Traffic cops called to 20 crashes over weekend
(CNS): As a new police road safety campaign began this weekend, traffic officers were called to deal with twenty road collisions and issued over 30 tickets, mostly for speeding, and arrested nine people for drinking and driving. The RCIPS launched Operation Quaker on Friday, 28 May, in response to the recent road fatalities and serious collisions. And in just the first three days, even after the public was warned about the clampdown, the Traffic and Roads Policing Unit dealt with dozens of road offences and multiple crashes each day.
“It is alarming that, despite prior caution to the public, asking them to be responsible on our roads, we still have so many road violations occurring daily,” said Inspector Dwayne Jones, who heads the traffic unit. “We will continue to implore that the public make everyone’s safety a priority by exercising good driving habits, especially when it comes to drunk driving and speeding, which are the leading contributors to fatal collisions in the Cayman Island. We too will continue to do our part in making our roads safer for all through education, enforcement and visibility.”
Although there were a number of offenders on Cayman’s roadways, there were also members of the public who supported and assisted the RCIPS with this operation. The police received a number of reports from people requesting a police response to traffic violations that they had witnessed. The RCIPS intends to continue the operation in the weeks to come, targeting times, days and locations that are known to be busy with social activities that may lead to drunk driving, speeding and other road violations.
Acting Superintendent Brad Ebanks, who is in charge of Uniform and Specialist Operations, thanked the members of the public who took the time to assist the police in making the roads safer. “It is very encouraging to know that the community stands behind this initiative; our main goal is the preservation of life on the roadways. We too will continue to do our part in making the Cayman Islands safer,” he added.
- Fascinated
- Happy
- Sad
- Angry
- Bored
- Afraid
Now the RCIP can take the next 365 days off.
Reduce pollution by reducing the population stop this expansion foolishness in Cayman now. No more cars for expats and reduce licence drivers to local or permanent residents only others get a visitors permit for the duration of stay. Take all junkafide cars off the road stop this Jamaican pay to drive inspection extortion scam that has gone on way too long Licence all qualified car inspectors annually .
Glad you’re not in charge
And trim off that scraggly beard. More laws on the island of no law enforcement.
Mango Tango must be enjoying some Wacky Tabacky.
Take it easy, friend Mango. Removing junk cars off the road is a good thing, but the rest of your rant is pretty draconian.
How about a compromise? Maybe push for a regulated air-conditioned bus system and gradually install protected bike lanes? How about that?
Has anyone ever been ticketed or prosecuted for:
– tailgating?
– riding a bicycle on the wrong side of the road?
– riding a bicycle at night without lights/reflectors?
Half the people on this island are wondering why anyone would be ticketed for that.
Littering
Just park outside Cotton Club at 3am Saturday morning, you’ll make a fortune.
They should have least 25 cops on motorbikes and they will catch more people easily. Every day I can see without front plate number, people driving with hazard lights on, no lights on trailers, bad tyres and speeding trucks, lane hoggers.
Everyone else sees it too.
Front number plates are easy, a couple of simple roadblocks can catch those.
Same for tyres, light infractions and trailers not fit for the road, which should actually be licensed and inspected separately.
Catching is one thing. Prosecuting is another. Some of these simple offenses require a file to be put together, as ticketing isn’t an option. Altering the ticketing laws would go a long way to officers actually having an impact.
Really 25 cops on bikes?
If they happen to be on the road?
Damn can we aim for 30 this weekend ?
Nah, they get this weekend off to recover from their hard work
Haha ain’t no off day for Justice my brother!
Never seen a society wanting + needing more policing so much. ESP on the roads.
Pls RCIP, more proactive police work!
That’s what I’d call a good start. That which most of us see on a daily basis is still concerning. I think we should legally loosen the terms for which the RCIPS can stop a car. That’s what we’re talking about, right? We WANT them to be able to make stops and arrest those who are operating outside the legal limits. Right?
Only 9 for DUI on a Cayman weekend, didn’t try very hard then did they…
They’d maybe catch more if they weren’t dealing with so many calls to attend crashes.
