Over 100 crashes reported in one month
(CNS): In the last 30 days of the police safety campaign officers have dealt with 118 collisions on Cayman’s roads. In addition to the concerns over which the lack of attention people are paying when driving the cops also revealed that 28 people have also been arrested for DUI since 30 November when the Stay Alive campaign started. Ahead of the New Year’s Eve celebrations the police made a final appeal for drivers to be more responsible.”We want everyone to have a great time tonight and to bring in 2013 safely,” Superintendent Adrian Seales said.
“If you are going out tonight and you plan to drink, then please make the right decision; either designate a driver or use a taxi or bus. Let’s work together to make this New Year one to remember – for all the right reasons," he added.
In addition to the DUI charges and road crashes police said 100 people have been ticketed for speeding, 41 for use of cellphones while driving, 87 for not wearing seatbelts and 256 for a wide variety of other road traffic offences since police began the seasonal road education campaign.
Category: Local News
I find it so discouraging that a person cannot comfortably commute on foot or by bicycle on such a tiny island with such lovely weather. Caymanians have gone too far in embracing the car culture, to their disadvantage. Tourists absolutely hate the traffic and tiny, narrow sidewalks.
There is no earthly reason why a Camaynian family should need a 4×4 pickup truck or soccer-mom SUV. So sad and wasteful.
Be careful abut criticizing RCIPS. Remember if yu say anything negative about them their Intimidator in Chief will sue you. What he really needs to do is have a real dialogue with people in the community about policing. Unfortunately, for too long it seems their daily approach has been an us against them except when they needed something. Are they perfect? No but they will not improve until they realize it. Yet they fail to recognize that the islands are running out of time and cannot afford anymore excuses, errors or outright ommisions of fact. We need proactive, productve partnership and if current leadership has no interest in doing anything to forge positive conducive relationships, they shoud step down and let new leadership be pursued. We are all to blame but when RCIPS members present themselves as unapproachable when encountered in reasonable places for at least an introduction they contradict the very view that they have an interest in forging meaningful relationships with the public that serve as the basis for intelligence gathering. Now that is inexcusable.
There is a reason that cars are made with steering wheels on either the right side or the left. If driving on the left cars must have the steering wheel on the right. This should be mandatory for rental cars. I am always surprised to see left hand drive rental cars…that is dangerous. Drivers from right hand driving countries (most of them) will by instinct want to drive on the right side of the road. When you are in a right hand drive car you will more instinctively drive on the left side as you will be in outside of the lane as you are normally…This is just a common sense issue that needs to be enforced. I bet if you looked into most of these accidents they will involve tourists or bus / taxi drivers…(the bus and taxi drivers are unbelievably horrid drivers)
Replacing all of the cars on Cayman with golf carts would save a lot of grief.
Is someone in Traffic selling drivers licenses or what?
OR
Shall we campaign and protest that all these Bar rooms be closed?
OR
Should police arrest bartenders who abuse the liquor license law in that
they should cease from serving liquor to an individual who obviously
have shown signs of being OVER INTOXICATED!
WHERE IS THE LEGISLATION ON THIS, OR THE REGULATION AND ENFORCEMENT!
DO POLICE VISIT THESE BARS AND DRINK WITH THEM AND MERELY LOOK ON?
Baines where are the plain clothes police working undercover?
Grown ups are allowed to drink (even to excess), and they are also responsible for making other transportation plans when necessary. No watering hole or bartender can control what happens when their customers leave the bar. The police could very easily be in the dozen or so well known parking lots when the last call is rung, they just choose not to because it’s past their bedtime. That’s a big part of the traffic enforcement problem. Even some of the cabbies running drunk people home are lubed up themselves.
It is appalling that personnel and officers in the RCIPS has increased, criminal offenses have increased, driving offenses have increased, gender inequity in the RCIPS is very apparent, police vehicles on the road have decreased, confidence in the RCIPS has diminished, road/traffic accidents have skyrocketed, pedestrians walking on our roads have diminished, motor cyclists appear to make their own rules, and many cylists have no clue they are to ride on the left side of the road, license plates are missing on many vehicles or faded away and are 'invisible and here we are with the headlines: OVER 100 CAR CRASHES IN A MONTH!
