Drivers ‘smash’ record with 94 collisions in one week
(CNS): The RCIPS is reporting a significant increase in road collisions, with an average this year of 66 crashes per week rising to a record-breaking 94 per week over the last fortnight. There are serious collisions regularly on Cayman’s roads and nine people have died this year in six separate fatal crashes.
Most of the collisions over the last few weeks were minor or damage-only. However, given the significant increase, the police are asking people to help them tackle the terrible driving standards by submitting dashcam footage.
Many of the growing number of crashes that have been reported can be attributed to offences like speeding, careless driving or DUI, with some resulting in prosecution and fines. In a significant number the drivers fled the scene of the accident, the RCIPS said.
Around 70% of all collisions reported so far this year have taken place in George Town. Police said the West Bay Road, North Sound Road, Esterley Tibbetts Highway and Shamrock Road are some of the most notorious for collisions and speeding.
As the Christmas Season approaches, the RCIPS is urging motorists not to drink and drive, and have a plan to get home following any festivities. Drivers should reduce their speed, put down mobile phones and give one hundred percent attention to driving.
As usual, the police will partner with the National Drug Council and Compass Media for the Arrive Alive 345 Campaign to promote their seasonal road safety message. This means stressing the importance of making good decisions and highlighting the severe community impact when motorists make poor driving decisions.
Chief Superintendent Brad Ebanks said the police hope that as the holiday season progresses, motorists and other road users will adopt better driving behaviour.
“For the remainder of the year, our aim is to ensure that everyone remains unharmed and safe,” he said. “To this end, we ask that the public assist us by being our eyes and ears; send us dashcam footage that captures poor driving behaviour so that we may tailor our response to the occurrences on our roadway.”
Members of the public who submit dashcam footage to the police can also assist in prosecuting offenders by providing a statement and assisting with the traffic investigation. Footage can also be submitted anonymously to the RCIPS website.
The RCIPS thanked members of the community who continue to ensure their safety and the safety of others by making good driving decisions and driving defensively. This means driving cautiously, following the rules of the road, and being aware of their surroundings so they can identify and avoid dangerous road situations.
See here for more tips on safe driving.
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Speed cameras have been in use in Canada for over 2 decades now. Why the hesitation on deployment here, afraid they might catch too many VIPs/politicians? Me thinks so.
If you’re driving below the speed limit on a four-lane motorway (that’s two lanes going one direction, and two going the other direction), keep left so faster moving traffic can overtake you. If you’re in the right lane driving under the speed limit, your blocking traffic. This causes the speed demons to zigzag through traffic to get around you. Nothing wrong with driving below the speed limit. Just do it in the left lane please. Thank you.
Cement trucks are frequent culprits in this activity, cruising along the right-hand lane at much less than 40 mph. Their drivers need some education.
a by-product of rcips not enforcing basic rules of the road.
free simple solution to terrible driving standards:
1. treble all drng offence fines
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
free money making solution:
bring in private run traffic police(monitored and regulated) 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.
will keep asking:
my dashcam records hundred of incidents of dangerous driving every week.
why do rcips not want this footage?
why would a police department not want clear evidence of people breaking the law?
if i had video footage of robberies, would they want the footage?
will wait for answers
One quick answer – NO they do not want your footage as they will solve things the old fashioned way!
I understand that the old yellow licence plates are now illegal, yet I still see them all over the road in Cayman. RCIP has no interest in traffic stops.
these are the crashes that are REPORTED. the true number is actually far higher.
The RCIPS are useless. The Linford P in the morning is insane, never see a cop. Whoever is running the Police Farce should either be removed, or asked to give a damn about traffic, because right now, they don’t. But AGAIN, nothing will change 🙁
Simple answer is that they have to many Jamaicans in almost every department so they are protecting their “brethren”. Our elected representatives seem real happy about it so this garbage will never stop.
Translation: The RCIPS is recommending to ride donkeys during the holiday season especially around some well known establishments on the eastern side of the island for fears of collisions with light poles , excavators, wildlife and breathalyzers romping in the wild around Lovers Wall !
I’m not surprised, i haven’t licensed my truck in 3 years (cant afford to) and I’m never worried about police pulling me over. I haven’t received a ticket of any kind in 10 years that wasn’t handed to me at a road block.
Everyone knows where the RCIP speed traps are, everyone knows what time they run them, and everyone knows how to avoid them.
Look I get it, the RCIP is understaffed to handle the sheer influx of people to the island, but good god guys… Those little flashing lights on top of your cars can in fact be turned on at any time, like when you see someone using a roundabout incorrectly, or speeding, or driving recklessly or not wearing a seat belt, or pulling out into traffic without indicating, or talking on cell phone while driving…. anyway point is, you can issues tickets at locations other than a roadblock.
You see, if it’s not licensed, it’s not inspected. As per terms of your insurance, you won’t be covered. You’re part of the problem, encouraged by lax enforcement.
I agree with everything you said except that the RCIP are understaffed. We have one of the highest number of cops per capita in the entire world.
