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Raro: Where danger rules on the roads
What do people on Rarotonga, the main island of the Cooks, fear most? A recently-released report highlights one of the greatest public concerns is the fear of being injured in a road crash. There are good reasons to be worried.
The report, a review of the police department for Cook Islands Prime Minister Jim Marurai, tells of the road risks:
• The number of reported Rarotonga motor vehicle crashes has jumped from 77 crashes (2001) to 365 (2005), an increase of almost 500%
• A crash rate in Rarotonga 12 times that in Waikato, the worst New Zealand provincial area;
• 3.5 times the road deaths per 10,000 population than that experienced by New Zealand;
• 4.2 times the Australian per capita road death rate.
The problem is blamed on rapid growth in the number of vehicles on the roads, inadequate laws, motorcyclists not wearing helmets and police struggling to curb speeding and drink driving.
The police review report says: “There has been a rapid increase in the number of vehicles. Motorcycles form a significant portion of the vehicle fleet. Visitor use of rental vehicles is a key element of the tourist industry.”
The report quotes Cook Islands Road Safety Council figures showing that vehicle numbers on Rarotonga have increased by at least a quarter since 2000. That’s almost 7500 new vehicle registrations on an island where the mostly narrow main road is just 32 kilometres around the island.
The report says worries over drunken driving are high. It says: “One person said, ‘If you have been drinking and drive home without crashing, the police don’t care. They only prosecute drivers who have crashed.”
But in a series of road safety recommendations, the report stresses the need for police to be armed with laws and resources which enable them to do their job.
It says: “While the Transport Amendment Bill that is now ready to go before Parliament provides for drink-driving offences and associated enforcement powers, it is narrowly focused.
“We believe a full rewrite of the Transport Act 1966 is needed to modernise all aspects of the road transport legislation and provide the full suite of modern enforcement powers to the police.
“These need to operate against a backdrop of clearly stated obligations on road users to appropriately maintain their vehicles; have an adequate skill and knowledge of road rules; to be licensed; and behave within prescribed limits on the roads.”
The report also focuses on the seemingly endless stream of motorcyclists on Rarotonga driving fast and not wearing safety helmets.
It outlines how opposition to helmets led to the law being amended to make this compulsory only on motorcycles travelling over 40 kilometres per hour.
It says: “While the compulsory wearing of safety helmet exists in the law, it is not enforced. Tourists and residents routinely breach this requirement without consequences.
“While most community members we spoke to did not welcome the idea of the compulsory wearing of safety helmets, when they were made aware of the road death statistics most saw the need for a compulsory law dealing with this issue.”
Marurai has already signalled he is taking the report seriously. He has said that improving road safety is one of his priorities.
He has even enlisted the quick help of New Zealand entertainer Billy TK and a group from New Zealand who were in Rarotonga late last year to do a local version of the successful road safety roadshow they do in New Zealand for young drivers.
Now following the police review report’s release, a one-hour documentary on Billy TK’s visit, Driving Towards a Future, is being featured on Cook Islands Television. It is sponsored by Marurai’s office.—By Nina Ratulele
Fiji signs MSG agreement
A last minute change enabled Fiji’s interim administration to sign the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) Agreement, it was revealed. MSG Secretariat official, Johnny Koanapo told PACNEWS the initial concern raised by Papua New Guinea was based on the preamble of the MSG agreement.
“We made changes to allow Fiji to put its signature on the agreement. It was basically changing ‘government’ to ‘state’ in the preamble.” Koanapo said.
A senior MSG government official said the worry of MSG countries was based on the status of the interim administration in Fiji.
“It’s safe to describe all the MSG governments as states, looking into the future, if any of these governments will also undergo Fiji’s situation, the official told PACNEWS. The interim Fijian regime was represented by foreign affairs minister, Ratu Epeli Nailatikau.
Oldest cemetery find
Archaeologists working in Vanuatu have found the region’s oldest cemetery and it’s filled with a slew of headless bodies. The peculiar 3000-year-old skeletons belong to the Lapita people, the earliest known inhabitants of the Pacific Islands. Their DNA could shed light on how the many remote islands surrounding Vanuatu were colonised, the researchers say. “Both Vanuatu and Western Polynesia were first settled by the Lapita culture, but their populations are somewhat different genetically and this has not yet been explained,” said dig leader Matthew Spriggs, an archaeologist from the Australian National University.