We, the people deserve much better than this of type of safety/security protection and policing services! Here are my top five suggestions:
1. CAYMANIZE the service with our own people – properly trained with the best possible literacy, numeracy, and computer, first responder and general knowledge skills!
2. the same as #1
3. the same as #2
4. the sames as #3
5. the same as numbers 1 – 4!
Really disappointed about this 'pervasive lawlessness' in our small country!
The reason why this will not work is listed in items 1-5
How about starting off by training the current ones? When they are up to speed (pardon the pun) then they can help select, train and recommend the new recruits.
Then off they go on duty. An Expat policeman/woman and a Caymanian policman/woman together. Hard to claim bias with that combination- and the arrest level will go up.
As far as your points 1 – 5 are concerned. I think the Immigration Board handles the exclusion of "undesireables" (in your case that would be everyone who isn't a Caymanian) – write to them. They will sort you out.
PS glad to see you think "pedestrians walking on our roads have diminished" – that's important if you want to avoid getting knocked down.
What has the bar tender got to do with it? They don't know if you came by taxi or drove. Lay off the bar tender.
Untill *&^%$#@ ******
Untill all, people are put through a proper training school
and i include those that arrive here with a license,
nothing will change.
People come here, because of fear they are thaught not to STOP
at red light unless they have to, they tail gate so close that all that can be seen
of their vehicle is the roof. Few use their indicators.
You stop at a red light, they pomp pomp behind you, where are they going,
the Island is only 22 miles long.
Before the RCIPS bashing starts about why this is not being done more and that there should be many more fines being given out, consider the amount of accidents there have been, dui offences that have been comitted and amount of tickets given out. Over three accidents per day, one dui arrest per day and nearly 500 tickets dished out in one month, for a population of around 55,000 people is simply ridiculous and speaks to the poor attitudes and standards of drivers on this island
If these numbers were reported in most places around the world the public would be in uproar about Police being too strict and only out to raise money through drivers but not here!
The problem is bad driving and worse attitudes, nothing else.
The Police can "appeal" all they want, but only continued consistent enforcement will work.
I would bet that the vast majority of those drivers breaking the laws are NOT reading or listening to any "appeals"!
How do 118 crashes in 30 days compare with last December'sfigures?
I think December was 31 days long the previous year, so comparisons might be difficult.
Not bad RCIP….but KEEP UP THE PRESSURE. You guys should be actively ticketing these matters year round and not simply ignoring them at other times of the year. At other times of the year it seems the RCIP don't really care about ticketingfor these offences and people become complacent. Look at the window tinting problem. A few years ago it was a hot topic and the RCIP were actively removing it at road checks. Yet now? Not so much……..Keep up the pressure and eventually public opinion will change.
I want to know what else the RCIP and government are doing to improve driving standards on our roads? For one, driving licences issued by certain other jurisdictions should NOT be automatically accepted here as an indication of ones ability to drive. Certain jurisdictions should require the licence holder to re-sit a test to demonstrate proper minimum driving standards. What about our own tests – are they strong enough to weed out those who cannot drive properly, or simply a rubber stamp to all to apply?
What about "professional" drivers such as taxi and bus drivers? They should be demonstrating a higher standard of driving. Where are the enforcement of good standards against this group of professional drivers? (professional in this instance means they get paid for it, rather than an indication of high standards). Same for lorry and truck drivers.
Where are the public information campaigns? The UK and the USA had some VERY hard-hitting campaigns about drink driving showing deaths and those maimed by DUI as a deterent. To a large degree it worked and drinking and driving is now so socially unacceptable only a hardcore do it. Where are these campaigns here?
Cayman seems to have a lot of growing up to do still…….
The figures show that the campaign to make our roads safer should not be an annual event. The Police clearly need to keep up the effort for the rest of 2013 if they are serious about road safety.