New device tracks speed
Drivers travelling along Linford Pierson Highway Tuesday afternoon were clocked at speeds as low as 16 miles-per-hour.
That’s pretty slow for the central George Town road, which Police Constable Tim Balls said is consistently one of the worst areas for speeding in Grand Cayman.
The new radar trailer was set up Tuesday along Linford Pierson Highway.Photo: Brent Fuller
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A nine foot-high electronic sign that was posting the speeds of drivers coming through may have had something to do with it.
‘If you sit here and watch traffic coming….people are noticing,’ said Constable Balls.
The Royal Cayman Islands Police Service is now using the first of what may end up being several radar speed trailers to monitor traffic in various locations.
‘We’re trying to play on their conscience,’ Mr. Balls said.
The OnSite 350 mobile radar trailer, which the police purchased from Decatur Electronics of Illinois, USA, allows police to set a maximum speed for traffic in the area it monitors. If vehicles are travelling at or below that speed limit, the 18 inch sign on top of the trailer displays their speed. If they go over the high-speed limit, the sign flashes that speed repeatedly.
RCIPS traffic officers said the radar trailer does not have to be monitored to record data. A data logger device can be installed to keep track of things like maximum speeds, average speeds, and the total number of vehicles travelling in an area.
However, police can also use the monitor to catch speeders in the act if officers stake out a location near the trailer.
The trailer’s directional radar can be set up to monitor vehicle traffic up to three-quarters of a mile away, depending on weather and road conditions.
Cayman Islands Road Safety Advisory Committee Chairperson Aileen Samuel said that’s a key distinction in regard to the safety of the device.
Ms Samuel said similar traffic devices used in Canada only record the speed of vehicles when they’re passing the electronic sign, which often caused rubber-necking as drivers looked over to see how fast they were going.
‘I think (the radar device RCIPS is using) is more in the right direction,’ Ms Samuel said. ‘I wish there were 10 and not just one.’
Constable Balls said the large trailer devices aren’t exactly inconspicuous, but he admits they may sneak up on some motorists.
‘We don’t want people crashing because they’ve seen our nice new machine,’ he said. ‘But if it’s out at night-time, chances are you probably won’t see it until it lights up.’
The radar trailer also allows police the flexibility to install other traffic monitoring technologies in the future.
‘This is not designated as a speed camera, at the moment we are not using it for that,’ said Constable Balls. However, he did agree that such devices could eventually be set up on the trailer.
The radar trailer itself is at the experimental stage, according to RCIPS.
‘We are going to see how this works, and if it is really effective, as we suspect it will be…then we’ll get more,’ said Police Department Chief Superintendent John Jones. ‘We’re not looking at taking photographs of people driving their cars; we’re looking at recording the speed of vehicles.’
The radar trailers will cost RCIPS around US $13,000 each.
‘$13,000 when you look at the price of a life lost is peanuts,’ Superintendent Jones said.
Three people have died this year on Cayman Islands roads. Two of them were young men killed in one-car crashes where police said speeding may have played a role.
Last year, 14 people died in car accidents in Grand Cayman; including an 18, 19 and 21 year old man in two separate wrecks right before Christmas.
‘The fact is too many people are dying on the roads of the Cayman Islands and we need to do something about it,’ said Mr. Jones.
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