Police tackle illegal vehicle modifications
(CNS): Over the last few weeks 32 people have been stopped by officers from the George Town police station as part of a Royal Cayman Islands Police Service (RCIPS) crack down on vehicle violations, such as coloured lights on cars and other modifications that cause a nuisance, which have also been raised at a number of community meetings. The RCIPS said it now plans to work with local car dealerships and auto shops in relation to highlighting what can and cannot be used legally on vehicles.
“If a car comes with high density (HD) lights as part of its manufacturing, there isn’t much we can do about it,” said Inspector Harford of George Town police. “But, when you deliberately add coloured lights, noisy mufflers or anything else that could be unsafe or a nuisance to other drivers, you break the traffic regulations.”
Section 24 of the Traffic Regulations (2003) covers any accessories which are deemed to be unsafe, likely to be a nuisance to the public or which are inadequate for the purpose for which they appear to be intended. In addition, section 14 states that no vehicle, other than an emergency vehicle, shall be equipped with any external light of a colour other than white, red or amber.
Officers in West Bay and the Eastern Districts have also been targeting road safety. Over the last week 67 people were caught speeding in West Bay while several other drivers found were found not wearing their seatbelts. In the Eastern Districts, 28 traffic offences were detected with the main offence being speeding.The RCIPS takes road safety extremely seriously and is calling on all drivers to ensure they obey the traffic law all of the time.
“The law is in place to keep people as safe as possible,” said Inspector Harford. “Everyone behind the wheel should wear their seatbelt, stick to the speed limit and have their full attention on the road at all times.”
Anyone with information about crime taking place in the Cayman Islands should contact their local police station or Crime Stoppers on 800-8477 (TIPS). All persons calling Crime Stoppers remain anonymous, and are eligible for a reward of up to $1000, should their information lead to an arrest or recovery of property/drugs.
Category: Headline News
Just something to chew on.. When a car is imported from the US the lights on that car are set up by the factory for right side of the road driving. meaning the lights are aimed just right of center. Its just a suggestion but why not make it part of the inspection process that the headlights are aimed for left side road driving? Not only would then HID or any other type of light not seem so blinding but then drivers might be able to see bikers and people walking down the side of the road they should be on. Its a simple matter of a few twists of a screw..
To follow on to something to chew on:
When a car enters the UK from France (or vice-versa), even for a short period, the cars are fitted with a small black triangle sticker which is placed over the plastic of the lights to prevent the glare affecting oncoming traffic.
It would be a very simple, cheap and effective adjustment to make to all the US imported cars.
From cars with the flashy, blinding nuisance lights to other discourteous and irresponsible users of the road with NO lights. I’m talking about bicyclists who insist on riding without front and rear lights. Not safe, especially when they insist on riding on the wrong side of the road.
I agree that the police need to clean up their own poor driving skills first, no belts, cell phone use speeding, not using indicators etc.. Every day you can see far more serious offences regarding children standing in cars or pick up truck with riders in the back etc.
What really irks me is the very poor and lazy way police direct traffic, their signals are not clear and they must think that because they block a lane with a police car with his flashing lights on we are supposed to know what to do!
Let us worry about the more serious things before we tackle coloured headlamps!
I do not venture out on the road late at night anymore along West Bay road because their are too many drunk drivers out and not a police car to be seen anywhere, but my God we had better make sure we have our licence coupon up-to-date when we are coming to work in the morning because those cops will be standing in the road slowing the slow moving traffic down even more checking for expired coupons!
The RCIPS needs to shape up itself before they can shape up Grand Cayman!
When it happens I will believe it, yesterday I saw a car fly by doing about 70 mph so when the RCIP actually cut doen on speeders, drunk drivers, and the other reckless behavior then deal with the minor violations.
Perhaps a little EDUCATION on all sides would go a long way here.
To Inspetor Harford – There is no such thing as ‘High Density (HD)’ lights.( LMAO). They are called High Intensity Discharge (HID) lights.
No Motor Vehicle Manufacturer supplies Blue, Green, Pink or any other colour that isn’t ‘whitish’ when viewed at night. I agree, ticket them. Also these damn inconsiderate drivers that drive around with the ‘High-beams’ on at all times. It’s not hard to understand why there is so much road rage.
I agree about road users paying attention and obeying the Laws at all times. Lets start with police officers – a). speeding while NOT on an emergency, b). driving around talking on their damn cell phones with their heads at odd angles to their shoulders (no ear-pieces), c). speeding with flashing lights and NO siren, d). not wearing a seatbelt.
Priority one should be to pass a Law that prohibits drivers from driving while talking on a cell phone (unless they are using an ear-piece or ‘speakerphone system’. There have been numerous serious accidents, and at least one road fatality that I am aware of in recent times here in Grand Cayman.
