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Source: ONE News -
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Samoans are bracing themselves for a crash, and not the type triggered by the global financial crisis.
The tiny South Pacific nation is six months away from switching to driving Australian-style on the left side of the road after more than a century on the right.
The move, set down for midnight on September 7, is driving the country into political and financial turmoil, with many predicting "total chaos" nationwide.
"So we just wake up one morning and pull out of our driveways onto the other side of the road, do we?" says Toleafoa Toailoa, who heads People Against Switching Sides (PASS).
"Cars are going to crash, people are going to die, not to mention the huge expense to our small country.
"It will be a nightmare and for very little benefit from what we can see."
Samoa and its closest neighbour, American Samoa, have been driving on the right since a period of German rule between 1900 and 1914.
All other South Pacific nations do the opposite.
The switch is the brain child of Samoa's prime minister, Tuilaepa Sailele, who announced the change without a referendum in late 2007 and has been unrepentant since.
"It's pure commonsense and anyone who says otherwise is not thinking properly," Tuilaepa told AAP.
His argument is that more than 90% of Samoans choose to emigrate to Australia or New Zealand, "so having the same traffic laws will just make it less complicated when they go, and when they come back to visit".
The 250,000 Samoans living in these countries would also be able to easily send cars home to their extended families.
And Samoa could import second-hand right-hand drive (RHD) vehicles from Japan, a cheaper option than the more expensive, gas
guzzling American left-hand drives (LHDs), which have dominated streets in the capital Apia.
"People will be able to afford cars for the first time," Tuilaepa says.
But the logic of the change is lost on most.
It has triggered two of the biggest protests in the country's history, with 20,000 of the 180,000 residents taking to the streets with banners each time.
More than 30,000 people signed a petition and a political party, called the People's Party, was spawned.
"The public wanted to be consulted but instead they were just told," says Toailoa.
"It smacks in the face of good governance.
"Imagine if the prime minister of Australia just woke up one morning and informed the nation they would soon be driving on the other side.
"There'd be a riot, I'm sure."
Then, says Toailoa, there are the "nightmarish" practicalities of the change.
At present, 85% of the country's 20,000 cars are American-style LHDs.
"That means when the new law comes in drivers will be sitting on the far edges of the road and inviting crashes," he says.
"And everyone, including pedestrians, is going to have to relearn a whole new set of rules, not without serious mishaps I'm sure."
A training loop has been set up in Apia town centre to help drivers get the hang of the new rule, but Toailoa says drivers have been too terrified to use it.
Sweden and Iceland were the last countries to swap sides, moving from left to right in the early 1960s, also without popular support.
"But their cars were already left hand drive and they had to link up properly with their neighbours," he says.
"It made perfect sense for them, but we're not in Europe and we don't have the money, the infrastructure or the planning to pull it off."
Business people have also baulked at the change, with Samoa's Chamber of Commerce estimating it will cost the economy at least
790 million Samoan tala ($NZD 488 million) to initiate.
Car dealers are hurting the most. Hyundai importer, Perth man Ken Newton, says his annual sales of 250 cars halted on the day the
change was announced.
"No one has wanted to buy a left-hand drive since and there's an absolute reluctance to buy a right-hand drive so we've been buggered," says Newton, who has borrowed heavily and started importing second-hand vehicles to compete.
The 40 vehicles in his rental car company will also have to be replaced because tourists would not drive LHDs, he says.
"We're hurting, and there's no logic, no explanation, just madness.
"As far as we're concerned the prime minister has flipped a lid."
But Tuilaepa won't back down.
He says the costs are manageable, four million Samoan tala ($NZD 2.3 million) in the first year, and he argues the streets will be safer than ever.
"All this talk about accidents is just stupid," the prime minister says.
"The 7th and the 8th are holidays to help people get used to it, and then after that they'll be driving more carefully than ever because it will be so different."
The change is still not a fait accompli however, with PASS launching a court challenge to determine the legality of the act that will bring about the change.
PASS claims the provisions of the act are unconstitutional and void, but Tuilaepa has little time for the debate.
"It's happening. These people just need to get used to it."