DUI suspect runs down cop

| 29/12/2010

(CNS): A police officer escaped injured in the early hours of Christmas morning after a man suspected of driving under the influence drove at the cop in an attempt to make his escape, police revealed on Wednesday 29 December. At about 12.40 am on Saturday, 25 December, police officers stopped a Honda Prelude in Mount Pleasant Road, West Bay and as a police officer approached the car the driver suddenly drove his vehicle at the officer striking him on his side. The police followed the car as it made off along the West Bay Road where a short time later it collided with a bush. No other vehicles were involved. The driver was arrested on suspicion of DUI, failing to stop for police, dangerous driving and police assault. (Photo Dennie WarrenJr)

The RCIPS confirmed that the police officer involved was not injured in the incident. “This officer had a lucky escape”, said Chief Inspector Angelique Howell. “This once again underlines how dangerous drinking and driving is. We were lucky that no-one was injured or killed in the incident.”

The man involved was one of five people arrested in the fifth week of the RCIPS seasonal safety campaign. Figures released on Wednesday revealed that road behaviour has not necessarily improved during the RCIP’ attempt to get drivers to think had about their driving.

Since 22 November here have been 28 arrests for DUI; 182 traffic offences reported; 223 people detected speeding; 298 traffic tickets issued and 243 road smashes.

“As we approach the New Year period it’s disheartening to see that so many people are still gambling with their safety – and the safety of innocent road users – by getting behind the wheel when drunk,” Howard added. “Despite numerous media appeals and our heightened visibility on the streets people still believe that they will not be caught. This week five more people who chose to take that chance ended up behind bars.”

She said that the RCIPS want everyone to have a safe and enjoyable New Year.

“That’s why once again I’m calling on everyone who has an interest in keeping these islands safe to play their part,” the senior officer implored. “If you know someone who drinks and drives – call us. If you are going out to celebrate – please make sure you have a designated driver or you arrange to use a taxi.
“In addition, if you are on foot be aware of your surroundings and be careful when crossing the road and walking home.”

Police said anyone whohas information about people committing road traffic offences or drinking and driving should contact their local police station.
 

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  1. anonymous says:

    Did it accur to anyone that the person arrested and charged may have been just drunk. They may be an ulterior motive then just driving drunk, and just happened to try and run. Not to repeat myself read the site about CHURCH BROKEN INTO and 44 year old arrested. Maybee without realizing it something else was going down or setting it up. It’s not because no drugs and weapons were found at the scene that more was at stake. It’s not very common for a "drunk driver" to try and run an officer down to flee the scene. IS IT?

  2. wee Scott says:

    In Scotland they have startred crushing DUI offenders vehicles.

    England has added no insurance to the list or unroadworthy

    New Zeland has also begun it.

    In Australia some states have taken it further. Drag racing and "hooning" on the roads will get your vehicle crushed. The nice touch is that they make DVD for you of your vehicle in the crusher and then mail it to you.

    Time to bring on the crusher.

    • Anonymous says:

      That makes a lot of sense, Idiot! most of the cars are owned by the Banks.

    • expat weirdo says:

      Seems rather wasteful. Instead of crushing it they should auction the car off and have the collected funds donated to charity… but the end results is that yes something needs to be done to deter the drinking and driving.

  3. expat weirdo says:

    It is quite possible to go out without drinking if you cannot possibly find a ride home that night or afford a cab… shocking I know

  4. Anonymous says:

    Don’t fool yourselves, the police will watch this case and if the individual charged in assaulting a police officer walks away from this charge, the police will take that into account in future responding to crime.

  5. Anonymous says:

    "…the driver suddenly drove his vehicle at the officer striking him on his side…"

    That driver should be thanking his lucky stars that the police here (generally) are not armed. If this was France, Norway, Sweeden, Ireland, Russia, Canada and of course the U.S. that guy would have daylight shining through him!

    Driving a vehicle deliberately at a police officer can be classed as an attempted murder! – Thus, the vehicle becoming the ‘weapon’.

    This guy better not ONLY be charged with just DUI!!! The punishment must fit the crime… Or in his case C R I M E S ! ! !

    I hope the officer is ok. 

  6. Anonymous says:

    They need to stop watching those shows and thinking that it will work .  Those TV shows will only get you in jail for the new year.  

  7. Anonymous says:

    there is no excuse for drunk driving but i have to agree with frank the cab rates are insane!! a cab driver tried to charge me from jet night club to a condo just before the ritz (not even a 2 miles), at 2 am CI$25 with 2 of us in the taxi, i refused to pay and told the driver i would call the cops, i ended up paying 15CI$. the only way to solve the issue is to put meters in the cabs and charge that way!!! 

    • Anonymous says:

      ^ Commonest complaint I hear from cruise ship tourists, as they ask directions to the bus to SMB do they can know exactly how much they’ll be paying.  

  8. Mathew says:

    No discrimination between right from wrong and an undisciplined mind under the influence of alcohol or drugs

    =

    A very dangerous combination 

  9. au revoir says:

    There is no excuse to drive under the influence, period!  The unreasonable costs of taxis in the Cayman Islands is a totally separate issue.  Unfortunately, there are far too many losers out there who have an excuse for everything,  high cost of cabs included.  Hopefully these losers will wrap themselves and their cars around a tree instead of hurting innocent people…  Happy New Year!!!  Please don’t drink and drive.

