Most Shamrock Road speeders avoid citations

There’s a reason why police seldomly cite motorists for driving too fast on a Grand Cayman road that is notorious for speeding

Police statistics indicate that only 10 tickets for speeding on Shamrock Road were issued over the first nine months of 2026, despite having stretches in Spotts where speeding is prevalent.

A police spokeswoman explained that Shamrock Road, which extends about six miles from the Grand Harbour/Red Bay area into Bodden Town Road just past the Countryside Shopping Village, lacked safe places for police traffic patrols to park on some stretches.

“There is no safe place for the police to park and pull over cars on the Spotts straight, which would be the area of concern along this roadway, and this therefore results in fewer tickets being issued,” the police spokesperson said.

However, the spokesperson said that other steps had been taken to cut down on the risk of accidents in the area.

“Safety measures have been taken to ensure that this road is safer for road users,” she said, noting the medians that now separate the eastbound lane from the westbound lane.

The Spotts straight, a 1.5-mile stretch of Shamrock Road, is designated a high-risk area by the government.

About $500,000 was earmarked for road safety work in the area in 2024 after a string of fatal crashes, including the deaths of three people in the space of a week in July that year.

A 60-year-old man died and the driver of another car was seriously injured in a two-vehicle crash at about 2.30am near Pasture Drive in the first week of that month.

And a man and a woman were killed just a few days earlier after their BMW veered across the road and hit a utility pole and a wall.

The government blamed high speed as a primary cause of accidents on the road, which has a 40-mph limit.

Speeders ticketed in George Town

Although there were few speeding tickets issued along Shamrock Road in 2026 through the end of September, police cited nearly 600 motorists for driving too fast on two other roadways during the same time period.

The police said more than 530 tickets for driving over the speed limit had been issued on the Esterley Tibbetts Highway in the first three quarters of the year.

The road, which runs six miles from West Bay to the A. L. Thompson roundabout in George Town, topped three main roads by a huge margin for speed violations.

South Sound Road, which starts on South Church Street in George Town and runs about three miles to Red Bay Road, notched up more than 50 speeding tickets over the same period.

The police spokesman said the speeding ticket figures for the three roads could change during the crime and traffic statistics reporting after incidents had been properly analysed.