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Prime Minister John Key - Source: Reuters -
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Prime Minister John Key says his motorcade in Samoa did not reach excessive speeds but was slowed down at his security personnel's request.
Media have reported that the motorcade, led by Samoan police taking Key from the airport to New Zealand's high commission, reached speeds of 100kmh to 120kmh.
Key told TV ONE's Breakfast that the maximum reached was about 65kmh but that was considered too fast.
"The feeling from our guys who with me, my protection people, was they were going a bit too fast," he says.
"My people went over to the Samoan police and said `look we want you to slow down'."
Key says the motorcade was quite long which made speed more of an issue.
"I've checked with them how quickly we were going, apparently the maximum was 40 miles an hour (the legal speed limit - nearly 65kmh). Those roads aren't built for fast motorcades. It was driven by Samoan police, they were the ones in leading the motorcade."
Key was visiting Samoa to see first-hand tsunami damage, arriving about midday on Friday local time and flying back later that evening.
Former prime minister Helen Clark's 2004 speeding motorcade dogged her for years.
The drivers who took her from Waimate to Christchurch airport at high speed-- so she could make a flight back to Wellington for an All Blacks rugby test in July, 2004 - were convicted but their convictions were later overturned.