  10. Anonymous says:

    I agree with ‘Frank’.. Paying $680 per month in cab fares per month if you only go out once per week is absolutely ridiculous. Especially on an island this small. Unless you are a cab driver or a politician there is no disputing that!

  11. Anonymous says:

    What about the car crash on Christmas Eve at the Crightons?  5 minutes earlier and it would have taken my family out?  It was terrible so very surprised nothing has been written about it?? I’m hoping everyone was ok?

    • Anonymous says:

      Have wondered why there is nothing in local press on that too.  We saw it driving home Christmas Eve. There were three ambulances and at least one overturned car.  They shut down the mainroad heading eastbound it was so bad but not a peep in the news.

  12. Anonymous says:

    This should be treated as attempted Murder. The person should receive a sentance that fits the same. We need stiffer penalties that stick. It is the only deterent.

  13. Just us folks says:

    There hasn’t been a new story on CNS since Friday, then with the Dump fiasco and the usual armed robbery, so I hope the CNS crew had a nice little break.

    No surprises that the first story after the little break is a criminal trying to kill a cop with a car – it was either that or another string of armed robberies or another killing.  No doubt those will come.

    Happy new year Cayman!

    CNS Note: Actually we did post the Kittiwake arrival on Christmas Day and a couple of other little stories yesterday including the good news about Cydonie but yes thanks we did have a little break and ate some Christmas pudding…..

    • Anonymous says:

      I just love CNS’ sarcasm – seems as though Just us folks is allowed to have a nice little break but CNS should’ve been working hard putting out non-existent news – Keep up the good work (and sarcasm) CNS – Happy New Year

  14. Frank says:

    I dont have any information on anybody drinking and driving. I do however have first hand information of a group of people being charged CI$85 for a cab ride from Grand Harbour to Jet nightclub. (Whats that..maybe 6 miles at the most??) After the club had closed the same group of people got a taxi back to the place they had originally left from only for the cab to try and charge them CI$80. This time they confronted the driver about the price and explained they had recieved their previous ride for CI$40 (obviously not true) which is when, without any conviction at all he charged them CI$40. Now obviously any cab driver is not going to discount a fare by 50% withoout any argument if he is losing money so it makes you wonder how bad we are really getting ripped off. So for the 1,786th and ahalf time, how about you try and regulate these cab fares! I am postive it will impact the amount of DUI’s handed out! 

    • Anonymous says:

      The cost of cab fare is no excuse for driving under the influence – if you cannot find a friend or family who can pick you up after downing your liquor, perhaps you should buy the liquor, take it home and have it there…that way you are not a threat to yourself or worse, someone else who is innocent…isnt that better than spending the rest of you life in prison for killing orinjuring someone while driving drunk? Be smart!!

      • Anonymous says:

        or….. just stop being a drunk 

      • Anonymous says:

        I think you will find that the point here is not that the taxi fares are an excuse for drinking and driving but that if the police and government are really so concerned about it and really want to do something about it this would probably be a good place to start instead of just constantly releasing press releases about how dissapointed they are…  There is no two ways about it that drinking and driving is a crime and it kills people, no matter the reason why you do it.  But because of this we should all have the common goal of reducing the number of people who do drink and drive, and if you want to do this you start by presenting affordable alternatives to drinking and driving.

        • Judean people's front says:

          Excellently put!

          We can go further people. Get together with friends on the internet and designate someone for a week as a driver. Take it in turns every month or so.

          After a few nights out and several months down, there is enough money saved for a celebratory weekend in Miami where the taxis are cheap enough to over indulge!

           

    • Anonymous says:

      These stories of passengers being ripped off by the taxi pirates are becoming too common to be dismissed.

      Passengers should  negotiate the price before entering a taxi. If there is any further dishonesty, the licence plate number and driver’s name should be recorded, and reported to the Taxi Driver’s Association.

      These drivers are in the front line of the tourist industry, and Cayman cannot afford this damaging practice of overcharging. The Taxi Driver’s Association needs to put their house in order, but if it will not, then the Government needs to step in.

      The Airport provides a list of prices to destinations, and all hotels and condos should have a similar list. Customers who are mistreated would then have a firmer basis to insist that certain drivers be refused business in certain hotels, or even better, have their licences revoked.

      • real world says:

        Boycot the taxis for one month. If there is enough motivation and momentum, one month will not hurt the people who take one night out a week.

        If you still feel the need to go out, take a designated driver. However you do it, do not feed the greed for one month.

        It will however send a message to the taxi drivers which is ‘conform or perish’.

    • scratchin' me head says:

      I agree 100% Taxi Drivers will be the final nail in Caymans Coffin…  and will be the most vocal when it all goes pear shaped.

      We took a taxi from Crewe road to Eduardos… it cost $80… $20 per head – and the lady expected a tip on top of that…. If we call fine dine in we are charged $6 for delivery… go figure..!!

