Samoa: Motorists forced to drive on left side of road

The South Pacific island of Samoa will next week become the first nation in decades to switch traffic flow from one side of the road to another.

Samoan prime minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi said the switch to the left side will go ahead as planned, despite protests in which 30,000 marched through the streets of the capital Apia saying drivers have not been sufficiently prepared.

The government wants to bring Samoa in line with driving customs in Australia and New Zealand, where steering wheels are on the right side of vehicles, to encourage some of the 170,000 expatriate Samoans living there to ship used cars back to relatives.

Samoa will be the first country to change direction of traffic since South Yemen switched to the right in 1977.

Iceland, switching to the right in 1968, was the most recent European country to change.

Samoa's switch will take place next Monday during a special two-day public holiday.