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13.01.2016 Social & Status

  How To Survive Night Driving

By Eunice Jonathan
How To Survive Night Driving
13.01.2016 LISTEN

Accra, Ghana-11th January, 2016- Driving at night is totally different from driving in the day in the sense that what is required of driving in the day is not the same as what is required of the night. The skill or technical know-how varies from both periods. The day enhances the driver’s vision, visibility of objects, pedestrians and other users along the road due to the natural light whereas the night provides total blindness due to dark sides, streetlights, flickering lights and high beams from other cars getting into the eyes, little objects flying around in the dark and these demand more careful movement than the day.

High beams from your car should also help you have not an exactly clear view but at least to some extent, should make you be able to identify destructions along the roads. You should get the feel of seeing how far your headlights reach as compared to stopping distance.

The driver should be able to safely stop in the distance to the farthest point of where your headlights reach. Driving at night exposes you to various unlit roads which make it harder to identify people, animals, objects and other possible road users. In that case, the driver has no option than to be dependent on his lights and lights from other cars too. Collisions are likely to increase at night than in the day due to these unfavorable factors as mentioned above.

Surviving night driving to some extent could be more dependent on the individual behind the wheels. Careless drivers are more exposed to a greater risk than any other. Over speeding, wrong positioning of mirrors, aggressive breaking, loud music and the like are signs or symptoms of a careless driver since these hinder concentration of which night driving demands.

These factors are more acceptable in the day because clear vision is more dependent on daylight as compared to high beams from the cars in the night. Surviving through the night by driving is mainly based on the driver’s attitude on the road. How careful the driver is, how limited the drivers speed is, how well positioned the mirrors are and other factors tend to determine the fate of the one behind the wheels.

Factually, obeying road signs and traffic lights also play a massive role in driving. Road signs are set to regulate traffic and movements on roads during both day and night so therefore, disobeying these may lead to chaos when there is absence of discipline amongst drivers. Paying attention to road signs and traffic lights at night may increase your degree of survival.

They tell the drivers when to stop, how fast he/she should go, what to slow down for and what to expect ahead. In other words they guide the drivers towards the path of more careful driving because the night exposes them to more dangers than the day due to the darkness associated with it. During the day, ignoring these road guides may not be as dangerous as the night because the light the day provides keeps the driver more open minded and also widens their visuals so therefore paying heed to road signs and other road guides determines ones survival when driving through the night.

Practice makes one perfect. This saying applies to all parts of life without the exception of driving. When one threads a particular road or path for some time, he/she tends to get used to the construction of that particular route so therefore can even get through it with the eyes closed. Same way, to be able to survive night driving through a particular route, one must have some level of experience or practice from the everyday threading through that route to their destination. If not, adhere to the teachings above until experience is gained or lesson is learnt from the trend planned to be built.

“Night driving in Ghana can be very dangerous due to poor road network system. You need to take extra precaution to make you reach your destination safely”-Kobina Amoo, MD, Carmudi Ghana.

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