Scooter safety crackdown in Cooks

A Rarotonga-based family has welcomed recent changes to the island’s driver licence system that will make it more difficult for tourists to hire scooters.

Sean Smith, 26, lost a brother and a sister to motorcycle accidents and said the ‘‘fundamental change’’ was long overdue.

‘‘More awareness on this is good as there are a lot of people that drive fast and drive drunk on the island,’’ he said.

Smith’s brother Teariki, a former King’s College prefect, died in 2015 after he was involved in a head-on collision with a motorcycle while on holiday visiting his family in Rarotonga. Their sister Niki died 12 years earlier when she was a passenger on a motorcycle, which was also involved in a head-on collision with a vehicle.

‘‘There’s maybe 30 to 40 motorcycle accidents each year, and about a third to half of them involved tourists,’’ said Smith.

Riding around Rarotonga on a scooter has long been a favourite past-time for Kiwi visitors.

But the law change means tourists will now have to fork out $90 for a special licence – three times the previous price.

Visitors have to pay for a theory, practical and a handling and skills test, as well as the cost of issuing the 30-day licence.

However, hire businesses which rely on the tourist dollar said the spike in price was having a significant financial impact.

Brendan Tuareka of BT Rentals said the business used to generate around $5000 a month. But that figure plummeted to just $500 in the four weeks after the rules were introduced.

‘‘I say to the police, look, you are ruining the iconic transport for the tourists in the islands and that is the scooters,’’ Tuareka said.

Wellington resident Monica Ferguson, who got married in Rarotonga two weeks ago, said the process of getting a special licence ‘‘was off-putting.’’

Kapiti Coast resident, Jennifer Corkill, attended Ferguson’s nuptials. ‘‘We would have loved to get a scooter, but the licence thing was a massive barrier.’’

Cook Islands Police insist the changes, including mandatory helmets, were necessary to align the regulations with New Zealand and Australian law.