The pole-mounted solar-powered sensor is triggered when people walk on to pedestrian crossings, alerting oncoming traffic to their presence with a flashing light.
The device was created by Dunedin inventor Larry Burns after he saw a child hit on a pedestrian crossing in Kaikorai Valley last year.
The NZ Transport Agency is working with the Dunedin City Council on an application to trial the device on the pedestrian crossing outside Tahuna Normal Intermediate School.
An agency spokeswoman said the application was necessary because without it, police might not be able to prosecute a driver if there was an incident on the crossing during the trial.
She said it was also to make sure the device did not make the crossing less safe than what was already there.
"All temporary traffic control devices have to be authorised by the transport agency in order for them to be enforceable."
She said it could take "a couple of weeks" for the application to be considered.
Mr Burns said he was disappointed with the delay, but understood the importance of the process.
His invention can simply be clipped to any sort of pole and run on a solar-powered battery, so there was no external wiring and all components were made in New Zealand.
He aimed to provide the technology for crossings outside the thousands of schools throughout New Zealand and Australia.
There was already a lot of interest in his invention from other councils around New Zealand, and he was investigating manufacturing the device in Dunedin.
