3.3 Vehicle Lights & Signalling

3.3 Vehicle Lights & Signalling

Quick Answer: Use headlights from dusk to dawn and whenever visibility is poor, with dipped beam as the default around other traffic. Dip for oncoming and followed vehicles. Give indicator signals in good time before every change of direction and cancel them afterwards — a signal announces intention and never confers priority. Hazard warning lights are for a stationary vehicle in or facing danger. The horn is a warning device, restricted by Regulation 74 of LI 2180, and every vehicle must carry front and rear reflectors under Regulation 79.

Lights and Signals Are How Your Vehicle Speaks

Signs and road markings tell you what the road demands. Lights and signals are how you tell other road users what you are about to do. On Ghanaian roads this matters more than in many countries: pedestrians make up a large share of urban fatalities, unlit shoulders are common outside towns, and the Harmattan can cut visibility sharply between December and February. A driver whose signals are late, absent, or misleading is a hazard even when every other rule is obeyed.

The Lamps and What Each One Is For

When Headlights Must Be On

Switch on headlights from dusk to dawn, and at any other time when visibility is seriously reduced — heavy rain, Harmattan haze, dust raised by trucks on unpaved sections, smoke, or fog. Two errors are common enough that the exam tests them directly:

1. Sidelights are not headlights. Sidelights make you visible; they do not light the road, and they are not a lawful substitute after dark.
2. Daylight is not the test — visibility is. A dark, rain-swept afternoon needs dipped headlights just as much as an evening does.

Dipping: The Rule and the Courtesy

Dip your main beam whenever you meet an oncoming vehicle, and whenever you are following another vehicle closely enough that your lights fill its mirrors. Main beam left on in either situation blinds the other driver for several seconds — long enough, at 90 km/h, to cover well over a hundred metres unsighted.

If you are dazzled, the correct response is fixed and examinable: slow down, look toward the left-hand edge of your lane to keep your position, and stop if you genuinely cannot see. Do not retaliate by flicking your own main beam on — that leaves two blind drivers closing on each other.

Indicator Discipline

Three rules cover almost every signalling question on the test:

• Signal in good time. Early enough that others can act on it, late enough that it is not ambiguous at a junction you are not taking.
• A signal is not a right of way. Indicating right does not entitle you to move right; you must still check mirrors and blind spots and wait for a safe gap. This is the single most-tested misconception about signalling.
• Cancel the signal. A self-cancelling indicator does not always cancel after a shallow bend or a lane change. A left indicator left blinking tells following drivers you are about to turn off, and they may pull out around you.

Signal for every change of direction: turning, changing lane, overtaking, moving off from the kerb, and pulling in. Where a signal could mislead — for example, indicating left before a side road you intend to pass — delay it until you are past the junction.

Hazard Warning Lights: A Narrow Licence

Hazard lights are widely misused in Ghana, and the exam reflects that. They are for a vehicle that is stationary and causing or facing danger: broken down on or beside the carriageway, obstructing a lane, or warning following traffic of a hazard ahead. They are not a permit to park where parking is prohibited, and they are not a wet-weather driving aid — switched on while moving, they disable your indicators and leave you unable to signal a turn.

When you do use them after a breakdown, pair them with the warning triangle placed 45 metres behind the vehicle as Section 7.2 explains. Lights alone are not enough on a fast road.

The Horn, and What the Law Says

Regulation 74 of LI 2180 restricts horns and sirens, and the official Ghana Driver's Guide lists unnecessary honking among the things drivers should avoid. The horn exists to warn other road users of your presence where they may not have seen you — a blind bend on a narrow road, a child near the kerb, a vehicle drifting into your lane. It is not a greeting, not a complaint, and not a way to hurry a queue. Near hospitals and other silence zones, sounding it may itself be an offence.

Exam Pointers

• Dipped beam is the default; main beam is the exception you must justify.
• Dazzled? Slow down and stay left in your lane — never flash back.
• Indicating announces, it does not entitle.
• Hazard lights: stationary danger only, and never as a substitute for lawful parking.
• Reflectors front and rear are compulsory equipment, not an accessory.