DUI endemic, say cops
(CNS): Drivers in Cayman are not taking the issue of drinking and driving seriously and many appear not to believe it is a crime, a senior police officer has said. In the last two weeks 17 people have been arrested on suspicion of DUI, despite the numerous police warnings about the dangers associated with drinking and driving. Chief Inspector Angelique Howell, the officer in charge of Operation Christmas Cracker, the RCIPS’ seasonal safety campaign said the disregard by drivers of police warnings demonstrates that drink driving is endemic on the Islands and is not seen by many as breaking the law. “Unfortunately so many people seem to drink and drive so often that they do not actually believe that they are doing anything wrong – it’s a way of life for them,” she said. (Photo Dennie Warren JR)
“But every time they have a drink then get behind the wheel of a car they are gambling with their own lives and the lives of other road users. I don’t know how many times we have to say that, and in how many different ways, before the message finally starts to get through,” Howell added.
Of those seventeen arrested during the last two weeks one was a 31-year-old man who was involved in the fatal road crash on EsterleyTibbetts Highway on 30 November, and another who crashed his truck into a tree as he approached a police road check in the Breakers area just after 12.30 Monday morning.
The man’s truck cut the tree in half and then dragged the debris onto the road, blocking it to other traffic. He then left the scene of the crash and drove through the police road check at speed. Officers followed the truck and the driver was arrested a short distance away on suspicion of DUI, leaving the scene of an accident and dangerous driving. The officers were also able to clear the tree from the road before any further accidents were caused.
Accepting that Christmas is a time for fun and celebration Howell saidthe police do not want to dampen the Christmas spirit but she warned people had to be responsible.
“Our clear position is that if you have just one drink your driving will be impaired and you should not drive. If you are planning a night out, designate a driver or get a taxi. But make sure that the designated driver commits to drinking soft drinks and will get you home safely at the end of the night,” the senior officer said as she reminded people that after a night of drinking they are not necessarily fit to drive the next morning either.
“Alcohol stays in your system for some considerable time – so don’t assume a shower and strong black coffee will sober you up enough to drive safely,” Howell warned. “We have already lost one life on the roads since the start of this initiative; we do not want to lose any more. So, if nothing we say encourages drivers to act responsibly then I would ask them to think about what kind of Christmas Richard Martin’s family will have this year and every year for the rest of their lives. ”
The man charged in connection with the fatal crash on Esterley Tibbetts Highway is now on court bail. He has been charged with causing death by dangerous driving. He was also arrested on suspicion of DUI. Officers investigating the crash are awaiting results of blood tests. The results of those tests will determine if any further charges will follow.
Category: Crime
I can;t beleive the opening comment in this stroy "Drivers in Cayman are not taking the issue of drinking and driving seriously.."
While its true, a similar comment could be made along the lines of "Police Officers in Cayman are not taking the issue of drinking and driving seriously.."
All the police need to do is actually set-up mandatory road blocks on a friday and saturday night in 4-5 places – West Bay road nth, by-pass north, south sound road, by-pass south etc. They would catch every drink driver.
The drivers attitude towards drink driving stems from lack of police enforcement of the anti-drink driving laws.
The end.
agreed 100% and have police set at different locations before the road block in each direction to catch the many who turn around as soon as they realise there is a police road block.
I know there is a lot of reference to the taxi drivers on here and there should be more focus on the issue at hand here. However…
There are many good points. Lets not angle this straight to the Police and it is their fault. People should not drink and drive. Simple. Fact. I have done it. You have done it. We have all done it. We do all know that the Police step up the campaign in Christmas – so even more reason to not 'roll the dice'.
We need to collectively come together and demand taxi regulation however. There are facebook sites on the Cayman Islands Taxi issue for Gods sake. Last year I was charged $55 from SMB to my home before the 4 roads in West Bay. I outright refused to pay. She starting birating me. I still refused. She called the Police and I was happy with that. The Police eventually came and I explained that I was not willing to pay $55 for a fare because I had a fairly nice looking townhoue I own. Or whatever reason. The result was the 'chart' came out that is sanctioned by the Goveernment. The same fare matrix she refused to show me. Low and behold – I owed $28 with the 20% included after Midnight. (thats ridiculous too by the way). Fares based on time of day.
