Drink-drive limit change hasn’t reduced DUIs or crashes

In October 2022, Cayman reduced its legal blood-alcohol limit for driving from 0.1% to 0.07%. More than two-and-a-half years later, police are acknowledging that this has made little or no difference to DUI cases or collisions in the islands.

RCIPS Superintendent Roje Williams, speaking at a police media briefing on 14 May, when asked about the impact of the drink-driving limit change, responded, “I think, based on the data, nothing really has changed in terms of DUI.”

In 2023, the first year of statistics available after the reduced limit was introduced, police made 282 DUI arrests. Last year, police made 281 DUI arrests.

Of those arrested last year, 67% were found to be double the new drink-drive limit and 25% were three times or more over the limit.

“In short, what we’ve seen is that most persons are still hitting well over the [0.1%] limit, as it was previously,” Williams said.

The new limit meant that the amount of alcohol a driver legally can have in his or her system while in charge of a vehicle was reduced from 100 milligrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of blood to 70 milligrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of blood.

Legislators, in debating the proposed change in 2022, had expressed hope that by reducing the drink-drive limit, the number of collisions on local roads would drop, but that has not proved to be the case.

Criminalising DUIs

At the time, the then premier, Wayne Panton, speaking in Parliament about the proposed change to the law, had said, “There’s a tragedy going on here on our roads, and alcohol plays too significant a role in it, and we have to send a very strong message.”

Now, Commissioner of Police Kurt Walton says he wants to send an even stronger message, and talk to lawmakers about making DUI a criminal, rather than a traffic, offence.

He noted at the press briefing that police are finding that the cause of most fatal traffic accidents in Cayman is driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

Last year, 3,253 motor vehicles accidents were reported in Cayman, including 11 fatal collisions in which 14 people were killed, compared to nine fatal accidents resulting in nine deaths in 2023.

Walton said the culture of drink-driving in Cayman “needs to change”, adding that the only way to alter it is to “force it on people”, and start giving criminal convictions to people who drive while drunk and endanger the lives of others.

“It is time to start thinking that way, which will impact on your ability to travel [overseas]. So, that’s the sort of discussion I intend to have [with the new government],” he said.

He added, “If you continue to drink and drive, start looking forward to a criminal conviction recorded against you.”

The commissioner said he intends to explore the introduction of mandatory minimum sentences for hit and runs, DUIs involving dangerous or reckless driving, or driving at such high speeds that the drivers put other road users in danger.

He confirmed that, as of 14 May, no charges had been brought against drivers arrested in connection with hit-and-run collisions in which cyclists were knocked down in two separate incidents last month.

Per Undheim, a 39-year-old father of two, was struck and killed while cycling through Bodden Town on 21 April. Four days later, another cyclist was badly injured by a car on South Church Street. Both drivers were subsequently arrested.

Road-rage case with prosecutor’s office

In an update on a road-rage case involving a confrontation in February between two drivers, one aged 72 and the other aged 17, Walton confirmed that police had completed their investigation and sent a file to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions.

That case caused public outrage after video footage shot by passing motorists appeared to show the older driver of a Tesla Cybertruck opening the driver’s door of the teen’s SUV and confronting the young man, who remained seated in the vehicle. The teenager then appears to defend himself and grabs the man in a headlock.

When police arrived at the scene, they arrested the teenager on suspicion of assault causing actual bodily harm “as a result of the facial injuries sustained by the other driver”, the RCIPS said at the time.