There are approximately 350,000 road accidents in the UK each year. Divide that by 1,000 to approximate for the population of UK, then by 365, and that would be one per day in Cayman, not the average of 66.
What is different, given the traffic laws are near identical? One key point is DUI. Another is the near omni-presence of speed cameras in the UK.
In Cayman DUI is endemic as it is socially acceptable (when is the last time you told a friend you would not let them go home and took their keys? Do you know that as few as two small beers puts you over the limit?)
That needs to change if we want to save lives on the road.
Next, we have so few roads, it is so, so simple to install road traffic cameras at all major junctions (certainly at all traffic lights) and along major roads. These will both be for speeding and for running red lights.
What is stopping us from insisting to our politicians that this be done?
It’s like this. Cameras and ANPR exist here. The cameras, when not recording like a HD potato, aren’t actively monitored. The DVDL records are usually badly out of date or just plain wrong. Postal summons will not work. We have people here with licenses issued under proper test conditions, whilst others got theirs after collecting tokens on a soda drink. The majority of idiots who drive are usually poorly educated, ergo, try to tell an idiot that wearing a seatbelt in a car could well save their life. Crapheaps, the road are clogged with them; missing lights, faulty exhausts that make a car sound like a WW2 fighter, cracked windscreens, tyres down to thread levels etc.
We get this because enforcement is beyond terrible. Pulling over a few speeders on ETH or LPH isn’t solving anything.
These points help at all?
Nobody stops at red traffic lights, they race through on amber, nobody knows how to use a roundabout and everybody just pulls out of junctions without checking and absolutely zero indication. Plus no concentration as everybody is on their phone. Police – nowhere to be seen ever!
Precious few stop to yield as required to oncoming inbound at roundabouts too. They just go when they feel they’ve waiting long enough, or if driving a truck, they’ll pull out in front of oncoming because they are bigger, daring you to hit them. No indication of any intentions.
Simple solution. NRA just needs to put those flexi bollards all over the roads so you can’t change lanes. just get in one lane and off you go.
If the police would remove a lot of these drivers from a certain island country along with their vehicles it would make a big change to the crappy driving we have on the roads. This attitude of pushing always to the front is one major problem because it seems they can not drive at the posted limit, maintain proper spacing between vehicles, nor stay in lanes. More than once I have had them come to the light by the cricket field just to go into the left turn lane, then swing around and fly up the road because of the red light. Learn some patience and manners along with proper driving skills will go a long way. But unfortunately we have to many of the same country people in police, government and sympathizers in our elected representatives so nothing at all will ever change.
You would be surprised. I do not understand where the xenophobia on this island stems from, and this is coming from a Gen Z half-Caymanian. Every little issue this country faces is blamed on ‘our neighbors’ or ‘people from a certain island.’ The amount of reckless driving I have seen from so-called Generational Caymanians, especially those in my age demographic, would shock you. But I guess those people are ghosts and don’t exist, right? You lot are insufferable sometimes, I swear. Everyone on this island drives horribly, and it’s not limited to just one island that the older generation of xenophobic Caymanians despise so much
Guess all these buy a work permit folks shown at the wonderful LG project are from somewhere else also? Fact is that when Bush gave them all status, they have built up the island with more of their pals from home.
why is Cayman so hell bent on smashing demoralizing records ? – there’s this now pillaring the push to 100,000…
‘Driving’ has a different meaning for many in my beloved Cayman. Sadly!
Everyone driving in cayman should be forced to take a UK standard theory and practical driving test. Cayman follows the UK highway code. The accident rate here is 35 times the rate per person in the uk. The biggest thing i see is not indicating at roundabouts, or incorrectly indicating right as you approach a roundabout but go straight on. Also not using the inner most available lane on highways. All three offenses should result in a loss of your license.
Tests won’t change habits and culture. We all see these idiots daily and they simply do not care about the rules of the road nor anyone but themselves.
Lackadaisical enforcement has consequences.
Although it’s largely based on the UK Highway Code, technically and legally speaking, Cayman follows its own road code: https://www.dvdl.gov.ky/documents/Road-Code-2012-1-2021-02-25-02-10-56.pdf
As we all know though in reality, anything goes it seems, even with police.
With respect to the indicating right when going straight this is unfortunately included in the ‘Drive safely in Cayman’ book, it’s also taught by most of the driving instructors, possibly because it’s incorrectly noted in the book. This was written by a driving instructor and is different to the UK and the NRA and DVDL road code. Can you guess it’s also a pet peeve?
Safety messages are a waste of time and completely ineffective.They are however much easier to implement than the solution which will bring down serious accidents considerably.The police need to get out on the roads and man speed checks,this will result in numerous prosecutions, large fines and a lot less accidents.
Exactly. The lawless don’t care about campaigns or flags on the roadsides.
They know they will continue to get away with it.
and need UK standard vehicle licensing, emissions and driving tests. I reckon 50% of the cars on the road are unlicensed and/or uninsured and/or unroadworthy driven by equally unlicensed and/or unfit drivers. Fix that and perhaps things will improve.
