‘Horrific’ driving causing collision chaos, says CoP
(CNS): The RCIPS is finding the traffic issues on local roads extremely challenging, given the number of collisions every day due to “horrible” driving and a complete disregard by many drivers for the rules of the road. This is having a serious impact not just on road users killed or maimed in the crashes, but also on wider policing and resources.
Police Commissioner Kurt Walton said the service plans to invest in technology and discuss changes to the law with the government to curb the chaos the crashes are causing.
In 2024, there were 3,253 crashes, an increase of just 1% on last year, but that is after a streak of year-on-year increases in crashes, according to the latest statistics revealed by the RCIPS on Wednesday. And last year, 14 people were killed in eleven different collisions and 34 people were badly hurt, the RCIPS said at a briefing on the 2024 Crime and Traffic Statistics Report.
While only 9% of the remaining crashes saw those involved sustain any injuries, all of them — nearly 3,000 — pulled officers away from other duties. With an average of well over 60 crashes every week, police are spending more and more time dealing with the consequences of the persistent problem of what Walton described as horrible driving.
While DUI is the cause of most of Cayman’s fatal collisions, the dozens of weekly crashes are due to carelessness and inconsideration for other road users.
“The culture of driving is… horrific,” the commissioner said, noting the “disregard for other road users”, for example, while changing lanes or overtaking, not using indicators properly, driving too close behind the vehicles, or not following the rules of the road. He said it’s the driving that’s the problem.
He said many drivers here are “absolutely not” qualified to be on the road. “They’ve qualified in the sense that they’ve gone and sat and passed a roadside test, and I’m sure they’ve done what they had to do at the time,” he said, but added that the culture on the roads desperately needs to change.
And in a year where crime was also rising and retention problems caused the officer headcount to decrease, resources were stretched thin, and traffic enforcement declined by more than 3,000 tickets or summons. Walton said that the police were working with the government on some ideas to help tackle this ever-increasing problem, but the main problem is the terrible standard of driving.
However, road safety is a multifaceted issue requiring collaboration with a number of key stakeholders. “We play a significant role in enforcement, and I have to accept that. We are held to account when our enforcement is down,” he said.
The traffic unit was down some 38% last year, and given the crimes the service was dealing with, Walton said he was reluctant to take officers from the community policing department, and traffic enforcement was impacted as a result. However, enforcement is not the only issue relating to the constant crashes. He said the police work closely with other agencies, and there are engineering factors at play, too.
Walton said that on the 1.6-mile stretch of Shamrock Road in Spotts, from Ocean Club to Savannah, six people were killed there last year in three major collisions. “Recognising this, we did a lot of work to rectify that and mitigate against that situation,” he said, explaining that dividers have been erected there to stop drivers from overtaking.
The RCIPS is looking at investing in technology, such as e-tickets and modern equipment to help remove cars from the roadway as quickly as possible to avoid a gridlock, Walton said, explaining that this could reduce the time officers spend on the road dealing with crashes so they can get back to traffic enforcement and tackling crime.
However, the commissioner said that the time has also come to force a change in culture, and that comes with consequences. It might be time to criminalise drinking and driving and increase other penalties to deter the broader culture of poor driving.
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Category: Crime, Crime Prevention, Police
Failure to give way correctly at roundabouts is the most shocking issue.
They got John John’s breathalyzer results to share with the public yet?
From which crash?
I approach every. single. roundabout with trepidation. Why? Because while I know the rules of navigating them, I find that a significant amount of drivers seem to just plow through them without indicating, and often without yielding where it is appropriate. I sometimes wonder if these drivers just pray before a roundabout and thank their deity after having navigated them without dying. We MUST do better with driving tests, both with Caymanians and expats.
I am getting up in age, but I think we have to have hands-on driving tests as people get older. If you see someone driving and they are hunched forward over their steering wheel, you know they can’t see very well.
I got road rage this morning from this and want to apologize to the cars I overtook after.
Papa, you had 5 seconds of clearance. FKN GO!! There’s a line of us behind you who can actually ZIPPER merge!
Zipper Mer, the hardest thing in the Cayman Islands. Why do people try to merge 100 ft before the merge lane ends?
The Cayman driving test and license are completely worthless. Until that changes they are literally letting people on the roads who are not safe to drive at any speed. We have better roads, lower speeds and better weather than the UK but we have 10 times the crashes. It’s absurd. Why is every CoP so scared of admitting our test is a bad joke?
