Police chief warns illegal riders Cayman has had enough
(CNS): Police seized six illegal motorbikes around the island yesterday and arrested two riders who failed to stop for police at traffic checks. The RCIPS has said it is focused on putting a stop to young men misusing the bikes and placing the road-using public in danger. “The island has had enough of the nuisance and danger of these illegal bikes, and we are bringing order to this situation in as safe a manner as possible,” said Commissioner of Police Derek Byrne. During the weekend operations, officers took four dirt bikes, one modified motorcycle and another illegal motorbike from men riding illegally.
Yesterday evening (27 December) at about 8:20pm a rider on an orange motorbike with no registration plates failed to stop for officers conducting a roadblock at the Yacht Club roundabout in West Bay. Although travelling at high speed, he was followed by officers to the Island Heritage roundabout, where he abandoned the bike and tried to flee on foot, but he was quickly apprehended by the police. The 31-year-old man from George Town was arrested for dangerous driving and driving whilst not qualified.
Meanwhile, around the same time at the same road check police officers manning the operation spotted another rider with no registration plates on his dirt bike. Police followed him in a patrol car with blue lights flashing and siren on but he failed to stop until he reached home in West Bay. The 20-year-old rider was also arrested for dangerous driving and lost his bike to the police.
“Those who flout the law and evade police only make matters worse for themselves and can expect to be arrested,” the commissioner warned.
The other four illegal bikes were seized in various traffic operations, including one in Bodden Town.
Police have also stated that a bike was used by the gunmen in the latest firearms violence to escape the scene at Fete Nightclub, one of two Christmas-weekend shootings.
This is a sport if you haven’t realized
They do this on Walkers Road and South Church Street too. I saw DOZENS of bikes go past my apartment a couple of weeks ago like a bunch of Hells Angels. Someone WILL die sooner or later and the odds are higher than normal that it will be a school child since these people seem to think any and every road is there for them to race or parade about. This HAS TO STOP. It is dangerous, and offensive to our culture. Where did this behaviour emerge from anyway? When did all of these people decide that becoming a loose gang of outlaws was a good idea? And whenever these riders are youths, it’s just another indictment of this society, parenting, schooling, everything. There are so many, many young people here whose parents were addicts, adulterers, abusers, basically just entirely self interested people who had children because their wife they beat wanted children. Part of the problem is in one generation we went from university being an earned privilege to being a commonplace and expected step in life. So you now have uneducated parents who would never have gotten anywhere near a university (or a job requiring true industry and accountability) who don’t even understand their country, let alone how to prepare their children for it. So their children remain children and ride their bikes! Simple as that. The roots of these problems run very deep. Get the bikes and then let’s get digging at the roots. Only way.
South Sound rd every night….. try there RCIPS
Should be easy, evidence is published online. Just search for #345bikelife on Instagram and it’s all there for the RCIPS convenience
I will prophesize the next murders to come, will be drive by shooting like in the rest of the world on motorbikes?
May I suggest draining the gas and removing the wheels on the confiscated bikes whilst they are in custody? If you do not, chances are someone will come by and steal them all from behind the station. I’m serious.
Exiting onto Savannah High Street recently, after 7.30 pm, when it was quite dark, I flicked my window down so I could hear the traffic. Just as I was about to accelerate across the road, a boy without a helmet and wearing black, passed in front of me riding a dirt bike, without lights and without reflectors. He was doing a wheelie at 40 mph.
This suicidal and murderous boy has no idea that he avoided his own death by just half a second, and because he would have smashed into the driver’s side of my car, he might well have killed me as well. This is why these scofflaws must be taken off the roads. We law-abiding drivers and citizens demand it. As a matter of urgency, the regulations must be changed regarding the import of these bikes. Any rider caught on the roads uninsured, unregistered and without a licence, should have his bike crushed by a bulldozer, as they do in New York. Enough is enough. I speak as someone who came very close to being killed by one.
