Sydney, Sep 8 (DPA) Church bells rang out across Samoa as the island nation joined its South Pacific neighbours in driving on the left of the road instead of keeping to the right as former colonial master Germany did a century ago.
Ignoring express instructions from Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele to observe a two-day public holiday and stay home, Samoa’s 20,000 motorists couldn’t wait to try out the new experience Monday.
“Do not drive if you are 15 or 16, only those over 21 should drive, and don’t drive if you are sleepy, drunk or have just had a fight with your wife,” Tuilaepa instructed the nation in a broadcast.
Extra speed bumps, lower speed limits and a ban on the sale of alcohol helped Samoans prepare for becoming the first country since Ghana in 1974 to change sides in traffic.
The move divided this legendarily happy-go-lucky country with two-thirds of the 180,000 population signing a petition drawn up by People Against Switching Sides (PASS) that rejected parity with Australia and New Zealand.
The prime minister’s argument was that importing vehicles from the US was unnecessarily expensive and could be avoided by sourcing cars from neighbouring Australia and New Zealand.
PASS brought out the biggest crowds since independence from New Zealand in 1962 for street protests urging Tuilaepa to think again.
New road signage was defaced and road markings giving the new directions painted over.
“There are some of you who ruined the signs,” Tuilaepa said in his changeover broadcast. “This is not good.”
But predictions of civil unrest and traffic chaos have not come to pass, with Apia, the capital, in party mode and no serious accidents reported in the island paradise midway between Hawaii and New Zealand in the Polynesian region of the South Pacific.
The prime minister was taking no chances. Despite promising to be behind the wheel for the big switch, Tuilaepa opted to be chauffer-driven on his official changeover road trip around Upolu, the main island and home to two-thirds of the population.
