Police road safety campaign ends

Driving under the influence, speeding and using a mobile phone while driving accounted for a significant number of arrests or ticketing during the Royal Cayman Islands Police Service’s annual road safety campaign, which ended Sunday.

Despite the fact that the number of offenses was an increase on the previous year, Inspector Adrian Barnett of the RCIPS Traffic Management Department considered the campaign to be a success.

“I do see it as successful,” he said. “Around the Christmas period we bring road safety to the forefront and offer some educational programs in the media to teach the public how to be better, lawful drivers.”

Inspector Barnett acknowledged that, despite being warned that the police would be stepping up their presence on the roads, a number of drivers still ignored the warnings. “We are frustrated that people continue to break the law,” he said, “but the RCIPS’s job is to prevent serious or fatal accidents, and campaigns such as this work very well as a preventative measure.

“I am happy to report that we did not have one fatality on the road throughout the December 2013 campaign.”

He emphasized that although the highlighted campaign had come to an end, drivers were not to take that as an indication that they could simply relax until next December.

“We remain as vigilant throughout the year,” he said, “and if motorists choose to ignore the rules of the road, they should know that sooner or later they will be caught.”

During the Stay Alive safety drive, which began on Nov. 29, there were 160 traffic accidents, and police arrested 49 traffic offenders.

Of those arrested, 32 were nabbed for driving under the influence. The other arrests were for a variety of traffic offenses, police said.

In addition, throughout the campaign, 82 people were ticketed for using a mobile phone while driving, 67 were stopped for speeding, and 26 for failing to wear seat belts.

Police said a total of 212 traffic offenses were dealt with during the campaign.