Absurd. Testing has nothing to do with the selfish and irresponsible driving culture and mediocre at best, policing.
It is the wild wild west in cayman roads thanks in 90% to Jamaicans, the most ghetto people ever.
Plenty Caymanians to blame too. #JamaicanScapegoats
In driving school, if anyone has ever had the experience we were taught a technique called defensive driving. I find that driving defensively here isn’t quite as good as another technique I’ve learned to keep from getting into an accident. By learning to drive like a Jamaican, I find that I get to places I have to go much faster, some cops even salute and beep me as I whizz by them. I do have a conscience though, and I’ve heard say that it leaves many other drivers angry, traumatised and sometimes injured in my wake. So all is not irie pon di road if you drive like this.
He references the Spotts to Ocean Club stretch of Shamrock Road. Yes, there’s now a load of plastic sticks everywhere to mitigate against the lack of good road design, but has he been there lately? It hasn’t slowed anyone down, I frequently see the speed sign flashing at 60 and 70mph+.
Plastic sticks don’t replace good policing.
Plastic sticks also push vehicles closer to cyclists and pedestrians when they are overtaking. This increases the chance of close passes and accidents.
High score signs lol
Surely if the police were anywhere to be seen on the roads that would deter a ton of people from driving like maniacs.
No one cares to drive decent because they know nothing will come of it.
Totally AGREE with you!
The police are doing nothing!!!
Cant go on the road without having a near miss these days.
Plentiful low hanging fruit for even the worst rozzer to choose from daily!
Illegal window tint, illegal lights, dangerously overloaded lorries, illegal plates or none at all, especially on the fronts, improper or no indicating, tailgaiting, speeding and aggressive driving.
Can we please go back to full color rental plates on rental cars. The old system worked well and I could then give a rental driver a wide berth. The new green lettering in next to impossible to differentiate until you are right behind the vehicle.
Put a speed limiter on every Honda Fit, no more than 50MPH.
That’s 3/4 of your problem solved.
The limiters can be purchased on Temu for $39 each.
Why not on every car? No one in Cayman needs a car that goes faster than 50mph.
We shouldn’t compromise on public safety just because some people enjoy breaking the law.
Exactly. Plenty Audi Q wagons and Honda saloons speeding and driving dangerously everyday!
Yesterday on South Sound Rd a black suv almost hit my car … the lady drifted across the middle of the road … could see the phone in her hand as she corrected up and went past me. If she had hit my car, I would have had no concern about taking that phone and shoving it down her mouth as far as possible.
Ensure all Jamaicans are either a) not allowed to drive or b) pass a driving test equivalent to UK standards (which they never would) before allowing them to drive here. Ridiculous
..and the cyclists who are totally ignorant of road rules..oh, stop at a roundabout when cars have stopped to let the right of way car go..nooo will just keep cycling and expect car to stop in middle of roundabout to let them pass. The car stops otherwise will be accused of knocking down cyclist….do they have road rules, insurance, licence. Will not mention the electric scooters… no helmet, no licence, no plates..just ride in the middle of the road in front of cars who have to stop.
1. Issue Immediate Tickets..not notices for intended prosecution when most are never found, or prosecuted.
2. IMMEDIATE Driving ban before court, if driving drunk or over a certain speed.
Drunk driving or over twice the limit ordriving without insurance: crush the car!!
Cayman by far has the worst driving I’ve ever experienced anywhere in my life. Total idiots on our roads I swear . Please increase cell phone use to on the spot 1,000 ci for gods sake
Safe to assume that Cayman is the only Caribbean country you’ve visited then.
We are not a Caribbean country. We are a country in the Caribbean. Outside influences are destroying us, quickly.
In a stunning revelation, it turns out that if you dont enforce basic traffic laws the standard of driving deteriorates. And when you spend your ever expanding RCIPS budget in other things but let your traffic division- already a small fraction of the force – be understaffed and resourced, even the limited amount of enforcement you were conducting becomes less effective. And instead of fixing either situation, whine about how drivers are reckless, irresponsible and breaking the law, whilst sort of forgetting that your job is to ensure they dont with effective deterrence or at least catch and punish those that do.
I agree with your post completely!
I know some of the innocent will suffer but don’t give Jamaican construction workers car and truck licenses for at least 5 years.
Hundreds it not thousands over the last 5 to 10 years never sat the test they paid a backhander to be able to buy the license Jamaicans Philippino and many more we are now all paying the price locals as well
I am not defending the standard of driving in general on this island. It’s absolutely appalling and that’s a fact.
