R.C.I.P.S records 23 DUI’s in first 19 days in December

More than half of traffic arrests in December have been for drunk driving offences. According to the R.C.I.P.S 41 people were arrested for traffic-related offences as of 19 December 23 they were D.U.I offences and Cayman 27’s Philipp Richter has more.
Police are sounding a warning to drivers to stop drinking and driving, this as they have already netted 23 drunk drivers as of December 19, that’s three shy of last December’s overall total of 26.

“You’re also looking at the possibility of a person intoxicated getting into an accident, causing death and ending up in prison because of it,” said Acting Chief Inspector for Traffic and Roads Policing Unit, Everton Spence.

Everton Spence the acting Chief Inspector for traffic and roads policing unit said the R.C.I.P.S is familiar with the rise of road incidents because of the holiday season, but they there’s a worrying trend.

“The significance thing about the arrests for dui however is in some of these there is an inordinately high level of intoxication where person are found to be more than double the intoxication limit,” said Mr. Spence.

The police say they have been seeing cases of people with a blood alcohol level of over 0.2%, that’s double the legal limit of 0.1%, which is around five units according to prevention officer for the national drug council, Juneau Barnett.

“To reach that you have to be drinking 10-12 drinks in a row consistently for between an hour or two hours, especially if you do it in a short amount of time,” said Mr. Barnett.

Mr. Spence says everyone has a role to play, he also asks the public to step in as well to make the roads safer for the greater community.

“So if a member of the public sees someone going into a car and they appear to be intoxicated, that person can speak to that person, if they don’t feel comfortable doing that then they can call the police ,” said Mr. Spence.

The National Drug council has rolled out their Purple Ribbon Bus Programme, for the 17th year, providing the public with free bus service on New Year’s Eve.

http://www.ndc.ky/dd-purple-ribbon-bus.html