I wanted to press charges. The Police refused. Why not. She was stealing from me. Never in society, and I have lived in many, have I seen the ability of anyone to self regulate how much they want to earn on a public/customer service level. Not even flat rates are secure – though they are from the airport ($20 to 7MB). I got the bus to the bar last night. I called a cab to go home. A bus passed by whilst I was waiting. I got the bus.
Hear, hear. Someone has to take the lead on this and it should probably be CITA since taxi related extortion is as big an issue for the tourism industry as it is for the drink driving industry.
Who, other than the relative of a taxi driver, would refuse to sign a petition calling for an end to pointless license restrictions, prices that are in line with the rest of the world and meters in taxis?
In the boom times, my regular taxi driver told me he earned over CI$100,000 a year. WTF? The problem is they are now used to being paid 'top end' prices. Unregulate it and let people without ideas of granduer have a crack. Or and I know this would be highly irregular, but what about putting meters in them to weed out the thiefs?
12/13/2011 18:40
Meters are easy to fiddle.
The taxis work when they want too! and they make up the fares and also are extremely rude. Especially the ones to claim there are Christians. I said some NOt all. The Taxi service needs to be cleaned up also!
Anyone who remembers me from the waterfront bars in George Town knows I was not exactly a model of sobriety and probably drove home (and to work the next morning) more than a few times when I should have made alternative arrangements but I don't think that being a former working drunk prevents me from commenting. In fact it probably gives me valuable insight into the problem
This issue of drink driving goes back years, at least to when I first visited Cayman in 1992 (Yup, it will be 20 years in March 2012 since my first visit – LOL, don't time fly?) and probably long before that.
Inspector Howell is right to describe drink driving as endemic but some of that attitude comes from within the RCIPS.
In days long gone the police would stop drunk drivers and take them home, leaving the car by the roadside to be collected next day. That was an interesting solution but is obviously no longer feasible.
Things may be changing (although I somehow doubt it) from my days at Net News but back then I propped up bars with more than a few very drunk police officers who then drove themselves home without thinking about it. In fact from April 2007 onwards it was the way I worked and that continued throughout Operation Tempura.
One night I got drunk with a plain clothes officer who was actually on duty using an unmarked cruiser.
Then there was the senior officer (Silver Commander level) who got so drunk at a function one night his wife refused to ride home with him. I later heard allegations, made by two former RCIPS officers, that the same officer had buried evidence of a DUI bust involving his son.
And it went on and on, I think the Crime Scene van was parked outside every bar on the Seven Mile Beach at one time or another.
At street level RCIPS also seemed to have an unofficial 'off limits' list that exempted certain individuals (including my boss at the time and that's another story) from any traffic offences as long as no one got killed. Some of those excused are the same ones referred to elsewhere in connection with antics at DR's, in fact I can probably name the person who crawled across the parking lot.
Inspector Howell if you want to hammer the drink driving message home here's a suggestion – get your officers to nail one or more of the many public figures who regularly abuse the law and make sure the media are present. Do that and people will take all this seriously. Until then you are p***ing into the proverbial wind.
And before anyone posts any critical comments about my past conduct you can rest assured that I am not proud of it.
It was dumb, anti-social, whatever you want to call it what I did was wrong and in my mid-50s with a background of attending serious and fatal crashes in the UK I should have known better.
The only possible excuse (and it ain't much of one) is that I was able to get away with it and I think that's the problem in the Cayman Islands.
Good point John, but you know that's not going to happen.
A Public Figure being caught AND charged for DUI.
Definitely no indictable candidates for a "poster child" here!
It isn't just the prices but the 'soon come', low rent attitude of taxis. They arelate, they move slowly, they have smelly cloth seats and tacky decorations, they talk to each other out of their windows, they say things like 'where dat is?', they have those little radios that sound like children's toys, they fein offence if you try and make out in the back. They inspire zero confidence and drive worse than I can drive drunk. I wouldn't pay them half what they ask. They have guaranteed income from the airport, the cruisers, the hotels, carrying the masses by the vanload over to that West Bay restaurant for some overpriced pasta, and they have the nerve to hike their prices 20% at night just when they might actually be some use to the people who live here. They don't deserve my business and they won't get it.