However, do they not realize the desperate need for decent reliable public transport? It’s a very logical fix which is probably why it never happens.
agree. We need public transportation. Let’s face it many people out there are simply too stupid to drive a motor vehicle
Agreed! It would be a disaster to suddenly make it difficult for people to get driver’s licenses.
Immediate and drastic solutions to this problem ignore the fact there isn’t really another reliable way for people to get to work. If we had a good public transport system, we could make the driving test far harder with no serious adverse effects on workers and businesses.
How about a graduated driver license system with points tied so that persons are not immediately given a full class license and so that drivers can lose their license with an accumulation of points? Driving is a privilege, not a right.
It is often that I witness the lack of regard for the privilege.
Insurance rates will reflect the better driving habits also.
That will take enforcement.
We have all commented on this over and over and over again.
We have given comments on some very good ideas for years and the upsetting thing is NO ONE CARES !
Why ,seriously why has no sitting government or police commissioner or whoever the powers that be in these decisions not come up with a feasible plan of action. It has to change and it’s embarrassing at this stage.
It’s getting worse and same same same , nothing. Talk talk talk ,nothing.
You’re correct! I suspect it has to do some with lawmakers and others, wanting to be on the good side of the police….in case of an accident or other traffic infraction? The chances are then less of any suspicions being raised, and therefore no breathalyzer occurring, for those high enough up the chain of command.
Stop indicating right when going straight at a roundabout
lol i always wondered who did this, figured it was old timers
The Driving Schools teach this!
I learned to drive here and I’m not sure what’s so bad about it? If you’re in the left lane, it lets people know you’re not getting off at the first exit.
And then you’re meant to indicate left before you get exit as usual.
What so bad about it? You are a part of the problem. It is not any part of the highway code. Similar to people towing with four way flashers on. That is not the intended use. Same as trucks driving with flashing lights all over the place it means NOTHING! It is just ‘trendy’ and contributes to poor driving habits.
You guys are so mean about it. What am I supposed to do if that’s what I was taught by my driving instructor at 17?
100% wrong.
you should always indicate when entering and leaving a roundabout.
if going straight…the right signal lets people on the first exit know you are going around them.
You mean as a left signal would indicate your exiting? As an ‘old timer’ as someone described, I was taught roundabout lane discipline and signalling. It never included a signal of ‘no’ intention only signals of intention. Left for left, right for right. Nothing for straight ahead until you approach your exit then you indicated left. Even the NRA brochure says that! This is why they are called ‘turn’ signals and not ‘no turn signals’.
OMG. WTAF? No wonder roundabout are such a sh*t show.
The old yellow plates are now illegal, why do I still see them on the road especially on cars that more than likley have no insurance. The plates are literally screaming “Pull me over” but no response from the RCIP.
No insurance? – Impound the car.
No driver’s license? – Impound the car.
DUI? – Impound the car.
Unsafe car with no inspection? – Impound the car.
Take the trouble off the roads and lock them up behind barbed wire.
No, crush the car. Make it a serious consequence.
how about crushing of cars in front of dangerous drivers, i remember while is was in university in Liverpool they had a campaign if caught with no licence and insurance they would prosecute and crush your car, think this was for very bad driving too. Not their car tough it’ll be there mess to deal with and people will stop lending their car to idiots. Enough rental places get their cars crushed they’ll stop renting to idiots
Yes please! This is the only way things will get better.
JA police, policing a population of drivers that is now majority Jaicans. Just take a look at the cars on the road and you can tell they are being given a break from license and insurance violations.
Cayman needs to get a grip on this slackness!
Stupid can’t be fixed.
But the stupid can be marginalized by having a proper educational system for driving, more stringent driving tests, and higher fines and fine no limits.
a by-product of rcips not enforcing basic rules of the road.
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. as per the uk, do not accept jamaican driving license
3. if you cause an accident or get charged with careless driving , you must automatically re-sit driving test
and NO FINE LIMIT!
the nationalities of those involved will tell you a lot.
why do we accept the jamiacan license and the uk does not?
why don’t rcips keep track on nationalities involved????
Jam Rock strikes again!
Saunders followers dream for our future.
Having seen a FIVE car accident earlier this year that I don’t even think made the news, I have to agree with the Commissioner.
