Drunk driver in smash with police car
(CNS): One of the new Dodge Chargers recently purchased by the RCIPS was involved in a road smash on Tuesday afternoon when it collided with a Nissan Van in George Town. Police stated that the incident occurred at around 2:08pm when the police car was travelling along Smith Road heading towards Crewe Road and the van was travelling along Bobby Thompson Way. Both vehicles received major damages and the two drivers received slight injuries but declined treatment. A breath test was conducted on both drivers and while the driver of the police vehicle was negative, the Nissan driver failed the test and was arrested on suspicion of DUI.
A police spokesperson said that the matter is under investigation by the traffic department as well as an independent accident re-constructionist.
Anyone who may have witnessed the accident can contact PC Chong 946 6254 at the RCIPS Traffic dept.
Category: Crime
Do we have argue and attack each other every issue?
Yes, it brightens my otherwise dull day at the office.
This is what I call unlucky.
Poor guy apparently just had a few drinks and heading on home and nervous that police might stop him when: Wham! He crashes into the damn police car.
Oh Well. If you drink at night police have road blocks, and if you drink at mid-day you have to watch out for the police car.
Is it not enough for you folks that eyewitnesses say that the police were in the wrong for running a red light. Why do you have to crucify an innocent person in your own ignorance or avoidance of the facts?
Anyone know how many of the Dodge Chargers are left?..can't be many..
It looks like the sooner they are all gone the better. Then the motoring public won't have to dodge chargers any more.
You bunch of idiots. You all or shall i say most of you complain that the police get new cars, not figuring they need them to do their jobs. Maybe the govt. should buy new peddle bikes so they cam respond to your emergencies, but wait that would give you only you something to compain about again.
The police should just go ahead and buy honda civics for police cars, then when an officer gets hurt or maybe injures your family doing their job responding to your emengency call they can sue the government for not providing the proper vehicles.
Get a life people!!!
Really now….that's a bit harsh. Go to Jamaica where the police drive Toyota Corollas to do their work. The roads are worse and the drivers much more aggressive. They wouldn't think of buying the fancy cars Cayman bought when they can get 2-3 Corollas for the price of one of our Chargers. There is NO WAY we need these high powered cars on the road for the police to do their jobs…….whoever made that decision watches too much COPS on tv. Our roads lead NOWHERE so where are people going to speed to?
just another reason to look into training.
Knew it wasnt going to be long!! All those pretty cars and the most inexperienced drivers in Cayman behind the wheels!!
Is it just me getting older, or am I correct in saying that the modern police and ambulance sirens are not as easy to hear as they used to be from inside a closed car? Perhaps it something to do with the frequency or tone, but I find that I only hear them when they are about two car-lengths away from me; and when they are going along like a bat-out-of-hell, it doesn't really give my much time to react. The old-fashioned slower sirens seemed to be easier to hear. As I said, it may just be me, but I don't think so ….
oh well the new police car was cheap anyway right………
I wonder if this car was en route to Ocean Club to assist with the arrest of a serial rapist?
Ahahahahahahahahahahahahah
You know the Police were not going to be at fault regardless. They should go to the Traffic Cameras if this intersection have them!
Yep true. I heard only this morning from someone who was in traffic and witnessed the incident that the police car was the one in the wrong.
The police car went through a red light! Even with siren on a police vehicle must obey the law and are only permitted to go through a red light if on route to an emergency call and even then they must proceed with extreem caution. This was NOT the case in this incident.
I disagree…..they were late for lunch….so they had to speed up!!!
This article is incorrect as the driver of the van was not drunk!! Police needs to learn to either use their siren or lights in "emergencies" and should also take caution when driving. Just because they "police" does not give them the right to drive recklessly!!!!
So they did a breath test……so they know he was over the drink drive limit…….so why arrest him on "suspicion" of DUI, and not actual DUI?
Because a roadside test is not enough to press a conviction. They need a second more controlled and proven result before they will proceed to prosecution. Until that is done they only 'suspect' that the more precise test will show DUI
High-powered cars in the hands of people who neither need them nor know how to safely operate them… but the chicks dig them so it makes sense in Cayman, where being the police is less about fighting crime and more about sleeping in the sun and pulling over hot chicks to hit on them. Shambles…
Breath tests should be mandatory at all accident scenes. Not just ones where one of the participants is hoping to shift the focus.
Not surprised!
If this is the same Police Dodge Charger that came through from Crewe Road to Smith Road a few minutes before this crash then even then that Police driver is also to blame.
I say this because just a few minutes before this incident in the same area, a Police Dodge Charger over took me at an extremely high speed coming off Crewe Road onto Smith Road with only a siren on and no lights on and that Police car almost crashed at the same stoplight junction by Bobby Thompson Way.
