Royal Cayman Islands Police Service accident investigators have blamed excessive speed, drink driving or a combination of the two in each of the last four road deaths to occur in Grand Cayman.
Friday night’s one-car accident that killed 42-year-old Herman Byrd was the first deadly crash recorded here in 2012. However, within the past two months, four men have died in wrecks that caused horrific damage and that might have been prevented if safer driving practices had been employed.
According to RCIPS Chief Inspector Raymond Christian, the Mazda involved in Friday’s deadly wreck lost control going around a right hand turn on Sea View Road while heading west toward Bodden Town.
“The vehicle skidded across the right hand side of the road and collided with almond and coconut trees and then came to rest on the right shoulder of the road,” Mr. Christian said.
The Mazda, viewed in the police impound lot Saturday, was unrecognisable. The back half had been mostly ripped off and what was left of the roll bars and roof had been stripped away when firefighters were forced to use the ‘jaws of life’ to remove the driver from the car.
Despite the serious nature of the crash, Chief Inspector Christian said it occurred in such a remote area that no one reported the wreck until a police officer on patrol happened upon the scene. The exact time of the crash wasn’t known; the officer who found it reported the wreck at 10.24pm Friday.
Mr. Byrd was pronounced dead at the Cayman Islands Hospital just before midnight.
Mr. Christian said the car was travelling at “a high rate of speed” just before the driver lost control negotiating the right hand bend in the road.
Last month, investigators suspected high speed and alcohol played a role in a 28 December crash that killed Dwayne Cayasso, according to RCIPS Inspector Adrian Barnett.
The 26-year-old Mr. Cayasso was driving along the Linford Pierson Highway early that morning when the Honda Civic he was in veered off the road and crashed into a tree near the riding stables in George Town.
A 24-year-old passenger in the Civic survived. Mr. Cayasso was taken off life support and died the day after the wreck, police said.
Speed was identified as a factor in another early morning wreck that occurred just five days prior to Mr. Cayasso’s accident. In this case, a man driving a Honda Civic alone – identified as Richard Rivera, 39, of the Philippines – died about an hour after his car left the eastbound lanes of Shamrock Road and smashed into a tree. Accident investigators said they could not immediately determine whether alcohol had played a role in the 23 December crash.
In another case, a suspected drink driver was arrested after a deadly wreck on the Esterley Tibbetts Highway in George Town during the early morning hours of 30 November. The man killed in the wreck, identified as St. Matthew’s University graduate student Richard Martin, 52, was apparently giving another St. Matthew’s student a ride around 12.30am that Wednesday.
St. Matthew’s Dean of Basic Sciences, Dr, Senthil Kumar, said Mr. Martin and the younger student had been studying late Tuesday and the younger student had asked Mr. Martin for a ride home.
According to police and witnesses at the scene, Mr. Martin’s Honda Logo was headed northbound near Lakeside Villas on the Esterley Tibbetts. The turn off into the condo complex is just off the northbound lanes of the highway.
Police said the small Honda was struck by a Chevrolet Blazer, which was apparently driving the wrong way in the northbound lanes and veering off into the shoulder when the accident occurred.
In addition to the fatal crashes during the last two months, drink driving was blamed by police in the August 2011 crash that killed 25-year-old Karen Edwards in East End.
That accident happened on Sea View Road; the same road where Friday’s deadly wreck happened.
Mrs. Edwards was nine months pregnant. The driver was arrested on suspicion of drink driving and causing death by dangerous driving.
Mr. Christian said the car was travelling at “a high rate of speed” just before the driver lost control negotiating the right hand bend in the road.
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It is my belief that when alcohol or speed are a factor then it needs to be reported to the public so people will connect these factors with deadly driving practices.
I think it’s fair to say that speed and/or alcohol are the leading causes of road traffic deaths worldwide(i.e. this is not a Cayman-only problem). Speed in particular as kinetic energy quadruples when you double your speed, so going from 30 to 60 actually has FOUR times more force if you crash.
How to address it? Tougher drink-drive laws, education, campaigns, speed cameras and exortionate insurance prices for under 25 drivers are all ways and means used in other Countries which help the numbers of fatalities go down. And remember, the speed limit is posted for a reason.
Also, like so many things we can all play our part. Stop your friend from driving crazy; don’t let your friend get in to drive a car drunk.
OK this is a serious problem in Grand Cayman. So why is DUI treated with a shake of the finger and well try not to do that again. If the punishment is so severe for the crime — possibly more people would hand their keys over to someone who did not drink or find another way of going home.