Could CNS please post the legal limit in comment at the bottom of the article! From the officer quoted above ("Our clear position is that if you have just one drink your driving will be impaired and you should not drive.") it seems to imply that the limit is one sip and you are busted!
CNS: OK, good idea — now posted, as sent by the RCIPS.
Perhaps Ms. Howell could get her people to conduct sobriety tests on the nights of the annual Police Ball?
What actually IS the law on drinking & driving here?!!! Anybody know? Typically in the UK you are probably ok with a pint (varies from person to person); is here the same?
Last weekend I went out with some people & we got a taxi home; $12 from Elements to South Sound; good service & not a bad price. I'd pay that again & do so if that is typical. If taxis charged fair prices I would use them more.
Taxi prices are set by govt. Drivers should have a list of prices. If you think you have been overcharged you should complain. Not all taxis are a rip off.
No, not all are a rip off, but plenty, if not most, are, and plenty wil refer to the list of prices set by Government and try charge that amount per person travelling in the vehicle when its supposed to be the set price for the journey, regardless of the number of passengers.
Hey Govt, new Traffic Law here?
Let's clarify, charge for journey or allowing charge per person per journey?
If you don't pay, who's the criminal, the client?
No, the one overcharging….the driver.
Theft is theft! Jail Time!!!!!!!. Stealing is Stealing! Let's clamp down on this one.
Think about that Taxi Drivers.
The law here is the same as any other law, as long as you don't get caught, you have done nothing wrong. If you do get caught, whether or not you have done anything wrong is dependant upon to whom you are related.
Blood Alcohol Concentration must be less than 0.10, which is 20% more than the 0.08 criminal concentration levels of USA, Canada, UK, or Jamaica. Philipines is 0.05. Honduras is 0.07.
Ask for your driver's business card and program them into your cell phone. I have 8 or 9 great drivers in my cell phone and they always get me home and I've never been overcharged by them. Know yourself.
Good price – I got charged $30 for the same journey a week ago!
That's even a good price – I got charged $60 going from seven mile to prospect after my christmas party… I must admit I have pushed the limits and driven when I shouldn't have but $60 is more than I spend on drinks any night I go out.
dont drink at all and save $120!
RCIPS re Cayman public: DUI endemic in society.
Cayman Public re RCIPS: Corruption endemic in force.
Agreed!!
That is the reason why only certain people ever get prosecuted.
Are we all supposed to believe that it is only poor people that get caught with drugs?
The common problem is that when people hear or read about DUIs, they envision someone who is too drunk to stand up straight. This is obviously NOT the case and a lot of people think that they are still ok to drive after having had only a couple of drinks.
The second issue is that people on the Island have lost all respect for any authority. The police doesn't enforce the traffic laws and regulations all year around, so obviously everyone thinks they can get away with whatever, and well, for the majority of the time they do.
The third issue is that people have no consideration for each other. You can see that on the roads every single day. It is sad when it has come to a point where people look for some sort of validation by overtaking a car, despite the fact that it really doesn't get them anywhere any faster.
Please – any DUI should mandate a 12 months period banned from driving, but the problem here is that people continue to drive without a licenses BECAUSE THEY DAMN WELL KNOW THAT THE POLICE ISN'T ENFORCING THE LAW AND THEY ARE LIKELY NOT GOING TO BE CAUGHT!
the legal limit in cayman is way too high. I have heard of people who have been pulled over after 5 drinks and more, clearly drunk, passing hte breathaliser test. In a sense the police have their hands tied on this one and people know this.
After 5 drinks something is wrong with the breathalyser.
Maybe the one using it.
Possibly, I suspect it all depends on the one who is blowing.
The law clearly needs to be stronger and mandatory jail time of a least 1 day upon conviction would probably help. Until the seriousness of the crime of DUI is reflected in the punishment handed down, people are not going to change their attitude toward it.
Alcoholism is endemic, the DUIs and deaths are a consequence of our tolerance of this "spring break" behavior as a society. If the Police had the will to stop it, they could.
Charge these selfish bastards ,lock them up and throw away the key ,how dare they put othere peoples lives at risk ,because let's face it the drunk drivers very rarely get hurt never mind killed…..it's always the innocent ones that do .
