Cops hunt driver in head-on crash
(CNS): The police are appealing to the public to help them find a driver who fled from the hospital in an attempt to evade police, after causing a head-on collision when he drove on the wrong side of the road Sunday night. At around 8:15pm, the man, who was driving a white Chevy Equinox, drove at high speed towards the Yacht Drive roundabout, heading south in the northbound lane of the Esterley Tibbetts Highway towards oncoming traffic.
Officers on patrol at the location set off in pursuit with sirens and blue lights, but in the interest of public safety stopped the chase in the Safe Haven area. According to a press release, the officers had lost sight of the car at that point so they returned to West Bay.
However, soon afterwards a call was made to 911 about a head-on smash on the West Bay Road near the Margaritaville resort. It was confirmed that the same Chevy Equinox had smashed into a white Chevy Silverado truck, causing front end damage to both vehicles involved..
The driver of the Equinox, who appeared to have been injured, was taken by ambulance to the Cayman Islands Hospital for treatment, but soon after arrival he refused treatment and fled from the hospital before police arrived. However, his vehicle was recovered as evidence by the officers in attendance.
The 47-year-old driver of the Silverado truck was unhurt, but he was given a roadside breath test, which revealed he was over the legal limit. He was arrested for DUI and has since been bailed.
Officers made the public appeal late Wednesday evening for help finding the driver after efforts to locate him in relation to this and other driving offences failed.
Anyone with information regarding this incident is encouraged to contact the Traffic and Roads Policing Unit at 649-6254 or George Town Police Station at 949-4222.
Anonymous tips can be provided to the RCIPS Confidential Tip Line at 949-7777 or the police website. Tips can also be submitted anonymously via the Miami-based call centre of Crime Stoppers at 800-8477(TIPS), or online.
.
Can we please stop fantasizing that there is a “Safe Haven Area”, since there is no such place. The former 220 acre Safe Haven Development was sold to Mike Ryan’s Fujigmo a decade ago, and is now Dragon Bay, acquired by DRCL, via the NRA land-swap for five years now. That entire area is no longer a crown leasehold, and hasn’t been for some time. It is also private property, not public parkland, with posted signage to that effect.
So if you are ever stopped by the police and likely to be arrested, refuse to give them ID, say you are extremely unwell and need to be taken to hospital immediately, and leg it once you get there because they wont bother sending someone with you or establishing your ID before waving you goodbye?
Pretty much!!
Our idiot drivers have now taken to using turn lanes as Express lanes around traffic. God help the poor soul changing into that lane to turn from the opposite direction. You can witness that every afternoon from in front of DMS Broadcasting offices all the way to the ALT roundabout.
And WB road. A nightmare at times especially from Seven Mile Shops to KFC.
Happened to me recently. Was able to speak to the perp when we reached our common destination and was roundly cussed off for my trouble. Perp was female btw.
Sundays two hours before sunset and two hours after, you take your life into your hands to be on the road.
This poor fella in the truck who got hit by the runaway driver turned out to be DUI… Boo Hoo.
Here’s a hint, at that time of day, EVERYONE is!
Two weeks ago as I passed the speed indicator sign (43mph) on Linford Pearson going east, as I prepared to move into the right lane to make my turn on Old Crewe Road, two cars in a street race roared past me easily doing 80.
Had I been distracted in any way prior to that attempted lane change, or if I was feeling my way home after a brunch, all three vehicles would have been destroyed and very likely several fatalities.
Police need to have a greater presence on the roads especially the know speeding spots during this witching hour.
If you need extra dollars to pay for the coverage, send someone who can write tickets down to the Hospital Rd Smith Rd 4 way “maybe slow down a little” sign, any morning between 5 and 7. You will make a fortune.
Thank goodness for the eric bush electronic license plates… Oh wait like the eric bush CCTV, they don’t work.
Bit like Eric Bush really. Very expensive, sounds great on paper, used to to make it look like government is doing something, doesn’t actually work and is generally a complete waste of resources.
2.00pm Are you talking about Air Miles Eric, cohort of the Premier?. He is grounded now poor chap, I feel sorry for him, no more business in business class, sipping champagne.
Sure he is still sipping champagne tho – not a bad salary he’s on, and then you get all those bonuses for saving the country from covid 😉
Still waiting for my new plate.
Full marks to the police for recovering his vehicle as evidence, a big improvement on the cell phone evidence in the murder case.
Well it was just laying there dead.
2.43pm Did they breathalise it?.
