Thousands of people used the the Purple Ribbon Bus free shuttle service during the New Year’s Eve celebrations.
Now in its 22nd year, the annual road safety campaign, which is organised by the National Drug Council and sponsored by Compass Media, provides free bus rides to the public to help deter motorists from drinking and driving.
“This year we had 3,619 riders on New Year’s Eve between the hours of 9pm and 3am”, said Delisa Hernandez of the NDC, while speaking on Radio Cayman’s ‘Business Buzz’ talk show on Thursday, 12 Jan.
According to Hernandez, the number of participants in this year’s programme represented an 18% increase over the 2,942 participants from the previous year, which she said is a sign the programme has rebounded since COVID-19.
“We were really happy that people came out and utilised the services for the purpose it was served,” she said.
This year, there were 14 buses which were stationed across 10 terminals scattered from West Bay to North Side, along with an additional four buses stationed on Cayman Brac.
In addition to the shuttle service, the NDC also partnered with a combined 114 restaurants and bars, which gave free non-alcoholic beverages to people who identified themselves as designated drivers and showed their purple ribbon key chains.
“Overall, it was a win for us,” said Hernandez.
The NDC’s efforts are part of a wider national attempt to put the breaks on drink-driving.
In Oct. 2022 lawmakers dropped the drink-drive limits from 0.100 milligrammes of alcohol in 100 milliliters of blood to 0.07 milligrammes, or 0.07%, bringing it closer to the worldwide average of 0.06%.
Then, in December, the RICPS held its annual Winter Guardian campaign, which ran from 1 Dec. to 2 Jan.
During their road safety campaign, 35 DUI arrests were made, however it is not clear how many of those were made on New Year’s Eve itself.
A person convicted of driving under the influence of alcohol, or drugs, in Cayman is liable on a first offence, to a fine of $1,000 or to imprisonment for six months, or both. On a second or subsequent offence, they can be fined up to $2,000 and to imprisonment for 12 months, or both. Also, on a first or any subsequent offence, a driver convicted of DUI is liable to disqualification from driving for 12 months.
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