads for wayward vehicles. Fines are issued with the efficiency of an Adeptus Mechanicus servo-skull.
2. Drone Patrols: Eyes in the Sky:
Equip the RCIPS with drones to monitor speeding, illegal overtaking, and drunk driving in real time. Let the offenders know: the sky is watching, and it’s armed with citations.
3. Public Accountability Board:
Publish monthly statistics of crashes, DUIs, and fines—complete with breakdowns by district. Let the public see where enforcement is working and where it’s faltering.
4. The Testicular Fortitude Initiative:
Equip RCIPS leadership with the courage to enforce laws without fear of public backlash or political pressure. If someone threatens your family over a ticket, double the fine and let justice be blind to intimidation.
Bars, Liquor Extensions, and the Irony of It All
While the roads are drenched in chaos, liquor license extensions have been granted to bars, restaurants, and nightclubs, allowing them to serve alcohol well into the early hours. Because clearly, what the roads need is more well-lubricated drivers attempting to dodge invisible excavators. The logic is impeccable: extend drinking hours, pray the bus service picks up the slack, and hope no one dies on the way home.
For Cayman. For Justice. For Roads that Don’t Resemble Battlefields.
The RCIPS’ renewed focus on road safety is a step forward, but it comes far too late for the lives already lost. Let the Adeptus Ridiculous remind everyone: true enforcement isn’t reactive; it’s proactive. Visibility without action is meaningless, and a promise of zero tolerance means nothing without consistent follow-through.
If the roads are to be reclaimed, it’s time for the RCIPS to stop treating enforcement like an afterthought and start treating it like a mission. Because the stakes couldn’t be higher, and the excuses couldn’t be more tired.
For the love of roundabouts, Cayman deserves better.
Can’t agree more. If the RCIP’s was proactive and policed roads on a daily basis they may not need Check points. People may actually look at this Island as if it has traffic laws. Instead of looking at it like the wild west mining towns during the Gold Rush.
Maybe they ca take 1 our 2 officers out of the cars and spread them out. If you actually see a police car there are usually 2 officers if not 3 cruising around. Heaven forbid you stop someone and have to stop the gossip session.
I don’t even see police on the roads lol.
Driving in cayman is diabolical. So many brain dead idiots putting our life’s at risk and they don’t give one damn honestly. It’s out of control, when I have to decide what time I go to the supermarket or town to avoid them tells me something is sadly wrong somewhere
We’ve democratized driving with cheap Hondas, nice roads, and quick licenses. But done at the expense of repercussions, safety, congestion, and welfare.
Brad has his work cut out for him.
It is not only speeding or drinking and driving.
There are so many other issues every day: tailgating, lack of indicators, dangerous overtaking, running stop signs, cyclists on the wrong side of the road, using phones, illegal parking, illegal tint, just to name a few.
There needs to be a sustained crackdown on everything.
All the cyclists at night with no lights on, too.
People extra vulnerable on the roads for the sake of a $5 LED light.
How about zero tolerance on Texting drivers? Statistically over 100 of the collisions are due to these idiots.
The vast majority of collision in Cayman (which is 10 times higher than the UK per capita) are due to Texting drivers.
Police need to start impounding cars that are not insured or licensed, that would take 50% of the cars off the Cayman roads.
Such a police failure should be independently investigated as either they are incompetent, or they know the majority of these drivers are part of the electorate.
Confiscate and crush their phones, there and then.
Just in case you are one of the many who are still wondering why there are so many crashes and why it is always getting worse, Cayman will never do anything about the bad and non caring about any rules or laws drivers because they are intitled by the fact that they are the voters of the Cayman Islands. I hope this explains it. The police are not at fault just because they are following leadership directions and no it will not change.
I have said it several times. Just a bunch of Kangaroo COPS. You could right ticket’s until your hands cramp on a daily basis. They refuse to pull people over. I guess its pretty hard to right someone a ticket for tinted windows and not using turn indicators etc when they do the same things.
I would love to know the statistics on the accidents.
Race of Driver
Was vehicle registered
Was vehicle Insured
Was Driver Licensed
We all will believe it when we see it. Haven’t seen a patrol car all day except parked at the stations.
what is truly sad is the expectation that the Elected Leaders would have something of value to add to this Vehicular accident situation. Arent you Ministers and Elected Members so insensitive to the situation and to the loss of lives on our roads.
It is hoped that those who are currently elected one and all do not get reelected, for their worth as Leaders is next to nothing.
I have seen many police on the roads morning till late night.
I’ve seen several of them. Some of them parked with the speed gun. Good stuff.
“For the Sister Islands, bars, restaurants, and hotels are permitted to sell liquor until 1:50am and play music until 2am on the morning of Wednesday, 1 January 2025”
this nonsensical policy of differentiating operating hours across the Islands is just one of countless utterly meaningless examples of bureaucratic overreaches…somebody took the time to come up with this policy. The world has gone mad
The police been wearing special lo-visibility clothing, because I have not seen any roadblocks at all. I have driven at night, during the day, post Sunday-brunch time, and still nothing. Granted, attending these crashes takes a lot of resources away from actually doing things like a roadblock, but c’mon, it’s still way too simple to get away with driving like an obnoxious turd.
For a start, use observer officers who can radio to a unit further along the road. You’ll get so many speeders, junk cars, and cell phone users it will actually be impressive.
125 crashes in 10 days😳 …no need for a carnival 🎡 bumper cars already exists on island
Which “entire community “ Brad? Not in the least bit shocked.
No one should be surprised as to the crash statistics. Simply drive anywhere at any time and you will immediately understand. The real stupidity is the expectation that anything will improve the outcome without adjusting the input. Until changes are made to the driving tests, everyday policing, traffic cameras and the penalty structure the situation will continue to deteriorate. Driving with reckless stupidity is sadly becoming the cultural norm.
More oppression from the oppressors.
Says the person who is probably disqualified. Or driving around with no insurance. Or on bail. Or all of the above.
You describing a politician, almost to a tee!
take the pledge
It’s better than butter sprayed onto your grilled salmon😋
Working great so far.
How about an “Operation Do Your Policing Job Everyday”? That and turn off your blue lights unless you are pulling someone over. Lights on all the time seems like a great tactic if you don’t want to see any lawbreakers and have to suffer through the paperwork of writing them up. Not to mention having to attend our Kangaroo Court multiple times for every simple case.