Some crashes will involve DUI and lead to an arrest. Others are due to terrible drivers, and while tied up with these, DUI drivers can drive on by.
No they wouldn’t. Don’t act like they do anything other than the bare minimum which requires them to show up to the crash after it happened. If they really cared about preventing road test they would be out in full force pulling over anyone breaking the law. Too many people warn other cars coming towards them that the cops are up ahead as well as being in full view of oncoming speeding cars so they have time to break. They do the bare minimum.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Every police officer is terrible. Every police officer is lazy. They all do the bare minimum. Get over yourself. There are plenty of very good proactive officers. The fact is, a crash can tie up multiple units for hours. If it’s serious or deadly, it can be the entire shift and the next one.
There’s probably less than 10 regular response units across the entire island at any given time. Of those, they’re tasked with responding to all kinds of calls for service. Some are on break. Some are patrolling. Some are doing paperwork. Some are at the detention centre…etc.
Thank you for this very timely expression of reality. I would hate to do the job that the RCIPS do; I think it would make me crazy(er) to have to see what they do, and wallow in the human miasma on a daily basis. There are far worse places in the world, and while I’ve been in many of them, I feel very blessed to live here instead.
Consider this: We, us, could all do much more to assist the police. We tend to think of their job as having nothing to do with us, but we see things and complain about them, but do we alert the police? Most of us don’t. Most of us just bitch about what they didn’t do. Well, we can do better than that.
The RCIPS are part of us. We should support them. We should call in problems or suspicious behaviour that we see. They want that. They NEED that. We can be part of the solution to the antisocial behaviour that has emerged on our sleepy islands.
Meanwhile you have other people complaining about police hiding out of sight and catching them by surprise. I wonder which it is.
But what in heaven are they all driving under the influence with?
It’s almost like if we took that away from them and replaced it with an healthier less influental product we would have less of these crashes.
Hmmm I think more research is in order to get to the bottom of this…
We need mandatory sentencing guidelines for drunk drivers.
.10 to .119 15 days in jail $1,000 fine
.12 to .139 30 days in jail $2,500 fine
.14 to .159 45 days in jail $5,000 fine
.16 to .179 60 days in jail $7,500 fine
.18 to .199 75 days in jail $10,000 fine
.20+ 90 days in jail $15,000 fine
Publish the names of each drunk driver along with their levels of intoxication for drunk drivers and a photo of them. No favors for relatives, lodge members, CIG officials, etc. NONE.
If they get into an accident, treble the jail time and monetary fines. If an expat, revoke their permit and send them off the island with a no return policy as soon as they complete their sentence.
Make the law and sentencing have enough teeth to actually serve as a deterrent. No more serial drunk drivers. One strike and you are out.
DUI is a road traffic offence not a criminal offence so no jail time
You forgot, seize their car and crush it.
Anyone who abuses the privilege of a driving license should not be allowed a car.
Just put a dash cam in my car.
I had enough, time to protect myself.
So many cray crays on the road.
No warning, put a hard stop on every exit off SMB at 3 to 3.30pm on a Sunday. Stop every vehicle, they would make a fortune and get a serious number of drunk drivers off the road for at least a year
Cool. Haven’t seen one cop radar anywhere since the weekend. I’ve witnessed plenty of dangerous drivers but nothing will ever be done. Every police officer should be on the roads giving out traffic fines until people behave.
Saw them on ss but three of them sat chatting and not radaring. The radar gun was just sitting on the car.
Wow, heaven forbid that officers stand and talk to one another on their 10 to 12 hour shift.
If you want to be pedantic, it’s not a radar, it’s a LIDAR system.
The fact that you saw officers there is a positive. Just the visual deterrent is enough for most people. Not everyone though, as they were ticketing some goon in a newish black Honda Civic when I passed by.
Ha! Thanks for the response copper. Try being proactive instead of lazy.
“Copper”. Been here long? Care to help out, or are you more entertained by bitching?