Government votes to lower drink-drive limit

Lawmakers on Monday unanimously voted to pass a bill that will reduce Cayman’s drink-drive limit by a third to help curtail what Attorney General Samuel Bulgin described as “carnage” on local roads.

So far this year, there have been 1,918 traffic accidents, including 13 fatalities, on Cayman’s streets – statistics that Premier Wayne Panton, who brought the successful motion to amend the Traffic Act, described as “harrowing” and “unacceptably high”.

The amendment to the Traffic Act will see limit of blood-alcohol content for drivers reduced from 0.1% to 0.07%, bringing it closer to the worldwide average, which is 0.06%.

The current limit of 0.1% is among the most lenient in the world, the premier noted.

Bulgin, in his address to the House on the amendment, described a general lack of due care and attention on the roads, as well as a “lack of civility”, giving examples of speeding, drivers cutting each other off, using cellphones while driving, refusing to use indicators, and road rage. “This has contributed to the carnage… on our streets,” he said.

Deputy Premier Franz Manderson, in the debate, delivered an update on the number of road traffic accidents and DUIs, which he said had been received from the Royal Cayman Islands Police Service at a National Security Council meeting late last month.

So far this year, he reported, there have been 1,918 motor vehicle accidents, including 12 fatal accidents. In one of those crashes, a father and his infant daughter were killed.

Last year, 2,633 crashes were recorded – an average of 51 a week, Manderson noted. This was a 22% increase over 2020. He also said that, so far this year, police have dealt with 2,678 incidents of speeding.

Manderson pointed out that police issued 312 DUI summonses last year. Of those, 26% involved people who were found to be twice the drink-drive limit, and 2% were three times over the limit. More than a third – 36% – of those who were found to be over the limit were involved in a collision.

“This bill can save lives,” the deputy governor said, as he urged motorists to not drink and drive, and consider that they’re not just putting their lives at risk, but the lives and health of others.

He added that Cayman should have a goal of having a year where are zero fatalities on the local roads, while noting that he could not find a year, in a search of archives, where there had been no reports of a road fatality.

‘Brave’ decision

Manderson commended the premier for bringing the motion to amend the bill, acknowledging that it may be an unpopular move. “The government has done a very brave thing, not a necessarily popular thing, but definitely the right thing in bringing this amendment,” he said.

Panton explained that he had decided to bring the amendment to Parliament, rather than asking any other member of his PACT government to do so, because “I felt, as premier, that I should bring it, that I should carry the burden of it if it’s not the most popular thing to do”.

Referring to a World Health Organization report, Panton pointed out that the leading cause of death among young people is traffic accidents.

As well as road accidents costing Cayman “immeasurable emotional trauma” in terms of loss of life, he noted there are also devastating financial issues for families who find themselves having to cover large medical bills for injuries and care, as well as impacts on companies that lose workers and productivity.

“This is about all those things, but importantly, it’s about saving lives,” he said. “And, even more importantly, statistically, it’s about saving young lives.”

Panton said that Cayman, as a society, has accepted drink-driving for far too long.

He pointed out that Cayman’s current 0.1% limit, which is double the average limit in Europe, and 40% higher than the world’s average of 0.06%, “is sending a signal that we are more tolerant of drink driving”.

The premier said the average number of people who had lost their lives in traffic accidents over recent years had been eight to nine, but so far this year, 13 people had died. “There’s a tragedy going on here on our roads, and alcohol plays too significant a role in it, and we have to send a very strong message,” he added.

The new limit, which will come into effect once the amendment is enacted, means that the legal blood-alcohol limit will be reduced from 100 milligrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of blood to 70 milligrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of blood.