A couple of years ago an unregistered, homemade trailer became detached from the car towing it and killed an approaching driver. Suddenly the Police were talking about “cracking down” on unregistered and un-roadworthy trailers, but as always, the “crackdown” evaporated, and now there are twice as many unregistered and unsafe trailers on the roads, many of them used in a commercial capacity.
Next stop Aspiration Drive/Fairbanks please. Up and down the road all night between 6pm and 9pm.
I recently was house sitting near the ICCI campus and the dirt bike treachery runs 24/7 there on Hirst Rd. All night and all day the noise and dangerous driving continues!
Would be a shame if there was a little diesel spillage along there.
Heh, heh, heh..,
So wait, this means no more #345bikelife???? 🙁
One can only hope
Anon 5:10pm that is just how they want to see things and are conditioned to deal with such situations by our colonial power .But like gang violence on our streets and domestic abuse in our homes is on the rise, which indicates deep seated social and economic problems, this motorbike menace unfortunately is yet also another indicator of such problems. Many in government and our private sector especially those highly educated and experienced overseas hired experts are well aware of such problems from their own home countries. Yet never speak or do very little to help with such problems,because some are indirectly or directly contributing to these social problems and it doesn’t serve their purposes or it benefits them and their friends and family directly to continue status quo. So we are left to deal with this problem from a law enforcement stance which relieves all of this enormous burden. So we think but the UK nor our foreign friends are here to fix our social problems they are here to police or exploit them in order to protect and enhance their own economic and stategic interest. We need to take care of our own people social problems and intrest and stop looking after other people who come here merely to advance their own economic and social status.
Complete tripe, I suppose you would rather live in Jamaica where there is no colonial power to exploit the law abiding citizens .
Expats have to obey the license laws, pay their strata fees or rent, etc. because they can suffer real consequences.
Stop warning and just keep on doing!
While you are at it, can you please train your officers to spot illegal trailers – you know the ones made out of 4 pieces of ply wood put on a steel frame – no license plates and break lights!?!?!?
I’m not even sure if brake lights are required here. I’ve seen hundreds of trailed without.
I hope the police clears East-West Arterial and Hirst Road next!!! With school starting back next week, there should be on average 3 motorbikes making the walking/biking lane on the arterial their personal overtaking lane every morning.
Hirst Road is a speed track by motor bikes any given day………
Sigh….I remember Cayman before motorcycles were allowed, then came a politician…nuff said.
Its about time the police take these riders seriously, they are a danger to other law abiding drivers and pedestrians. The road along Newlands in Savanah and Leeward Drive should be the next focus.
There is one idiot that uses Abby Way as his personal racetrack. No helmet and no concern for children or any other road user.
Come East. RCIP can park in my driveway and wait for these idiots any Sunday afternoon. They better have a big truck though cause they gonna get more than 4-5 of these vroom vrooms. Line them up on the road and steamroll the lot of them. Then the owners can have them back.
They lazy and dont wanna do there jobs… none of the bikes from Bodden Town was involved in no shooting.
RCIP, you do not get it. What Cayman has had enough of is your failure to enforce the law without fear or favor. The problem did not magic itself out all of a sudden. It is a direct result of decades of you observing our descent into increasing lawlessness and doing nothing! Now enforce the laws. All of them and all the time! The law abiding citizenry are tired of your failure to do your job!
it really took a new police chief to get these idiots off the road???? seriously
You’re right 4:08p.
And you can be sure that one of those starving lawyers will be on it like a vulture citing the edicts of the never-leaving Henderson that police should not pursue suspects.
Cool. I do agree with the earlier post in that the bikes themselves are probably not illegal just not roadworthy, there is a difference. Saying that it is illegal to import a Mini Moke vehicle though for some odd reason. .
