Nine accidents every day on Cayman’s roads

There were a staggering nine accidents every day on Cayman’s roads last year, as driving standards plummeted to new lows.

Speeding and drinking appear to be the biggest contributors to the chaos.

Traffic cops issued record numbers of speeding tickets and drink-driving surged in a year which saw nine deaths and more than 400 people injured in collisions.

Out of 270 people prosecuted for driving under the influence of alcohol, a third were more than three times over the legal limit.

Speeding offences increased by more than 50% in 2023 compared to the previous year, with police issuing 4,654 tickets, according to the latest annual statistics released by the RCIPS.

That represents a 52% increase from the 3,063 tickets written the previous year.

According to the RCIPS, 10,716 traffic offences were recorded during 2023, an increase of 14%, or 1,279, from the previous year.

Police said long, uninterrupted stretches of roadways such as the Esterley Tibbetts Highway, Linford Pierson Highway, Rex Crighton Boulevard and Hurley Merren Boulevard popular locations for speeders.

“We deployed a unit specifically in the eastern districts because we were getting complaints about speeding… which immediately saw an increase in prosecutions over the year,” said Police Commissioner Kurt Walton, at a press conference presenting the RCIPS 2023 Crime and Traffic Statistics Report, on Wednesday, 24 April.

In addition to the increase in traffic offences, Walton also revealed a 3.9% rise in crime.

Civil disputes, public and environmental complaints, false alarms, and callouts from people in distress or danger, were the leading areas that resulted in an overall 7% increase in requests for service from police by members of the public.

According to Walton, his officers had responded to 37,866 incident reports – 2,544 more than in 2022.

However, of the tens of thousands of reports from the public, only a fraction were criminal, said Walton, noting, “3,955 crimes were recorded, so that’s a reflection of 10% of all the calls for service”.

Atop the list of criminal offences in 2023 were acquisitive crimes such as thefts, burglaries and robberies, which resulted in 1,469 reports, a 20% increase from the previous year’s report of 1,222 incidents.

Domestic violence was the next most prevalent form of crime with 399 such reports – 22 more than the previous year.

Sexual crimes, such as rape, indecent assault, and defilement of a young child increased by nine compared to the year before for a total of 89 reports.

Gun-related crimes continued to plague the community with 44 armed robberies reported last year.

Crime below pre-pandemic numbers

While the annual crime statistics have shown a sustained increase over the past four years, these numbers are still below pre-pandemic levels.

According to the data released by the RCIPS, the combined criminal offences of 3,955 for 2023, was still fewer than the 4,124 reported incidents in 2019.

“We will continue to take a proactive approach to tackling firearms, whilst working with our partners both locally and regionally to remove illegal firearms and ammunition from the community,” said Walton.