Cops net 8 DUIs in first weekend of campaign

| 02/12/2013

(CNS): Eight drivers were arrested this weekend for driving under the influence of booze, in the first weekend of the RCIPS’ annual road safety campaign and clampdown on poor driving. Another two drivers were arrested for driving while disqualified and a third for not being qualified to drive. The road safety initiative, called ‘Stay Alive’, which is aimed at drunk drivers and others who commit traffic offences, is designed to cut down on the number of accidents that plague the roads across Cayman. With eleven people arrested in the first three days, Superintendent Adrian Seales, the man leading the campaign, said he was disappointed that so many people chose to ignore the warnings.

“How many times do we have to tell people that they will be caught?” he asked rhetorically following the eleven arrests.

Last week news reports appeared in all of the local media about the start of the campaign, but with drinking and driving so commonplace, the police still picked up eight drivers who were over the limit.

“Drinking and driving is endemic on this Island,” Seales said. “How hard can it be to designate a driver, or make alternative arrangements to get home? We are lucky that no one was seriously injured, or worse, as a result of this stupid behaviour. In addition, do people who have either been disqualified or who aren’t qualified to drive honestly believe that they will get away with it? Being disqualified means that you have been caught, prosecutedand found guilty of a previous offence – clearly some people just don’t learn. It’s disgraceful and downright dangerous. People may not care about their own safety – but what does this say about how little they regard the safety of innocent road users?”

The seasonal road safety drive began on Friday 29 November and it will now run through until the New Year, ending on 5 January. Although raising awareness about the dangers of drinking and driving is at the forefront of the campaign as a result of the Christmas and New Year festivities, the police will also be on the lookout for various other traffic infractions, from speeding to using mobile phones behind the wheel.

With six fatalities on Cayman’s roads this year, the police are hoping that the awareness campaign will prevent that number from increasing during the holiday period.

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  1. Anonymous says:

    It's a shame the Police cannot do this every weekend/week not just this time of year. Ticketing all law breakers will make them self sufficient! I am fed up risking my and childrens life every morning on the round abouts by some one who insists that they are for over taking!! PLEASE SLOW DOWN on the round abouts and stop lane hopping/forcing your selves in on the merge lanes when we have all been in the correct lane from the start! And the idiot Motor cyclist who insists on doing wheelies  when I am signling right I am turning right, if you were in the speed limit you would have waited

     

  2. Anonymous says:

    The photos of everyone convicted should be plastered around the islands on posters.

  3. Anonymous says:

    I know this has been said on here in the comments below and almost everytime the DUI topic comes up but I'm going to say it again, can always hope someone reads it and does something.  While I am completely against drinking and driving, I realise that people here like to drink, and when you give them no other choice they are going to drive.  I believe if Cayman had a decent bus system, i.e. decent buses and drivers, that ran through the night, or reduced the prices of the rip-off taxis, then you would see the number of DUI's drop by alot.  Then maybe the police would have some time to work on the people who can't drive sober :).

    • Anonymous says:

      If you can't get home legally you don't drink.  There is no other position.

      • Anonymous says:

        I think you both kind of missed the point.  While there is no excuse for drinking and driving and I agree there are alternatives, my point is purely that I think if there was a bus system or cheaper taxis there would be alot less people drinking and driving. 

        • Anonymous says:

          I agree with the point. The point isn't about whether or not drinking and driving is acceptable or excusable. The point is that people do it and it would be good to find ways to minimize how much people do it other than just saying that they shouldn't. Clearly, saying that there is no excuse and saying that it's wrong and saying this, that or the other, ISN'T working to reduce the number of people drinking and driving. 

          However, if easy alternatives were more common, (in other words, instead of just saying something we actually DID something), perhaps the incidence of drinking and driving would go down. 

          The point isn't that there are excuses. The point is that if there more alternatives, perhaps less people would drink and drive. It's a fact that the bus and taxi system on this island is substandard, expensive and inconvenient at best. Yep… hypocrits to spend money on drinking and not on the taxi. You bet, but it's also fact. And perhaps if the bus or taxi was more convenient, it would also be fact that less people would drink and drive. Again, not an excuse, just an idea to reduce the number of people doing it. 

          Here is an analogy: people shouldn't steal but they still do. I'm pretty sure that just repeatedly saying that it's wrong, there is no excuse and that people shouldn't steal isn't exactly the best way to convince the criminals to stop.

    • Anonymous says:

      Selfish drunkards should realize there are more choices than drive or taxi: know your limit, walk, sleep it off in the backseat, designate a driver, call a friend, call the scooter guys, crash at a friend's house, crash on the beach, cuddle with Kirky on a park bench, do anything other than get in the driver's seat of your vehicle and possibly kill or severely injure yourself of other people and property.  The consequences of the selfish decision to drive may haunt you, your family, and possibly other families forever.  No night of binge drinking is ever worth that.  If you don't think it will happen to you, you're wrong.

      • Anonymous says:

        and that's the problem…………when there is talk about DUI, everyone pictures someone who just had a "binge drinking" session. Drunk driving means in many cases driving after just 3 drinks (which is not "binge" drinking when one is out from 8 to midnight), depending on who the person is (weight, height, female/male, have they eaten etc).

        We need to get that picture out of our head that the ones arrested for DUIs or the ones who drink and drive are all borderline alcoholics………..

        • Anonymous says:

          No, I am definitely picturing the type of selfish idiot who drives after "just 3 drinks" which dramatically impairs driving and puts inncocent people at risk of their lives or serious injuries,  If you are driving you stop at one drink.  if you can't stop at one drink don't drive.  You are certainly part of the problem.