The other drivers including myself heard the siren but without the lights in the day time it’s difficult at a stop light junction to realize where the siren is coming from.
Too many times the Police come through traffic at these four way junctions at high speed with no lights and just a siren or just the single horn type siren. It is annoying and ridiculous that the Police aren’t mandated to use the sirens on these cars when they are driving at these excess speeds.
Not saying that the DUI driver is not wrong and hasn’t broken the law but there is more to this accident than the DUI driver.
The Police driving methods ands siren use must be addressed. the Police have a duty too to be extra vigilant when driving at high rates of speed to ensure the motoring public hear them, see them and are able to allow them to pass and get on their way.
These cops drive in the craziest, most reckless manner and put hundreds of lives at risk trying to get to the slightest little fender bender or even less. I have seen it happen more than once and sooner or later they are going to kill som innocent motorist or pedestrian. I SAW FOUR police cars roar into the Country and Western parking lot one afternoon to 'take out' a drunk man for touching a lady where he wasn spose to. Giving these high powered cars to them to sport around in is like turning a three year old loose with a loaded gun. Hopefully they will soon destroy all if them without killing someone.
I saw one of those police cruisers on old crewe road on Tuesday night and they were all over the lanes, at one point in the middle of the road. I mentioned thought they were drunk, but also wondered if it’s the whole right / left hand drive thing. SMH
You left out that the van was a taxi! Go figure…that could explain the way I see some taxi drivers driving on a regular basis. Thank God there weren't any tourists on board at the time. I'm betting that cell phone usage was also to blame.
Glad to know that no one was seriously hurt. That poor bast**d though! Drunk driving and you slam into a police car at a junction with traffic lights? What are the chances of that happening? I guess the chances were 100% for him!
It wouldn't have happened had the police car observed the traffic law and not driven through the red light
Perhaps they were on their mobile phone/blackberry!
Bunch of Idiots
What a joke. Why can't you people (Caymanians) stand up and put a stop to this foolishness. Another $40k police toy wrecked, with the paint barely dry on the Impalas? With so little backbone, you have no right to complain.
Police cover-up! It was most likely their fault, enough times they try to hurry through a redlight for the lack of patience… I've witnessed countless times in traffic where they go "whoop whoop" bypass the cars, then proceed to drive normally…
If the other driver is DUI then it is always their fault.
And if the poor guy was NOT charged for DUI, as I understand was in fact the case, then it would be safe to assume the police was at fault and the DUI suspicion arrest was a shameful distraction and attempt to mislead the public and cover up the facts. Bastids.
Totally agree with you. It has happened before. Lots of 'dodgy' things and cover ups going on with some of the men and women in certain uniforms.
4 new police cars smashed and 10 to go!
It amazes me that some citizens of this country is so happy to hear something bad happening to the police. You should be ashamed of yourself to comment " 4 new cars smashed and 10 to go" I do not know why some people think that the police are inhumans, and cannot get into accidents or have any feelings. Good grief they are human beings like anyone else, further more if the police is driving along a straight road, and a drunk driver appears from nowhere and side swipe the police car, were you expecting the police to become invisible? .
It’s called angry sarcasm. They drive these highpowered cars recklessly because they have them and they can, and the public just has to absorb the risk of being crashed into by a cop and absorb the tax cost of these expensive useless toys being wrecked. The angry sarcasm comes from the 4 insults the tax-paying public has already absorbed, and the rage that comes from knowing with certainty that there are 10 more such insults to come.
The facts certainly appear to be developing that this officer was not simply driving down the roadsafely, so let’s make sure the blame lands where it needs to be. Driving after drinking is wrong, but that doesn’t make you at fault if a speeder blows a stop sign and crashes into you. Think about that one for a while.
Don't you mean if the police is driving through a red light at a four-way straight in front of a drunk driver, or indeed any driver, who had now had right of way after waiting his turn at the traffic lights (out of nowhere my backside), is there any wonder that the police car ends up side-swiped?
Would you consider expecting the poor police to stop at the red light as being unreasonable? And for God's sake the guy was not a "drunk driver" no matter what you or the police or any body else says. If he were McKeeva I guarantee you there would be a LOT of law suits going around.
We can replace cars. Its far greater news that a serial rapist was caught. Such a person causes tremendous damage to individuals and society as a whole. We should be celebrating the actions of the police, especially for releasing the picture. This action allowed the greater community to assist in solving a crime.
Drunk at 2:08pm on a Tuesday…
It's the Caribbean mon!
Funny until someone dies.
Both my husband and myself had first cousins who died at the age of 19 as a result of drunk driving, it is never funny.
Here we go again. Why in the world is everyone suddenly accusing this guy of drunk driving? Are you people sadists or something?
It is 5 o’clock somewhere in the world
Don't be hatin'