Sydney, Sep 7 (DPA) Samoa’s 20,000 motorists were bracing for road rage Monday as the South Pacific island nation switches to driving on the left after keeping to the right in the 100 years since it was a German colony.
Speed bumps, a two-day national holiday to keep most vehicles off the road, new speed limits and a practice track in the capital Apia – as well as a two-day ban on the sale of alcohol – are among the preparations for Samoa becoming the first country since Ghana in 1974 to swap sides.
But two-thirds of the 180,000 population have signed a petition rejecting a switch that would bring Samoa into line with its neighbours and with Australia and New Zealand.
“Cars are going to crash, people are going to die – not to mention the huge expense to our country,” said Tole’afoa Somona Toa’iloa, a lawyer hired by the lobby group People Against Switching Sides (PASS).
He argued that it was ridiculous for Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele to say that it takes less than three minutes to learn to drive on a different side of the road.
“I am speaking from experience,” Sailele famously said, recounting the time he drove from France to Britain and encountered no difficulty in changing the habits of a lifetime when his car rolled off the Channel ferry. “Within two minutes I knew how to drive.”
The prime minister, who said the shift would mean cheaper cars from Australia and New Zealand, promised to be behind the wheel at the changeover so that he would not be called a coward.
Samoa, which became independent in 1962, is famous for its relaxed lifestyle. But the switch has eased islanders out of their customary torpor and provoked some less-than-pacific behaviour.
New road signs have been vandalised and some villages have threatened to set alight vehicles that don’t stay on the right.
Minister of Transport Tuisugaletaua Sofara Aveao admitted their had been trouble.
“Some people of Laulii have been identified, so police are dealing with that,” he said. “It’s not the whole village, and the village is also working with us to try and bring the renegades on board so to speak, but it’s a very small minority.”
The largest-ever street protest in the tiny nation’s history is testimony that those against the change are far from the “very small minority” he claims.
PASS spokeswoman Veo Papa complained the change had been pushed through without proper consultations.
“They have to be able to express their frustration in some way,” she said. “I just hope that the frustration and anger as we approach the day… is not going to spark violence.”
