As the Eastern Bay kiwifruit harvest reaches full swing once again, one local grower is hoping a simple roadside reminder could help prevent tragedy on rural roads.

Award-winning Eastern Bay kiwifruit grower and harvest contractor Brett Wotton has introduced a new safety initiative aimed at reminding overseas seasonal workers and backpackers to keep left while driving during the busy harvest season.

Portable warning signs, designed by Michelle Hoskins from Ōpōtiki Signs and Embroidery, are being placed outside orchards and contractor operations throughout the district, carrying clear reminders for workers heading back onto public roads to keep left and wear their seatbelts.

While driving on the left is second nature to New Zealanders, around two-thirds of the world’s countries drive on the right-hand side of the road, meaning many international workers arrive here needing to consciously override years of instinct and habit every time they get behind the wheel.

Wotton said the idea first came to him while travelling overseas.

“The windscreen arrows are something I have been pushing for the last seven years with my staff. It is a simple arrow sticker I give them to put on their vehicle windscreen as a constant reminder to keep left,” he said.

“I came up with the idea while driving around Europe and America and constantly having to change the sides of the road I was on.

“I was in Cuba when I decided to put a small arrow on the windshield as a prompt to remind me to keep on the right side of the road.”

Upon returning to New Zealand, Wotton adapted the idea for foreign orchard workers travelling between orchards throughout the picking season.

With his company Aspen Horticulture operating out of Tablelands, staff regularly travel rural roads known for blind corners, steep hills and sudden dips – conditions that can quickly become dangerous if a driver momentarily drifts onto the wrong side of the road.

“When talking to the backpackers as they drove out of the orchard about five out of seven admitted to sometimes forgetting to keep left when they first started driving away from work,” Wotton said.

“I have personally witnessed backpackers pull out from the orchard and drive on the wrong side of the road instinctively creating a really dangerous situation for oncoming traffic.

“After a full day’s work in the orchard, it is understandable that foreign drivers could do this.”

The issue remains a sensitive one in the Eastern Bay following several serious crashes involving overseas drivers over the years, including the death of Ōpōtiki District Council staff member Dale Ashford-Hill in 2016, who was killed in a collision involving an Argentinian backpacker driving on the wrong side of the road.

For Wotton, the new signage is not about blaming foreign workers or questioning their driving ability but recognising how easy it can be for exhausted drivers to instinctively revert back to the road rules they grew up with.

“It is for this reason I had Michelle from Ōpōtiki Signs and Graphics come up with an attention-grabbing sign that can be placed outside the relevant orchard for that day as a reminder to everyone driving off that may instinctively revert to driving on the right side of the road as they would in their home countries,” he said.

“With some picking teams having up to 90 percent foreign backpackers and our company employing close to 160 people at the height of the season, I think this is a really important safety issue for staff and the community in general.”

“It would be great to see it adopted to the packhouses and the wider Bay of Plenty in general.”

The initiative reflects the same practical, hands-on thinking that recently earned Wotton national recognition within the kiwifruit industry.

Earlier this year the Eastern Bay grower received the 2025 Kiwifruit Innovation Award for developing protective picking bag covers designed to reduce fruit damage during harvest and improve overall fruit quality across the sector.

But while the innovation award recognised his contribution to the kiwifruit industry itself, this latest initiative highlights another important aspect of modern horticulture – the responsibility growers increasingly carry for worker welfare and wider community safety.

As thousands of seasonal workers continue moving around the Bay throughout harvest, Wotton hopes a simple reminder at the orchard gate could be enough to stop a split-second mistake from becoming a life-changing tragedy.