While I fully recognize the nuisance that these bikes cause, I’m confused why they are referred to as “illegal”
They are not manufactured in Cayman, so they are imported. As such it seems to me that they’re imported quite legally. So they are not “illegal”
So, are they supposed to be only for off-road usage, meaning they are used “illegally” on public roads? If so, then they should be described as such. Perhaps I could suggest “Illegally-used dirt bikes”, or something along that line.
Knowing Cayman’s “powers-that-be”, there will be a knee-jerk reaction and ban them, meaning they will not be allowed to be imported. Of course, that will not help with those that are already on-island until they are worn out or damaged beyond repair.
Perhaps a smarter approach from CIG’s “powers-that-be” (RCIPS, Legal Department, etc) is to allow the use of these bikes for dirt bike events, on unused Crown land, or to encourage or assist someone to open a dirt bike track. Another outlet for the energy of these bike owners and a potential sport locally.
Just imagine if you’re the owner of such a bike. You were allowed to import it, Government collected it’s import duty from you but you’re not allowed to license it to ride on public roads – but there is nowhere else to ride it. What would you do??
Yet now the same Government is threatening to make them illegal. Typical “idiotic “no-plan” approach of our authorities!!
Except that the purchaser took the first step by importing it in the knowledge that they would not be allowed to license it to ride on public roads and nowhere else to ride it. Typical “idiotic “no-plan” approach of our criminal, entitlement minded public!
P.S. “it’s” is always contraction of “it is”, not a possessive form of “it”.
Going for the thumbs down, all time record!
You have got to be mad and clearly insane. These nuisances brake the law and put all of us in danger and these are your suggestions, absolutely ludicrous. May be one should collide in your vehicle being unlicensed and tell me how you feel. GREAT JOB RCIPS.
Those of us who are most threatened with injury or death from these idiots are pedestrians and trained, lawful, serious two-wheel riders.
Could illegal be no license no lights and no insurance?
Do we really believe that if we spend hundred of thousands on a dirt tract that all of sudden we won’t have any more illegal bikes on the road.
Private sector logic again.
Please return to changing the dates on those offering documents.
They are illegal because they in most cases aren’t outfitted for the road ie indicators, they are licensed or insured so they are illegally on the road.
If you are choosing to debate the use of the word “illegal” to describe dirtbikes driven on the road with no license plates or insurance, it seems like you might be missing a pretty big point
If a bike with no lights or number plate is used on the road, then it’s illegal. Simples
Whilst your argument is well formed, isn’t it up to the importer of the bike to have figured out what they can and can’t do with it? I have a friend who owns a dirt bike, but then he has family with land that he can ride on, He didn’t buy the bike hoping he would be able to ride it somewhere, he bought it knowing where he could ride it. Much the same as a trampoline isn’t illegal, but it would be pretty stupid for someone in an apartment to buy one, same principal, nowhere to legally use the thing! So do you ban the item that can be used legally, create a space where they can be used legally, or just leave it be, hoping there can’t be that many dumb people out there?
I agree with Anonymous 5:10pm . Government should not alow things to be imported , without having stipulations in the Law that pertaining to it’s use / purposes.
There’s some good suggestion in his / her comment to the dirt bike problem . I think that the owners of the bikes or someone could get creative and solve this problem to where it would be beneficial to riders and the Islands.
But riding these bikes on the streets illegal and endangering your life and others , are not going fix the problems .
Happy new year.
Government DOES have stipulations in the law about their use…these idiots just prefer to ignore the law.
PLEASE READ THE TEXT before posting. They are illegal because either the drivera is disqualified or the motorcycle is not licensed thus it is illegal
Great work, all great until the first one crashes being pursued by the police. Then watch the pats on the back stop.
I’ll give the police a high five if that happens!
Terrific start. Now keep it up until the problem ceases as the thugs get tired of being harassed and losing their bikes. Then move on to illegal window tints in cars.
Are they described as “thugs” because they are black? If these biker are a priority for RCIPS no wonder crime is on the increase!
