‘Hell on wheels’: Lawmakers support reducing speed limits

Cayman’s legislators have unanimously voted for government to consider reducing speed limits and increasing traffic fines in a bid to curb rising road fatalities and daily collisions.

Government backbencher West Bay West MP McKeeva Bush brought a private member’s motion in Parliament on Thursday calling for the changes, saying that Cayman’s roads need to be made “safer for everyone”.

This was one of three motions heard Thursday.

Call for careful driving

Pointing to Cayman’s road deaths nearing double digits this year, the MPs collectively said something had to be done.

Bush noted the daily struggles residents face with errant drivers, especially those traversing roads within communities where children and the elderly reside.

“I am asking for relief for the travelling public, for ourselves. There has to be hard decisions taken because the people who are doing this are not considerate and that is why we have to step up now,” he said.

Accidents can easily occur no matter how careful people are, but with lower limits and speed-calming measurers drivers will be forced to rethink their habits, he added.

“These speedsters are not adhering to careful driving so I say put in the road-calming measures, put them in on the main highway, if necessary, and I say reduce the speed limits. Cayman is too small for these speed limits,” Bush said.

He said he wants to see limits on the highway returned to 30 miles per hour and community roads dropped to 15 mph.

Truck drivers are also a danger to the community, he said, as small vehicles have no chance against them.

‘Hell on wheels’

Bush’s concerns were shared by all legislators who spoke on the motion as they each recounted personal and reported instances of risky driving practices.

Savannah MP Heather Bodden said with the Royal Cayman Islands Police Service reporting over 50 vehicle accidents per week “it is evident that existing speed-calming mechanisms and current regulations are insufficient”.

“We have major issues all over the islands with reckless driving,” she said, adding that daily she witnesses “hell on wheels” with the truck drivers who speed through her constituency.

“This is not a matter that we can afford to ignore any longer. The current situation is dire and demands immediate and decisive action. There is an urgent need to enforce stricter road-safety measures and increase penalties for speeding and dangerous driving,” she said, adding that Hirst and Shamrock roads are like “race tracks”.

Opposition Leader Roy McTaggart also spoke to the rise in deaths this year with six people being killed on the Shamrock Road stretch.

“What is happening in our roads, that’s not Cayman, that’s not us, and we really need to to bring this under control,” he said.

Transport Minister Jay Ebanks gave his support to the motion, but he stressed that “improving road safety cannot done by enforcement and engineering alone”.

“It requires a community buy-in and a change of people’s behaviour on the roads, which takes time and focused efforts,” he said, adding that the work of the National Road Safety Committee continues.

The MPs pointed to statistics from the RCIPS, which show 4,654 offences recorded in relation to speeding.

Action on East West Arterial

Both Bodden Town MPs, Dwayne Seymour and Chris Saunders, once again called for the East West Arterial extension to be constructed saying that the eastern communities have been waiting too long for relief.

Saunders said though the population has grown, the infrastructure has remained at “one road up and one road down”, and this has to change.

Seymour pointed to the negative effect on the quality of life for residents commuting from  the eastern districts without the extension, because they have to leave home early and arrive home late due to traffic congestion.

He also lamented the poor driving practices by some bus drivers who engage in risky actions.

“We have people who have come to this country as passengers and have gone back home as cargo because of the same thing,” he said.

Acting Premier André Ebanks, speaking to the motion, said that at times there seems to be  “a free-for-all on our roads”.

He also suggested implementing legislation to introduce maintenance orders against drunk drivers so that families who lose a breadwinner to a reckless driver will not face financial hardship.