Drunk drivers are selfish, pathetic idividuals who have no compassion for humankind or thoughts that their actions could hurt or destroy another's life. You are absolutely right…..they very rarely get hurt or die….it is the innocent that do. Sad part is look at the individuals themselves……they are the same in day to day life; pathetic individuals who care for no one but themselves.
Tougher laws need to be in place for DUI's. I don't think taking away their driver's license is enough, they will just find a driver to carry them around.
They should sit in jail just as a criminal does. It is their intent to harm or kill another by using a deadly weapon when they get behind the wheel of a car. Just because they have made it under the radar the times they have doesn't mean the intent wasn't there to begin with. It is Pre-Meditated. When caught convict the bastards as if they were holding a gun to a human and pulling the trigger……you get the same outcome should they get into an accident…..someone usually dies and it ain't the guy holding the gun!!! I am sure the police can convict at this point…..they have the who, the reason, the weapon and a motive.
I have seen officers walking into the clubs/bars and we all know you can tell who has had more than one drink….however they prefer to arrest you when you get behind the wheel and move the car instead of preventing you from getting into the car. I wonder sometimes if they let people do it just so they can turn on their flashy lights and drive the robot cop cars at high speeds…just saying.
I dont believe in drinking and driving. Like the others have said Taxi's are priced way too high! If the Government and Police are highly concern of the DUI's then Government needs to do something about the prices of taxi's for the poeple who drink way more (which people should be responsible for their intake) However, the more younger generation and some older have lack of self control and forget that RUM was around before they were born and will be here when they are gone.
Maybe the it should be mandatory that every car has a car breathalyzer which is more commonly known as an ignition interlock device which prevents a car from starting unless the driver blows a clean lung-air sample into the unit. If the breathalyzer detects any alcohol, the car will refuse to start. Most of you are thinking well maybe someone esle who has not had any alcohol can blow into the unit and the car will start (whoever isstupid enough to do this for someone who cant start their car should go to jail). But, companies that manufacture car breathalyzers have developed multiple safeguards to prevent easy circumvention. These defensive measures include disabling the ignition if someone tries to remove or disable it, and special driver recognition tools to prevent an accomplice from providing the breath sample.
Most of the comments refer to the taxi costs instead of acknowledging that there are many in the country with a drinking problem. This portion of the population will abuse alcohol regardless and need to be sorted out for the overall betterment of the society as many other problems spring from drunkenness like domestic violence.
Drunk or being intoxicated doesn't mean not being able to stand up straight or going home to beat up your spouse.
Intoxication can happen after a night out for dinner where one has a cocktail and two glasses of wine with dinner, and I don't think that those are people with a "drinking" problem.
Yes there are social drinkers out there that may be over the limit on occasion and never get into any trouble but there are also the alcoholics that are serious trouble behind the wheel of a car or truck and raise hell at the home front and these types are way too common.
Driving drunk is a threat once a year or every night.
Try this cab fare: $65.00 from George Town to Savannah…for each of the 3 occupants of the cab ( at 1 am). The fare was not pro-rated by passenger for distance covered. We refused to pay her anything other than a single $65.00 fare. We now make sure a designated driver is present on evenings out, rather than resort to high-way robbery by Caymans cab drivers.
The sad truth is that by handing out taxi licenses as political favours and then mandating the highest prices in the world, the Government is yet again in the positionof picking economic winners and losers.
Clamp down on drink driving in the absence of taxi reform and the bars and restaurants will go out of business.
I'm not advocating not clamping down, I'm advocating taxi reform!!!
and the Police have only just realised this? Drive around on a Friday afternoon and you can see the craziness. This should be dealt with year round not just at Christmas
Mr. Howell,
Have you evaluated the way the UK dealt with this issue? The UK has some of the toughest penalties on drink driving in the world. If you're caught over the limit, you face an automatic driving ban of twelve months and a possible fine of up to £5,000 and/or 6 months in prison. As you say, DUI is playing with people's lives so the punishment must be stern. Just out of interest: What punishment did the RCIPS dole out the the seventeen people recently arrested? Will they all attend court and loose their licenses, and pay a huge fine? If not, perhaps this why the message isn't getting through.
CNS: The punishment of the recent seventeen would be an interesting aspect of this story to follow through on. If some of them are released with just a warning, then we'll know why the RCIPS message isn't getting through.
I think this is in the hands of the Chief Justice.