It’s not the driving test, it’s the missing enforcement branch. The very unlikely prospect of expensive tickets enables current lax driving standards, whereas real ticket accumulation, court, and/or loss of license (and by extension possibly WP/job) has a way of focusing the mind and accelerating learning. We are already paying hundreds of full-time officers to do cover their normal scope of duties, including traffic.
More than a decade of inadequate or inept policing. A near total abandonment of standards, or any meaningful enforcement. What did they think was going to happen?
But we have nice new purple flags to make it better!!!!
The Jamaican police force will see nothing wrong with the driving habits of Jamaicans.
Traffic laws will only be enforced if the majority of police are from England.
Until the RCIP abandon the ‘fire brigade’ model of policing that they appear to have adopted nothing will change. Given the size of the organization their visibility is woeful. I had high hopes that with a new deputy Commissioner things may start to improve and that he’d bang a few heads together to get the staff performing, but it seems to be the old same old story.
Let’s take these campaigns as a reminder that a lot of these accidents are symptoms of larger issues in transportation that span beyond personal responsibility.
The lack of reliable public transport and the taxi cartel responsible for exorbitant prices, the push back against any Cayman version of Uber (but somehow can’t find the time to enforce the illegal Island Drive app) all contribute to people making dumb decisions.
Inebriated people will not spend half of what they made during the day trying to get home.
Carting out the purple ribbons and an all night bus once a year is a joke when government has spent hundreds of thousands on trips and consultants suggesting a full multi-million dollar overhaul.
Remember this report from Deloitte last year?
https://www.caymancompass.com/2023/11/09/cayman-needs-a-modern-government-run-public-bus-service-report-says/
I fully agree with the public transport issue, but it has nothing to do with …. Just a few examples this past week:
Reversing backwards in traffic
Pulling a U-turn when both illegal and no indication
80 mph past Spotts Beach running down the hill
Le Mans hour at Hurley’s , just insane speeding.
70 mph past the South Sound board-walk…at 7:00 am
A Cyber Truck, doing what looked like 90 mph on Esterly Tibbets Highway.
Anyone can add their own experiences and comment.
Someone has planted a Honda sapling off the road down Fairbanks. Currently wedged between fence and tree. One day, it’ll grow into a crashed CRV, or Pilot!
not surprising with how some of these freaks drive. one overtook me in the 50mph near midland acres and couldnt make it in front of me because of an on-coming vehicle, instead of slowing down and slotting in behind me, this driver chose to go to the OPPOSITE SHOULDER to get around both me and the on-coming vehicle. absolutely insane, the common denominator is that they all come from that other island 300 miles away that starts with a J…..
Not true. Plenty lawless drivers not from there and plenty of locals doing it too in addition to them.
The standard of driving from one particular country is lawless a bit like their……..you know what you know the rest
If only we had some enforcement. If only being guilty of a DUI meant you got deported. It only we had traffic officers all over the place.
If only.
The deaths on our roads will continue until eventually the roads are safe because we are all dead. Simple.
Why when the labor minister does it all the time.
And these are just the reported accidents. I’ve been hit once in each of the last 3 years (been driving here 30+ years & never had an accident that’s my fault). I didn’t report these to the police as they were ‘fender benders’ & thankfully the other driver accepted responsibility & had insurance.
Everyday I have to take evasive action to avoid careless (drunk?) drivers, speeding drivers, drivers cutting lanes/pulling out without stopping/running red lights/ going in the wrong lane around roundabouts etc etc.
How many were ticketed or charged with dangerous driving each month?
The police need to stop these drivers & ticket them. Of course that also means the police have to stop doing these ‘driving without due care & attention/dangerous driving manoeuvres’ themselves.
Time to employ some Canadian and UK traffic cops dedicated to nothing but catching the imbeciles who use Cayman’s roads. No mercy, no bly, no corruption. And backed up properly by the courts…….and then I woke up smelt the Colombian
Where were the drivers responsible for the smashes first qualified to drive? Statistics please RCIP. Then we can make a sound determination as to whether we should continue to accept certain foreign driving qualifications. The UK has made its choices as to suitable licenses. Shouldn’t we?
Speed and idiot drivers with no worries of getting a ticket.
The police need to be visible and ACTUALLY pull over cars that don’t use their indicators, that speed past them, that have a crew full of people in the bed of their pickups, that tow unsecure loads. Lawlessness leads to people feeling they can get away with anything and for the most part they are correct. We are approaching the lovely Christmas breezes and cool weather, which will of course bring out the police traps with their guns, I’ve already seen it. AND typically, this type of policing out of their air conditioned vehicles ONLY happens at this time of year. Once it’s hot and humid again, they disappear. It’s like clockwork. Shameful really!
No police presence on the road that’s why.
Dat a lie. I’ve seen them not indicating on a few roundabouts.
The public urges the RCIPS to start delivering a traffic deterrence. Put Andre Tahal on notice. Let’s see his weekly performance stats – the actual stand-alone deterrence ticket count for those not written after a serious incident. Can’t be many. Traffic officers in big North American cities write over 50 tickets per shift, each.