This is a crime – or will it only be a crime when they wheely in to someone’s windshield?
No, not because they are black but because they are indeed thugs, 7:34.
“Thugs” come in all sizes, shapes and colors. It is a mindset, not a racial or ethnic description – stop race baiting! Didn’t we have quite enough of that the last 8 years up north??
Where is there any reference to colour? If anything, it’s you that is prejudiced by assuming that all illegal bike riders are black. No – they are described as thugs because they are breaking the law. In the same way that I am going to assume you are an idiot, without any preconception as to your colour!
Tell it like it is, brother Jotnar!! Thugs, idiots and jackasses come in all shapes, sizes and colours! They also seem to congregate here on CNS!!
Good. Get all these bikes, put em in a pile and burn em to a crisp!
you are an IDIOT..To make such a comment.young people need an place to ride,why dont you get it.
No, our young people need manners, education, jobs, home training, respect, tertiary education, proper parenting, nurturing adults and prayer!
The time they spend riding bikes up and down the streets they should be home studying or helping their father in the yard or fixing the house!
This crap about “boredom” is all laziness – these boys probably never washed a dish or took out trash in their damn lives but then want to run around “breeding up sexy gyals” and can’t change a pamper!
Disgusting, priorities in this country suck from top to bottom.
“Young people need a place to ride” – go home and help your frigging mother with the laundry!
A damn shame.
Try Cuba.
young people need to educate themselves and play sports…do something useful!
Oh please this has been going on for years. I seen motor bikes being ridden dangerously by police cars and never have they been pulled over or attempted to be pulled over. Weaving in and out of traffic, popping wheelies, no plates..all the time…lets see how they are going to stop this. They can’t even stop the tint on the vehicles which some are illegal…
Never in years past have I witnessed the blatancy of these bike riders who have emerged on our streets in unprecedented numbers this year – the RCIPS must start somewhere and I am proud to see them taking action!
There are days when these twits zoom by when I am driving my precious cargo (my children) and I can only pray that no accidents happen!
Keep at it RCIPS! Let’s clean our streets for 2017!
#bikelife345 lolololol wonder if we shall get YouTube footage showing these, ahem, fully grown ‘men’ getting busted???
When driving back from East End yesterday one of these riders flew up behind me and overtook me and the car in front into oncoming traffic, with no regard for anyone’s safety. A few seconds later it was nice to see two police bikes on the chase – however, having pulled in to let them pass they only seemed to be giving pursuit at around 50mph and promptly gave up the chase – probably on safety grounds as the rider was behaving so dangerously.
The next time one of these miscreants comes flying up behind me on one wheel they will get a reality inducing “brake check!” My 5,000 pound vehicle will be scarcely scratched and there will be one less mindless idiot on the road! I have been faced with several near head-on collisions as a result of people trying to avoid these dimwits! Enough is enough!!
Good, keep it up guys
Dear RCIPS, can you please send someone to Crystal Harbour North and deal with a crazy teenager riding on one wheel with no licence (unless a big 345 in white square box is his custom licence plate), helmet or muffler at all times? Thank you
Can we please check to make sure the riders are in fact Caymanian, and if not, deport them immediately?
How about deporting them even if they are caymamian. One less problem to deal with regardless of where they are from.
We were delighted to see the RCIPS finally giving an intelligent and coordinated chase last night and are glad to hear that some arrests resulted. Police need to have officers at regular fixed intervals on Esterley Tibbitts and West Bay Road from Yacht Club to Hyatt roundabout to apprehend the ritual commuting stunt riders and opportunistic drag racers. It would be nice if the Governor’s residence RCIPS gate detail could act as a lookout and radio patrolling officers their observations instead of remaining mute. As police are beginning to figure out, more than one car is required to coordinate these arrests and an all-hands approach with public assistance would help.
Thank you for your armchair advice keyboard warrior. I am sure they never thought of this.
Well if they had they have not demonstrated it before.
Thank you!!