He should read this –
http://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/view/223320/Instant-B-test-justice/
That's arrest, breathalyse, intoximeter and banned all in less time than it took for the person to get hammered. To be fair the story hypes it up because this only works if the police catch them (and in many areas of the UK that's increasingly unlikely) and they plead guilty. If the charge is challenged Article 6 of ECHR kicks in and it has go through the normal court process but in the UK most people caught drink driving know there's no defence and will take this option.
This is still fairly tame. In Yugoslavia before the breakup they had zero tolerance and getting caught driving with any alcohol in your system resulted in an instant ban plus your car was impounded, which could prove embarrassing and very expensive, particularly for tourists driving rentals.
Immediate 1-year ban from driving for DUI. There's no other way to get the message across. Gowerment: Do what's required and save lives.
1 year ban and alcohol program are already minimum penalty you can look forward to. The problem is that the offence goes to traffic court and not criminal court like many other places in the world.
It is already a minimum 1 year ban for DUI…
Asking your Gowerment to do what's required is worst than asking Caymans drivers not to drink. Your right about the one year ban. Unfortunately there is not much in the way of real enforcement here so its still basically living in a third word country.
This has been said time and time and time again on this website but if you want to end DUI over night simply deregulate taxi licenses and stop them charging through the nose. Nobody drinks and drives in the UK partly because you can get a taxi home for the price of a drink (or share a cab and it's a fraction of that). Here it is four drinks per person. That's a whole other night out!
Add to that improve the public bus service so that it runs at least hourly to all districts into the late night Sun-Thursay and early hours Fri/Sat, so that everyone has a cheap alternative to driving and therefore no excuse. And I don't mean the shared routes. The NS/EE shit needs scrapping and each district respectively needs its own dedicated bus service. South Sound and North Sound desperately needs a bus service. And I don't mean the same bus drivers that start at 5 working till late into the nights, they should be on split day and night shifts.
What about the drunk taxi drivers?
The worst drunks are the ones on the road after sunday brunch. You never see a police car then, the officers are having a siesta.
I'm not sure about that. The heaviest drinking seems to be Friday nights right after work when everyone lets off steam at the end of the week.
Road blocks set up outside GT between 7pm and 8pm (most I seem to encounter are much later) would do good business every Friday.
Automatic six months in jail – trial and sentencing in special criminal courts that sit on the day. Bet that would shake a few selfish drunk drivers up very quickly.
I dont support drinking and drving but the cabs here sure dont help the situation when they hike rates 20% after mid night! $40.00 from Grand Harbour to WB……. and thats a long walk!
Try $50 before midnight and $75 after to get to Frank Sound from town – a night out is a rare luxury for us drink money done spent getting home!
Rubbish. We are Christians. We don't drink.
Ha ha. Many of the culprits are neither Caymanian nor Christian.
And many more of them are.
Saturday 10th while I was going home there was a road block by the RCIPS and they was stopping all the cars right passing Tiki Beach.
While one officer was asking me a few questions like: where I was coming from, if i had been drinking and where I was heading. Normal questions. I saw 2 guys being arrested by another officer and believe or not….both of them was laughing! Like if it was a joke, they seems to be enjoying it.
Come on guys this is serious….don't put your and other lives at risk. If you kill someone its something you will have to live with for the rest of your life!
i know its no excuse…… but the lack of public transport and the extortionate price ot taxis does not help……
Welcome to Cayman, where have you been?
Although I do not condone drink driving, unfortunately until there are proper regulations put on taxi and bus drivers, you will continue to see this happen. Someone is more likely to hop in their car and risk driving 5 minutes down the road than pay the rip off prices of taxis. Why doesn’t the bus service run later into the night to give people an alternative to a taxi. In ore countries around the world, taxi run a regular service until 11pm, then have a night service which runs through the early hours of the morning.
Stop pussyfooting around this issue, Cayman, and do what the police did in the UK in the late 1960s/1970s: sit outside bars and pounce on drivers who don't put their lights on when they drive off or spin their wheels or don't indicate or they do ANYTHING that gives the cops a chance to stop them and say "Evening sir/madam, you ok then?" at the same time sniffing for alcohol and looking at the eyes of the driver. There was a VERY popular sports bar here until recent years when the new East/West road system was developed. If the cops had sat outside that every night, they would have pulled in masses of people over the drink/drive limit, including one well known heavy drinker who used his very underage child to drive him home on occasions when he was totally out of it. The child is the grandson of a very prominent local person so it would have been "difficult" for the police to get involved in that, apparently. Moreover, the drinking place was also the spot where at least two ministers of government of the time drank plus senior civil servants plus a few of Cayman's elite population.