      Businesses for their own survival, need to look at having their own drivers for customers – we are more than happy to pay a reasonable price for a service… but when the ride costs more than an evening out…. people seriously start to rethink … and everyone suffers.

       

       

    • Dred says:

      You say….and I quote…..

      "I do have first hand information of a group of people being charged CI$85 for a cab ride from Grand Harbour to Jet nightclub."

      If so please provide the cab license number or as much detailed description as you can so that the Department of Tourism can take this up. This is the kind of crap we don’t need to deal with. Actually for both coming and the cab who wanted to charge them going.

      I want these idiots off our roads….

      I know this is a side step from the initial thread lead story but we speak about crime in Cayman and what we don’t identify as criminal enough is the way we GOUGH people and mostly our visitors.

      If it’s not the 300% marked up items it’s cabbies running it into people. Let’s be fair people we simply can not expect to compete with other destinations when we kill our tourist with unnecessary cost. This is not about the cabbies but about everything from the CI$3.00 fountain soda to the CI$300 hotel room.

      I don’t know what rates are but let’s be real here. There is no reason for quadrupling a fare just because 4 people are in the cab. You still have to drive to the same location whether it’s 1 person in the cab or 4 so why 4 times the fair? Is there additional gas spent? I don’t think so. How about a small premium of an additional CI$2 per additional head. So normal fare CI$10 + CI$6 = CI$16 for total fare for 4 people. As opposed to CI$40 for 4.

      Now on to items. Why do we have to mark up items sometimes up to 300%? I recall going into a local electronics store a few years back and seeing a TV for sale. It was a beautiful Mitsubishi 65" HD TV and I believe the price tag was a whopping CI$7,300 if my memory serves me correctly. I know it was over CI$7k. That same EXACT TV. EXACT I MEAN EXACT was US$3,200 with a stand in Miami. The TV was landed here for under CI$3,400 (with stand). Now why would we shop Cayman? I just saved me a vacation buying my product in Miami. YES I can go on vacation for the money I saved. WHY??? The stand they wanted to sell me cost CI$299 here also. Again it was the exact same stand. So the net cost would have been around CI$7,600

      Let’s further set some things straight there. A local vendor who’s buying 5 to 10 TVs from a merchant overseas is not paying what I paid for that TV. They could easily see a discount of 10% or more to spend US$10K or more with a vendor much less he may go to a wholesale style dealer and recognize even greater savings. He might have bought that same TV for US$2,700 to US$2,800. Then compound that I used AIR namely CAL to ship my TV raising my cost that much more where he would have saved even more doing ship and with volume again even greater savings. In the end he probably landed that same TV for CI$2,900 or less. Yet he felt compelled to make a profit of CI$4,700 (TV & Stand).

      Fountain Soda is probably a sneaky item in that it’s markup is PHENOMINAL. Setting the record straight. A glass of soda at a bar in Cayman is about the equivolent of a can of soda in a glass. A can of soda runs a business about CI$0.45 or less when bought at local wholesalers. Ice probably runs you CI$0.02. Labour to serve that item is about 1 minute but let’s be generous and say 5 minutes @ CI$7/hr so we have CI$0.55 for labour for a total of CI$1.02 and we sell for CI$3.00. Now this is not counting the fact that fountain soda is FAR cheaper than a can of soda. It probably runs about CI$0.20 per glass or less OR it would not exist. So saying that the cost is probably about CI$0.75 per glass in cost but sells for CI$2.50 to CI$3.00 depending on where you go. That’s 3 to 4 times it’s cost.

      Listen retailers you can not tell me or BEGIN to expect me to believe that you HAVE to sell at these REDICULOUS prices to survive. If you do. Close your doors NOW. The only sales you will get are to idiots who do NO research.

      Next we need to look at Airfares. CAL if we are to compete you need to price your tickets more aggressively and not JUST when you can’t sell seats. You need to do it year round. Lower ticket cost = get more customers = more government airfare tax = about same money to CIG. But more customers = more money for Cayman Islands because of more hotels revenues = more CIG taxes, more taxi fares hopefully means less robbing customers, hopefully means more food being consumed = more duties for CIG.

      Lower airfares = better income for the Cayman Islands. So lower the airfares.

      Now retailers that means we can afford to run to Miami to shop which is good for CAL but not so good for you. It means you have to price like your customers actually have options not like you have a monopoly. This can only be good for the Cayman Islands. I believe for far too long CAL has actually protected many local businesses but keep airfares artifically high. If you price fairly maybe we will shop here more.

      Now to the actual topic. I believe anyone who takes a run at a police officer with their car should be charged with attempted murder. To me a car is a weapon like a gun and in some regards can do far more damage. So this is similar to shooting at a police officer. To me this is attempted murder. Book him Dano!!!

      I find I simply have to say this. What could you have done that was so bad with your car that would make hitting a police officer with your car a viable option? LIcense expire? No insurance? DUI? What? I mean none of these items lay you in jail for any period of time. The worst can happen really is your license is lost. The other side of the coin is in jail and job lost. I can’t see how this thought process works. Fact is I want this idiot off our streets for good. If this is his thought process maybe we need these mental midgets behind bars before they really hurt someone.