Paint “RETURN TO LEFT” in HUGE letters in every right hand lane to remind people not to dawdle in the so-called fast lane.
The dangerous weaving is caused by people from countries where returning to the left isn’t even a thing (not just Jamaica but the States and Canada too).
If people would drive at the bloody speed limit, not 10 mph under, then that would solve the swerving problem. I drive at 40 mph, where allowed, and constantly get stuck behind others driving at 30 mph driving side-by-side, with a queue of cars behind them. What do you think is going to happen? Drivers need to keep with natural flow of traffic. Then you have others that pull into the flow of traffic that going 40 mph and don’t get up to speed quick enough, they should wait until it is clear if they cannot join the flow efficiently.
You could clean up the roads quickly by allowing dash-cam footage to be submitted as evidence for a ticket. Why not?
People will say “it could be deep-faked”. Seriously? Someone is going to spend thousands deep-faking a video to give someone a $200 ticket?
I say change the law to allow this and start handing out the tickets. If deep fakes become a problem, we can deal with that then.
Let people submit the footage anonymously and give them a $50 cut of each ticket.
I’d buy a dash cam immediately and make about $1,000 a week from my five minute commute. Till everyone realised they could no longer get away with dangerous driving and stopped. Job done.
Otherwise the cost of enforcement will be in the many millions per year… and let’s be honest, will not happen.
I think the Jamaicans comments are unfair, yes a lot of Jamaicans drive like idiots, but also a lot of expats and caymanians drive drunk as skunks and the Filipinos just drive badly. If you want to stereotype be fair and stereotype everyone.
It’s the idiots from every section of life that ruin it for us law abiding folk again from every background.
Sorry, but we need to start saying it like it is. Look at those behind the wheel of speeding or recklessly driven cars. No knock on the nationality. They aren’t horrible people.
The truth is that their driving isn’t held to a high standard back home and they’re bringing poor driving habits with them.
Where are the traffic cops? From 7-7:30 from West Bay along the bypass is like a version of Mad Max it is everyman for himself. There is clearly no fear of being stopped or ticketed.
100%. I wrote to the CoP years ago to recommend they station a car at the major intersections during morning and evening rush hours, just as a reminder that police exist. I use this road daily and can go months without seeing a single police car.
same with linford, it’s our of control.
I’ve seen them there, but only during the cooler months, never in the summer, its far too hot and humid for our precious police to be out in the heat in the summer.
One way to stop it (which will never happen) is if a work permit holder is caught breaking the road laws, then deport them back to where they come from. They are hear as guests and should respect our country, but unfortunately it is like they are doing us a huge favor to come to Cayman.
and where do we depart our own to? el Salvador?
Put your phones away people!
I travel on foot. I have plenty of opportunity to look at drivers. One in five are driving whilst holding their phone.
This is CRAZY!
If you need to talk then use hands free. You do not need to type or watch videos or FaceTime. STOP. and being in a line of traffic is still not the time to pick your phone up again.
Jamaicans!!!!
Philippines and India also.
If only there were a group of people we could vet and empower to enforce traffic laws around here.
Plans to invest in technology .. which probably will go the way of the CCTV camera system. Have you heard about the broken window theory, Mr Walton? What happened to good traffic policing, checking licenses and tint, breathalysing etc?
Yup, at this point i don’t even get worried if i may be doing something wrong when i see blue lights because I know that I can be doing anything short of dragging a body behind me and they wont stop me.
At this point those blue lights just annoy me because they are so dang bright at night.
Let’s call it like it is. We have too many drivers driving like they’re still in Kingston. Every single day I see construction workers (can’t miss those highlighter green and orange shirts!) in rented Honda Fits, flying down West Bay Road like it’s a drag strip. You see them coming out of parking lots trying to get into the flow of traffic by inching the front end of their car into traffic, forcing oncoming traffic to stop to let them it! I constantly see them using the center turning land on WBR like its their own private overtaking lane. The other day a tourist was crossing WBR at a crosswalk with amber lights flashing. With traffic stopped in both directions to let them cross, a Honda Fit came flying down the center lane, didn’t stop at the flashing crosswalk and almost hit the poor tourist! They have no regard for the posted speed limit, display no courtesy to other drivers at all. Worse of all, I guarantee that most are either unqualified to drive or lack adequate insurance, if they have any at all.
RCIPS, we rarely see you on the Esterley Tibbetts or on West Bay Road. Where are the speed traps? Where are the roadblocks to check registrations and road worthiness of vehicles? If you’re not making your presence felt, no wonder there is lawlessness on the roads!