  4. Anonymous says:

    that's all!!!! shoot with all the drunk people on the road, that's all you could net? The RCIPS could be arresting atleast 100 people for DUI everyday, and this is not just this time of year. they could probable arrest 200 easily every night over the next month.. I either use a taxi, have someone drive me for the night or the little scooter guys, worst case i drink at home!!!!

  5. Anonymous says:

    I actually had a female cab driver drop me home, get out her cab, drop her kecks, bend over and spray the road like a horse just out side my driveway. True story. Would have made a great impression on a tourist.

  6. Lock, Stock says:

    I have been saying this for years now – if this island was serious about drink driving it will regulate the taxi industry. Its very simple really – when under the influence of alcohol one's judgment is impaired, under such conditions driving home intoxicated or paying a small ransom for a taxi fare will most likely fall on the side of driving home. We need to reasoanble fares to try and make the decision go the other way. 

    • Anonymous says:

      Folks that set out with the ambition to get drunk, shouldn't be leaving their home to begin that campaign driving their own cars.  Too often they do.  I agree taxi rates are high, but being a responsible adult and knowing your limit has nothing to do with taxi fares.  Try peddling that excuse to the widow, or the parents that have lost a loved one to a drunk driver and see what happens.  Get a designated driver, call a friend, hire the scooter drive home service, crash at a friend's house, sleep it off on the beach.  Plenty of permissible alternatives to endangering the public with selfishness.

  7. Anonymous says:

    The true disappointment is that the public have asked and paid for a functional year-round traffic department and in return get this half-baked seasonal campaign that snares a tiny amount of the daily problem.  Consequently, our laws are disregarded, the roadways are filled with aggression, gangs proliferate, violent crime escalates, and innocent people die in this "catch me if you can" gambit.  The attitude is so pervasive that bartenders whisper to patrons to have another one and keep drinking because there is a roadblock up the road!  RCIPS, please don't announce that you are going to stop doing your job on January 5th each year!!  Please be smarter than that!

    • Anonymous says:

      Well said. Why should the Police announce what they're planning to do anyway and alert the perpetrators beforehand? Traffic policing should be a daily regimen and not seasonal then perhaps we see a reduction in speeding, talking/texting on cellphones whilst driving, illegal tinted windows & lights, noisy cars and trucks, faulty lights, etc, etc. We're paying for, and deserve better safety on our roads every day of the year! And while they're doing the roadblocks can they also place Police cars at junctions where drivers simply turnaround and avoid the roadblocks ahead.

  8. Anonymous says:

    Glad to hear about the arrests.   What I wonder is this:   Is drinking and driving exponentially increased during the holidays, or is enforcement just ramped up during this time?   Probably both, but if more the latter, why isn't this level of police action common throughout the year?

    • Anonymous says:

      And what about the dangerous driving? At 06.20 this morning I followed (thankfully only followed) the CIG Disabled School bus. I wanted to get off ETH onto SMB by Blue Cilantro and the bus did the same, only from the outside lane of the roundabout…had it been a little busier, it would have got hit for sure…and that kind of driving for the disabled? I followed him down towards GT and he managed to take up most of the road swinging into Wendy's…he or she should be fired, appalling driving.

      • Anonymous says:

        I've driven behind the same bus, its scary on the bypass it swerving from lane to lane.

      • Anonymous says:

        Don't you exit roundabouts from the outside lane?

  9. Anonymous says:

    Fuel in England is more expensive than in Cayman, there is more competition for fares and drivers incomes are taxed yet i can get from one side of my city to the other for £8 ($12). Please explain why in Cayman it costs $40 to get from Camana Bay to South Church Street!

    • Anonymous says:

      Greed, government failure, political patronage.

    • Anonymous says:

      Because they dont want to work, they just want to do a half dowzen runs a night till they make enough and then stop. Its not a public service they provide, apart from to themselves.

  10. Frank says:

    Regulate the mortgage payments taxis charge. The End. (I do not condone drinking and driving)

    • And AnotherTing says:

      This is a very serious subject, and has nothing to do with taxi fares. It is a well known fact that the consumption of alcohol increases during this time of the year. It is also well known that establishments that sell alcohol ramp up their offerings to attract patrons who then come out of the establishments four sheets to the wind. Now if the established norm is for places to be licensed to sell alcohol, and Governments profits from the importation duties and the licenses, how then does it become a criminal act to drink and drive?. 

  11. Anonymous says:

    Superintendent Seales can rhetorically question how many times the RCIPS have to repeat the mantra but reality is that 1) you have a fairly high chance of not getting caught most times unless  you have an accident or drive into a roadblock and 2) unless a reasonably priced, reliable alternative exists in the form of  either a good bus, a non thieving, unfriendly cab driver or a service that drives your car home for you ( which does exist), then unfortunately people will drink and drive forever more. 

    Only government can change any of the 2 scenarios here.

    disclaimer: I'm not condoning the practice but stating a fact here.

    • anonymous says:

      Too true. Why aren't the police arresting the taxi drivers for robbery as that is what it amounts to.

       

    • Anonymous says:

      The solution would be to dramatically increase the punsihment for DUIs to increase the opportunity cost of committing the crime.  Automatic jail time and the car being seised and sold would be a good start.

    • Ex-pat says:

      1) is so true. I'm back in the UK now but I lived in TI Resort and used to drink just about every night in GT. The number of times (and it's not something I'm proud of) I drove home well over the DUI limit is crazy but I never got stopped. Over here I wouldn't think about doing it. 

      RCIPS talk big but the reality is they, unlike our local police here, do not back it up with actions. 

       

      • Anonymous says:

        And one of the reasons you wouldnt think about it is because you have a reliable and cheap bus and taxi service to take you home – readily available