whose doors would be on the wrong side of the road due to the change threatened to strike in protest of the change. In order to reduce accidents, the government widened roads, added new road markings, erected signs and installed speed humps. The speed limit was also reduced from and sales of alcohol were banned for three days. Prayers were said by the Congregational Christian Church of Samoa for an accident-free changeover and Samoa's Red Cross carried out a blood donation campaign in case of a surge of accidents. The change came into force following a radio announcement at 5.50 local time (16:50 UTC) which halted traffic and an announcement at 6.00 (15:00 UTC) for traffic to switch from the right to the left side of the road. Samoa thus became the first territory in over thirty years to change which side of the road is driven on, the previous most recent to change having been Okinawa (1978), South Yemen (1977), Ghana (1974) and Nigeria (1972). See also Samoa 730 (transport) – change to driving on the left in Okinawa in 1978 Dagen H – change to driving on the right in Sweden in 1967 References External links