In New Zealand cars drive on the left, the opposite to normal driving practices for many tourists to the country.
A spate of fatal accidents involving tourist drivers in rental vehicles this summer has led to several incidents in which residents have flagged down foreign drivers and confiscated their keys, handing them into nearby police stations.
New Zealand is a small country; its beautiful scenery is often viewed from very quiet roads with very little traffic. While it means that there could well be many more collisions than there are, it also means that with low traffic levels tourists more familiar with driving on the other side of the road do not always have other cars on the road to provide a constant indicator of which side of the road they are supposed to be on - until it is too late.
Are local drivers justified in taking the law into their own hands if they see vehicles being driven erratically?
It is proposed that drivers with concerns about erratically driven rental vehicles should take the law into their own hands by confiscating the driver's keys