Breathalise it? Nah. It wasn’t breathing.
another glorious day for the rcips…
surely time for more awards and pay rises franz????
uh-oh spaghettio’s again from our police farce.
We are supposed to help the police find a driver and we don’t have a photo or description, artist rendition, license plate number, or name.
Does the police know who they are looking for? If not, then stating that would also help.
When this driver is found, they should throw the book at him.
Lawless, reckless maniac endangering the lives of other drivers, Pedestrians, the Police and anyone else in the car with him.
Just the kind of person that has no business being behind the wheel. Take his license away. Once he’s out of jail, he can ride the bus.
Driving is a privilege. Not a right.
you are right but he will likely walk free due to police incompetence….
Of course, it will depend on who he is.
You really can’t make this stuff up. The police see a crazy car driving the wrong way on the big 4 lane highway and “set off in pursuit.” (I wonder what side of the road the police were on?)Then as the crazy car disappears over the horizon, the police give up and go back to WB! WTF, why did they even try then? Do they not have radios, are they the only police car on the island, are they not curious about whether there may be a big crash ahead where they could help out? What was so important back in WB that they just turned around and stopped looking for the crazy car? Then the same crazy car has a head on collision on WB Road, now driving the wrong way on a DIFFERENT big road, Somehow, the crazy car driver gets taken to the hospital before any police arrive, because I guess Cayman’s only police car is back in WB taking care of whatever it was that caused them to give up following the crazy car to start with. Therefore, the crazy car driver was free to take off from the hospital because no police showed up there either, apparently due to Cayman’s only police car still being back in WB (see above). Then…….nothing. Three days later, the police put out a request to the public for help finding this crazy car driver but, judging from this article, they do not have a name or description because I guess Cayman’s only police car finally showed up at the wreck and were too busy arresting the victim in the other vehicle who, inevitably, turned out to be driving drunk himself. And somehow none of this seems surprising these days.
I’m sorry, what was your point ?
The point is….. The Grand Cayman Police force sucks!
I felt the futility as I wrote it.
2 weeks ago, Police are alleged to have chased a car that ended up crashing into a house in West Bay and a young man was killed in the crash: ARRRRGH! POLICE SHOULD NOT CHASE PEOPLE. ARRRGH!
In this case, Police see the guy is driving like a mad man and don’t chase for safety reasons: ARRRGH! WHY DIDN’T THEY CHASE HIM? ARRRGH!
Everyone is an expert.
Following is not chasing. Hard to see why they didn’t continue or at least radio ahead to another car.
Yes, because it’s so simple. I don’t think you’re aware of how thinly spread police units are.
We likely have close to the highest number of police per capita in the world!
There are supposedly 400 policemen on the island, they can’t be all that thinly spread.
Gee, I wonder how many they let drive. (?)
We have a $200,000,000 annual policing budget for 60,000 residents, mostly on an island 20x1mi, and >400 officers. We paid millions of dollars to acquire somewhat antique Motorola radios for the purpose of enabling some basic 2 or 3 point containment strategies. If our Antillean cops are still relying on their Digicel pre-paid, and/or not on patrol to assist the community (their patrons), or their other officers (their colleagues), then there are a bunch of rotten people that must be terminated for cause.
LOL at the downvotes. You’re literally downvoting the truth. 400 cops, of which a minority are frontline officers.
They are thinly spread. That’s a fact.
If WB, GT have more than 4 calls for service, you’d be lucky to have instant backup.
Yes, it’s a mess, but you armchair cops are not grounded in reality.
Police should do due diligence. It’s not that hard to safely pursue a car and then continue in the same direction and patrol the vicinity to possibly find the car. But, alas, the RCIPS only does below bare minimum work. 11:46 correctly laid out the story and how ineffective our police are.
Actually in both cases the cops say they discontinued the chase. Just no one believes them in the first case given how quickly they arrived on the scene. We believe them in the second case because apparently they didn’t arrive until after the driver was on his way to hospital – or am I being wildly naive in imaging that no traffic cop would allow a driver who had fled a police car and caused an accident to be taken by an ambulance to hospital without ensuring there was a policeman on hand to stop him escaping when got there?
Well gahh-lee mister pirate, nobody is perfect! Win some, lose some, you know.
If it’s his vehicle, then they know who he is and he’ll eventually have to surface.
If it’s not his vehicle, let owner of vehicle know that they’re legally on the hook too. They’ll cough him up.
And so they should know the name and release the name. Our RCIPS are complete idiots.