Transcript
On the morning of Tuesday 3rd of October, Rarotonga's first radar speed sign was officially put in action in Arorangi, in the district of Puaikura. This is where Henry Napa is from; a young local businessman who initiated the idea of installing radar speed signs to improve road safety.
Present at the official opening was Inspector John Strickland from the Cook Islands Police Service. Inspector Strickland says Henry Napa secured funding under the India Grant Fund and received twelve pole-mounted devices for his project.
"He had a chat with our commissioner of police where our commissioner gave the approval for all these signs to be installed. Taking into consideration of the fact that there is three districts on Rarotonga. The initiator which is of course Henry Napa decided to share four of each of these signs we put in the districts - 4 in Puaikura, 4 in Takitumu and 4 in Te Au O Tonga, as a starting point."
The president of the Cook Islands road safety council Brent Fisher says its a smart initiative to install first in Arorangi as it's considered a high risk area.
"There's a few areas in Rarotonga where we've got some pretty straight roads and people tend to especially through Arorangi there, they tend to put their foot down and we've got some really dangerous areas too."
Our correspondent in the Cook Islands Florence Syme Buchanan agrees.
"Arorangi has the biggest stretch of road that is straight, you know, people tend to speed along that one stretch of road in Rarotonga, but you know speed is an issue for our roads especially amongst our young people and then when you don't have them wearing helmets, its no wonder that we have some of the highest figures for deaths on roads from motorbike accidents in the world."
Inspector Strickland says the installation did cause confusion for the people.
"This is an information digital speed sign like what you see around in the streets in Flatbush or elsewhere there in New Zealand. It is not a camera radar detector system."
Studies do show that radar speed signs have an 80 per cent impact on a driver's behaviour. Inspector Strickland wants the public to take safety on the roads seriously, as speeding is one of the top three issues on the roads.
"It's just to prevent more crashes, you know, let them know that these are tools put in place for everyone to adhere to and also its all about prevention, that's the whole thing, prevention is better than cure in other words."
The road safety measure are solar-powered. Infrastructure Cook Islands will be working together with the parties involved in the installation of the signs on other appropriate locations around the country.
