Samoa's switch to left claims first victim

Samoa's radical road switch has claimed its first casualty - a boy hit by a wayward bus.

Five days after the Pacific nation switched to driving on the left, a major accident has been reported.

A bus driving on the wrong side of the road hit a 12-year-old boy who had been walking to meet his father at a nearby shop.

The Samoa Observer newspaper said the boy was in a critical condition and would be "fortunate to survive".

The accident mars a clear record for the switch, which has been in place since September 7.

The only major problem reported to date had been a public transport meltdown.

Hundreds of people have been stranded en route to school and work daily due to a shortage of buses adjusted for left-side entry.

Only 18 buses have had their doors shifted so passengers don't have to get on and off in the middle of the road. All other buses are banned.

The country's Prime Minister, Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi, who championed the changeover to encourage greater car importation from Australia and New Zealand, went on radio over the weekend to thank locals for making it a "big success".

The change had been fiercely opposed by thousands of Samoans who argued it was expensive, pointless and being poorly executed by the Government.

A leading Australian road safety expert, Professor Tom Triggs from Monash University, has warned that the country's roads and people were ill-prepared for the change.

Serious injury and death were "all but inevitable", Prof Triggs said last week.

"But I hope I'm wrong," he said.

Samoa is the first country in almost 40 years to attempt the driving switch.

- AAP