Don’t slam the police for thier efforts though, for people who dis-regard the ‘Little Laws’, often progress to more serious offences, FACT !!
Blue lights and Noisy Mufflers? Seriously?
I thought there were more important issues to deal with. Every day I see children standing in the backseat of the car or sitting on someone’s lap in the front seat while the car is moving, nowhere near a seatbelt. I have seen people speeding along the stretch on Seven Mile Beachevery weekend for a year and have not seen one car stopped by a police car in that time. I have heard of people being arrested for drunk driving but if the police don’t make their presence felt, how many more drunk drivers get away with it? I know that the department is going through a change and a new leader but, I do wish that there were other issues that would also be included in their focus. In the day it should be easy to find the illegal tinting and at night, easy to find the blue lights and at any time you can hear a noisy muffler. Are they taking the easy tasks because the hard ones are too much effort? I hope not as we are all at risk if this is the case.
This crackdown is a waste of tax payers money. If it is legal for cars that come from the factory to use the blueish tinted head lights then what difference does it make if others duplicate it? This campaign is absolutely rubbish and the police should be worrying about more severe things on this island. What a total waste of time!
The vehicles with radiating blue lights are ridiculous. I wear glasses with antireflection coating and still these blue headlights blind me. Also, another problem is the focus position of the headlights. I am not exactly sure what direction or level the lights should be focused but if you are a detail oriented person like myself you will notice that some vehicle head lights are focused directly into the opposite direction travelling vehicle’s path. This is not safe!
I have tint on my car; I admit that it is not the legal limit of 35% but because of my fair skin tone and ability to burn easier than most… I took the risk to put on 20%. In saying this, there are some vehicles out there that could be travelling with my son or daughter in their car and no one sees them. We need to protect our children as well as protect ourselves.
Lastly, cell phone use while driving………. I don’t need to say anymore about this because I am sure we all have had to endure the problems that this is causing at some point or another.
I am hoping that the traffic laws are revisited to include such details as what was mentioned and I am delighted that an effort is finally being made to crack down on these problems.
I have a question. What is the legal limit on window tint? Some s.u.v’s and trucks are manufactured with a very dark rear window tint that cannot be peeled off. These cars regularly pass inspection. Another question. If dark tint is so illegal why is every undercover police vehilce in cayman tinted so dark they actually standout. If the reason to have the unmarked police cars is to be inconspicuous then the R.C.I.P.S is doing a poor job because you can pick them out in a line of traffic just based on the window tint. How can police pull someone down for tint when the car they are using to pull them down in has darker tint?
indicators are required to be used at all times and especially in a round-a-bout. Even the police dont even use them which sets a bad example.
There is no speed limit posted on Dart’s road either – he tried to put up his own speed limit sign and NRA made him take it down but they still refuse to put up the required speed limit sign.
Don’t worry its an election year so all of this will be fixed very soon – watch!
There doesn’t appear to be any rhyme or reason to some speed limits. West Bay Road is probably too high at 40mph in some of the lower high density tourist areas (causing many fatalities), and yet the low risk snug harbour section of the Esterly Tibbets, essentially a deserted double lane highway open since 2004, has a posted limit of 25mph. There are other examples downtown on narrow side streets with no pedestrian sidewalks, and yet the posted limits are way too high at 30, 40…drivers would have more respect for speed limits if they made more practical sense. Perhaps Police could use their radar statistics machines to compile the average speed that people navigate sections of road, and make that the limit. There should be lower limits too. A forklift should not be allowed to drive down the bypass at 10 mph during rush hour, and the paranoid "high guy" driving the bus everywhere at 15mph should not be on the road at all.
Its also time to tackle vehicles with license plate covers which are designed to obscure the plate number and vehicles with extremely tinted windows. I’ve even noticed a West Bay bus where the plate numbers have either been painted over or the original white colour of the numbers completely rubbed off so that you need to be within about 10 feet to identify the vehicle. Howdo these vehicles get through the annual inspection process????
Amen to that I am sick of these blue light cars on the road!!
I’m sick and tired of the blue lights also. I thought that it was a police car when I saw it.
You caymanians claim you want to help the young people. But your not the youngcayman today can’t do anything for you all that takin what they like to do like fix there cars up I can understand the color light but the blue light aint no hurt to no one just these miserable people that love to complain on everything that come insight of them distroy are sperate. And one tinted on car now this shit is what no one lookin at its not okay for people to tinted there car how they want to but it okay for the police to tint there car dark that you can’t barley see inside I don’t think that is fare at all. I have seen with my two eyes people that work with the police force there personal car have dark tinted and also HID lights on. So the people that have problems with everything needs to look on us young people and make us do what we like to do to keep ourself out of trouble.