If the results of a recent cayCompass.com
online poll are any indication, a lot of residents in the Cayman Islands
continue to break the law.
The law we are speaking of is the Traffic
Law, which was amended last year to make it an offence to drive a motor vehicle
and talk, text or e-mail on a hand-held mobile telephone. Those caught breaking
this law are subject to a $150 fine and the Royal Cayman Islands Police Service
has ticketed several people for this offence since the law went into effect
last September.
However, the problem persists and in
February, a multi-agency campaign was launched to address the problem of those
who continue to ignore the law and use their handheld mobile devices while driving.
The police service issued a half dozen citations for the offence in one week in
February.
But if the results of our online poll even
come close to what is actually happening, the police could have issued hundreds
more. More than 45 per cent of the poll respondents indicated they talk on a
handheld mobile telephone either sometimes or quite often while driving. Even
with a high margin of error in this non-scientific poll, that’s a lot of
lawbreakers.
Many people continue to think that they
have an absolute right to talk on a cell phone while driving. Those who said
they do obey the law commented in our poll that they often see people chatting
away or texting on a mobile device while they drive. We absolutely believe
these people because we see it all the time ourselves.
We’re sure our police officers are busy and
that issuing tickets to traffic offenders is not at the top of their agenda.
However, civil obedience starts by obeying all the laws and to allow anyone to
flagrantly break a law that is being enforced in other cases is to promote the
violation of this and other laws by others.
Lawbreakers are lawbreakers and we call on
the police service to enforce the handheld mobile ban while driving with a
heavy hand.
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