You will not see the Jamaican police troubling any of the other Jamaican crappy drivers.
True dat. Unna give a countryman a bly.
perhaps everyone should take a test on arrival and locals too that one a license – including how to; turn off full beams of a night, keeping in the left lane unless passing or turning & using indicators. Special lessons can be given at car hire companies for people that need to know the above and you give way to traffic coming from your right at roundabouts. And whilst we’re at it, stopping traffic to let someone cross the road, or letting cars out of junctions is dangerous.
Perhaps the current abysmal test standards for both vehicle (roadworthiness) and driver licensing could be brought into line with the UK test. That’ll be a good start.
Just saw a near accident with a dump truck and what looked like a CRV around 9am at the LPH roundabout that leads to Jose Gas Station. The dump truck should have been on the inner lane heading west to go around the roundabout, but was in the middle lane, then without stopping he cuts in between the orange plastic “barriers” right in front of the CRV who had to brake suddenly to avoid colliding with the dump truck.
If possible, RCIPS needs to have an officer there between 7am and 930am to not just monitor, but also to catch and issue tickets to these horrible drivers that do not have any regard for rules of the road.
Horrific is the understatement of the year. That said, I still see almost zero speed traps by RCIPs. I don’t see any officers waiting and watching at round abouts for people breaking the rules.
Step up the enforcement on the speeding and reckless driving and create thresholds for deportation of work permit holders, DUI being one of them. Speeding more than X mph over the limit should be another. Racing = deported. Wheelies on motorcycles = deported. Riding dirt bikes etc not approved for use on the street = deported.
The state of driving ability, lack of RCIP road policing is all pretty sickening at this point…just plain embarrassing!! It’s pretty fair to say it’s gotten to this point though because of a number of things i.e. corrupt Cayman licensing practices (yes, we all know), absolutely NO policing on the roads (I can’t even remember the last time I saw a RCIP roadblock breathalysing or checking licensing), there is no electronic speed ticketing infrastructure – all this money being spent by Govt on all the wrong things…shame!
I see they’ve done absolutely nothing about jake brakes either
Omg I hate listening to them!!! Idiots that cant drive but think they can!!!
I hardly ever see a police car. Have a traffic division and make them constantly drive around during peak times and peak crash areas. If there was some level of fear that you would be caught, then maybe some of the driving would change?
Also, these fancy licence plates and you aren’t pulling people over who do not have them? What about cameras to detect speeding offences. We should not have to have police officers on corners for speeding offences. Those are mail in offences in some countries now.
Empty words. There’s no enforcement, what goes in Jamaica, goes here. That’s what we’ve come to with the police. If it isn’t murder or drugs, they do not care.
This classes as news now?
Crash, rinse, repeat.
Unwieldy rules, poor enforcement, crappy DVDL databases, licenses are worthless, crapheaps on road. Take your pick and try to fix, but one at a time won’t have much effect.
Honestly, it’s too late now, you have let this driving culture go on for too long and it’s here to stay. You need proper enforcement and a points system in place yesterday. The only way to fix this is to get the bad drivers off the road, or hit them hard in their wallets. I could ticket 95% of the dick heads flying past me on the bi-pass every morning, but there is zero sign of a traffic unit. SMH.
Stop accepting driver licenced in countries such as Jamaica. Require them to all take the driving and written exam. Im sorry I am not being prejudiced its just a fact, most of the work permit jamaicans appears to have purchased their drivers licences.
Most of the native Caymanians too
We are outnumbered at least 2:1 now, and never had accident rates anything close to what we have now, which coincides with our skyrocketing population. You can have hurt feelings all you want, but this “culture” of shitty driving is recently imported.
Yes, but they don’t care. Drinking and driving with a stinking attitude has become a norm.
Become a norm? It has never not been the norm. What has changed over time are the potential consequences, and what the police are required to do. In the 70s if someone was driving erratically in the middle of the night there was no one else on the road, no one walking and few buildings or other objects to hit so it didn’t matter. If police saw you you would be stopped and taken home and could go back for your car the next day. I didn’t live those days but I’ve heard all about them. There will never be any firm enforcement until we have affordable, reliable, safe alternatives that are worth giving up the mobile safety, storage, electricity supply etc. that a vehicle offers. Police didn’t expect people to do without their cars in the past and they still don’t; they enforce when they must.