When the Lights Go Out: Rain, Traffic, and the Urgency of Emergency Response
By Richard Agodzo It is 5:00 a.m. on Monday, April 14. The rain has only just stopped, and the principal streets from Mallam Junction to Tetteh Quarshie Interchange are already buzzing with early morning commuters. But something is off — the streets are cloaked in dim light, and every traffic signal along the stretch is dead. From Nyamekye to Lapaz and Dzorwulu, it is a game of who dares and who brakes first. Cars inch forward. Others zoom in from different directions. Honking replaces the orderly blink of red, yellow, and green. It's chaos in motion. As the rains descend on Accra and other parts of Ghana, power disruptions become a norm — and with them, the failure of traffic lights. What follows is not just inconvenience, but potential tragedy. Intersections become battlegrounds for confused and impatient drivers, many of whom seem to lose all sense of road etiquette. You watch them and wonder: are these drivers of sound mind? Years ago, in what was considered a pro...