How Safe Is Night Driving In Ghana- Confessions Of A California Driver!

Many Ghanaians during election season fall into some habits ranging from promises, empty boasting and talk especially after a little palm wine, as well as prayers, to what one SC judge called "useless utterances of politicians"!

Problems in Ghana are not being solved with technology and by people trained by profession to solve problems, but by the often empty and mere talk of Economists and Politicians at 5-Star hotels and conferences devoid of solutions!

I wish to share this conversation with a lady in Ghana a few minutes ago on a WhatsUp chat session about driving home to see a sick mother in the hospital.

4/8/16, 9:43:50 AM: Dr. K. Danso: How safe is night driving (to your area in the Volta Region).

4/8/16, 9:48:28 AM: Esther D. : Night driving, I don't know how safe. There have been incidence of robberies

4/8/16, 10:08:06 AM: Dr. K. Danso: You can leave early am. Night driving in Ghana is just too risky even by the roads alone!!

4/8/16, 10:40:37 AM: Dr. K. Danso: I was once in 2005 or so going to Abetifi and turned around at Nsawam and came back to East Legon when it took me from 3:30pm to reach Nsawam at 6:30 pm and lots of traffic!

4/8/16, 10:41:41 AM: Dr. K. Danso: Sometimes you meet these heavy articulator trucks and there is no lighted road dividers and studs.

4/8/16, 10:42:39 AM: Dr. K. Danso: See California's rural road design and compare. I took these when driving up the hills yesterday (and please don't try to do as I do ooo! I beg!)

4/8/16, 10:43:40 AM: Esther D: The difference is clear

4/8/16, 10:47:36 AM: Dr. K. Danso: When driving at night on such California roads,

1. the headlights reflect on the Double Yellow lines and Studs.

2. You also see the white border lines, which helps isolate and define the road.

3. In addition if you were to gear into the other lane the double studs make such a noise on your tires even if you are sleeping it will wake you up! Guaranteed!

4/8/16, 10:53:19 AM: Dr. K. Danso:
It is for the acquisition of such knowledge that our forefathers Kwame Nkrumah and others envisioned and sent some of us to go to the white man's lands to study their magic called technology, Engineering and Science!

And when it is time for us to return and help, evil dwarfs in the form of these PNDC boys simply out of envy refuse to allow us to help!

I know this may be hard for some to believe but I can cite examples where top Petroleum and Materials and Civil and Transportation Design Engineers have been refused audience!

And the ordinary Ghanaian is expecting something to fall from heaven and investing all their time at prayer camps!

PS: sometimes when I say there is no dirt in America its hard to believe but look at what one may describe as "bush road" when I geared off the US Interstate Highway 680 and took the California Hwy. 84 from Livermore to Fremont!

You may notice there is no good or evil dwarfs in this case ooo! It's all cement and stones, bitumen and concrete and the human mind!

K. Danso