Britain does NOT have the answer to all our problems in Cayman, but the success they have had over the last 40 years or so in making people (other than the idiots in all societies) terrified to drink and drive is one of the success stories we could copy. But, but, is drinking to excess part of our "culture"?
I wouldn't call the situation in the UK a success.
While the stats recently issued by DfT look very impressive there are problems with them including the failure over the years of many police forces to make good on threats to breath test every driver involved in an accident or stopped for a motoring offence. Some only test around 50% and in one case it has been as low as 27%.
Police forces, although they must attend fatal and serious injury crashes, are also not now attending many reportable minor injury shunts but relying on those involved to come forward. Simply put the figures are incomplete and, apart from crashes involving fatalities, we don't really know how whether public attitudes are changing or not. What is clear is that the level of policing is dropping.
Despite what the government woould like us to think drink driving is still very common in the UK and, while the number of roadside checks has fallen, the percentage of drivers found over the limit or refusing to take a test has increased. In fact in general the consumption of alcohol in the UK is on the increase.
The police have also failed to get the law changed to allow random breath testing and the kind of road block checks the RCIPS use. If that happened I'm convinced the figures would be very different. As it is the pre-Christmas 'crack down' round here is a bit of a joke because we see as little of the police as we do during the rest of year.
There is also a growing problem (round where I live it runs around 40% of all convictions) with foreign drivers, mainly from Eastern Europe, ignoring the drink/drive laws and they are increasingly being involved in serious or fatal accidents.
If there has been a change in attitude in the UK it has come about for several reasons including –
1. The fact that it is now way cheaper to shop at the supermarket and have a few drinks in the comfort of your home than go out to a pub. People just don't go out as much.
2. People are increasingly dependant on their cars for work so a 12-month ban, in a country with nearly 3 million unemployed all ready, is potentially catastrophic.
3. Many insurance companies are refusing to offer cover to drivers convicted of DUI or are quoting massive premium inceases so the knock on effect is far more complex than the standard £300-£400 fine with a driving ban.
4. There are huge restrictions on many company, fleet, leasing, taxi and car hire insurance policies for anyone caught drink driving. The norm round here seems to be that the policy will not cover anyone convicted in the previous seven years so you can kiss any hope of a driving job goodbye.
It's not enforcement, TV campaigns or warnings from senior police officers that may have changed attitudes here but economics. Telling people that drink drivers are going to be involved in accidents or caught by the police doesn't work but telling them they may lose their job or won't be able to get work after a conviction certainly does. Maybe that's the way to go in Cayman, get busted for DUI and risk losing your job or getting your work permit pulled might just hit the spot as might a mandatory 14 days in jail.
And was that sports bar DR's by any chance? If so I could tell you a few tales from there. It's the first place I ever saw someone, who I'm not naming, crawl across the parking lot on all fours but still get in their car and drive off.
I diasgree… I have a similar circle of friends out here that I did back in the UK. Out here virtually all drink and drive to a certain extent. Back home no-one I knew, including friends of friends, and friends of the family, would drink more than a beer and drive.
There is a HUGE difference in attitude in the majority of the rest of the world – in the US drink driving is commonplace, and in Canada, and in South Africa, and certainly in Cayman.
Now I'm not a huge fan of the UK but they have really instilled the anti drink dirving message and they should be commended for it.
6:26, I don't agree with your comments about the UK but vive la difference as they do not say there. I agree with the comments of 10:45 about the situation in the UK nowadays. And yes, it was DR's I was talking about and I would love to name names. As a non drinker but one who got food there I too saw some dreadful things involving people who had cars and trucks to drive home in but nothing as bad as the example you give.
Raise the drinking age to 21 like the United States; also I think that night clubs should only be allowed to open until 1:00 AM.
How come no news on the 12 year gun charge…how come no news on the ongoing investigation between US and Cayman on the imporation of firearms????