Downer invites Solomons’ ministers
Australia’s foreign minister, Alexander Downer has for the first time invited Solomon Islands’ government ministers to Canberra to discuss the two countries’ strained relationship—in a positive move to sort out relations between the two countries. The Australian foreign minister’s goodwill gesture came only days after his high commissioner to Honiara presented his letter of introduction to Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare. Downer said he was glad that Sogavare has accepted the Australian high commissioner, Peter Hooton’s Letter of Introduction—even though it had taken some time.
High court rules
Five former Guadalcanal Liberation Front members have been sentenced to life imprisonment over the death of Brother Nathaniel Sado from the Melanesian Brotherhood. The Solomon Islands’ High Court found Ronnie Cawa, Carradine Pitakaka, Geddily Isa, Owen Isa and William Hence guilty of murder.
Presiding judge, Justice Brown, in his ruling said the court found the five men had acted together by a common purpose or agreement to kill Brother Sado on Guadalcanal’s Weathercoast in 2003.
PNG’s offer resolves standoff
A timely offer from the Solomon Islands’ Melanesian neighbour Papua New Guinea has resolved a bitter standoff between the Solomons government and the Regional Assistance Mission (RAMSI), civil society groups and trade unions over the re-arming of a police unit.
Access to guns is a touchy issue, forever attached to the real life experience of a nation under siege by armed militants, including members of the police during the 2000 ethnic tension period.
Papua New Guinea’s offer to provide armed support for the police’s close protection unit, says Prime Minister Sogavare, meant the government won’t follow through with its controversial plans to give guns back to the police for the first time since the regional peacekeepers disarmed warring ethnic groups in 2003.
Adoption agency under scrutiny
Police in Samoa are interviewing families of babies adopted by the American-based adoption agency, Focus on Children, in view of possible charges if the parents were misled by their representatives. Samoa’s assistant police commissioner, Papali’i Lio Ta’eu Masepa’u told the Le Samoa newspaper the adoption process was legal and not under their investigation.
“But they are interviewing parents if they were misled to believe they will be able to see their children again when they turned 18 as the emerging pattern of stories told by the parents.”
Le Samoa exposed the adoption anomalies in 2002 and have since been told by the American representative of Focus on Children and former Mormon missionary to Samoa Dan Wakefield, that the children would be able to return to their biological parents when they turned 18 “armed with a better life and education and possibly wealth as their adopted American parents are well off”.
Overstayers’ plea
Fiji’s Ambassador to Washington, Jesoni Vitusagavulu has told the chairman of the President’s Advisory Commission on Asian American and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) Rudy Pamintuan that he was keen to see the status of Fiji citizens living illegally in the United States regularised since they contributed in a very important way to the Fiji economy through remittances. Almost half of the Fijian population living in the United States are not citizens and their legal status is unclear.
“’The embassy would like to see a speedy resolution of the current US immigration reform as it would benefit many Fiji Islanders there,” Vitusagavulu said.
Academics’ salary shock
Salaries of senior staff at the University of the South Pacific (USP) in Fiji has come under the spotlight after leaked documents showed that one executive allegedly received F$470,000 (US$285,000) tax-free.
The confidential documents which are believed to be payslips of eight senior staff were circulated to staff members of the regional institution via email. The documents showed the salary packages of seven staff members ranged from F$234,000 (US$142,000) to F$339,000 (US$206,000). Each of them allegedly received F$4000 (US$2400) a month in housing allowance. A Fiji Television report said an official response from the university labelled the information as untrue. Fiji’s Interim finance minister Mahendra Chaudhry appeared shocked by the revelation. He said the Fiji Government will have to re-look at its funding of the institution this year.
Asylum seekers’ payment deadline set
Nauru’s acting foreign minister, Frederick Pitchard has set a deadline of six to 12 months for the claims of 82 asylum seekers from Sri Lanka to be processed. He said while his government was happy to take the men, he wants their claims processed as quickly as possible. “Six months is the timeframe our cabinet has agreed to,” he said. He said Nauru does not want to see a repeat of the situation where two Iraqi men were forced to remain on the island for five years. “Our message to them—to the Australian government—is that they be processed as soon as possible and be taken off the island.”
Fagatele, a world heritage site?
American Samoa’s Fagatele National Marine Sanctuary could be designated a United Nations World heritage site, if the territory’s application is approved.
Director of the Office of National Marine Sanctuaries, Daniel Basta said such a designation would bring world wide recognition of the local sanctuary. He believes that would create added benefits. “It gives you world attention.”
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