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Some of the following roads appear normal, but actually have high death rates. Others just look outrageously insane. And, of course, some roads fall into both categories.
This list is dedicated to all the white-knuckled, terrified drivers who are forced to brave dangerous roads and to all the crazies who navigate them for fun.
10. Grand Trunk Road (India)
Constructed by the Pashtun emperor Sher Shah Suri in the 16th century, India’s Grand Trunk Road (also known as GT) spans more than 1,500 miles from Bangladesh in the east to Pakistan in the west, serving as one of the main thoroughfares across the Indian subcontinent. Over the years, it has functioned both as a major trade route and as a convenient right-of-way for invading armies.
GT is considered dangerous not because of risky heights or disheartening road conditions, but because of the traffic congestion. Trucks, buses, bicycles, pedestrians, and animals have turned parts of this heavily-used road into a major headache. If you’re planning to drive here, you’ll want to be as alert as possible. Photo: by Beardy Git
9. San Isidro de General – Cartago (Costa Rica)
The Pan-American Highway has plenty of dangerous stretches, but the old road that passes through the Costa Rican mountains to link San Isidro de General and Cartago is especially hazardous.
The high point in the pass is known as Cerro de la Muerte, or Mountain of Death – not technically because of the road, but because people traveling through the pass before the road existed often didn’t survive the cold journey. However, the name happens to be an apt descriptor for the road itself, which tests drivers with excessive potholes, steep, narrow curves, and plenty of fog. The road’s height (13,000 feet) can also cause altitude sickness, further impairing drivers.
In addition to these perils, you can also expect to deal with the imprudent habits of local bus and truck drivers, who tend to drive very aggressively and irresponsibly despite the unsafe conditions. Fortunately, a new paved road between Quepos and Dominical has recently been completed, which will give travelers an alternative to the Mountain of Death route.
8. Sichuan – Tibet Highway (China)
China’s high-altitude Sichuan – Tibet Highway covers about 1,500 miles between Chengdu in the east and Lhasa (Tibet) in the west, offering the choice between the northern or southern route. Both options boast beautiful scenery, enormous mountain peaks, various cultural and historical attractions, and many famous rivers. Que’er Mountain pass, the highest point on the route, rises to over 20,000 feet.
Like many other roads that cut through mountains, the Sichuan – Tibet Highway is prone to landslides, falling rocks, and extreme weather conditions that can close roads for a month at a time. Add avalanches and altitude sickness to the lineup, and you could find yourself in rather unsafe driving conditions. It’s certainly a great route for sightseeing, but keep in mind that it will also add a good dose of intensity to your driving adventures.
7. Skippers Road (New Zealand)
In 1862, a couple of shepherds discovered gold in the Shotover River near Queenstown, New Zealand, prompting an immediate gold rush. This in turn necessitated the creation of an access route, and the result was Skippers Road, a narrow, winding, and exhilaratingly treacherous pathway that twists and turns for about 16 ½ miles through Skippers Canyon.
Carved and blasted right out of the solid rock by Chinese laborers, Skippers Road took 22 years to complete, and it doesn’t look much different today than when it was first created. In most places it’s too narrow for vehicles to pass each other, there are no guardrails, and the drop-offs leave absolutely no room for error.
Beautiful, yes, but also risky. Unless you’re a thrill seeker, leave the driving to the tour guides, and keep in mind that car rental companies probably won’t allow you to explore Skippers Road with their vehicles.
6. Halsema Highway (Philippines)
Located on the island of Luzon, the Halsema Highway runs through the Central Cordillera Valley in the Philippines from Baguio to Bontoc and farther on toward Tabuk and Tuguegarao. Landslides and rock falls are common, often stranding motorists for long periods of time. Many portions of the road are still unpaved, although work is supposedly in progress to bring about some improvements, and there are plenty of drop-offs that are steep enough to kill you.
Foggy conditions paired with the lack of much-needed guardrails in certain areas only complicate the Halsema Highway’s already dangerous conditions. Local accounts also indicate that buses traversing this route are less than considerate when it comes to road rules, so watch your step. Photo: http://www.dirjournal.com
5. Patiopoulo – Perdikaki Road (Greece)
In the mountainous Agrafa region of Greece, the route connecting Patiopoulo and Perdikaki is an unnerving example of roads that require constant attentiveness and care from their travelers. Potholes and loose, slippery gravel weaken a driver’s control while distractions from heavy traffic, pedestrians, and livestock create additional hazards. Many sections are very steep and narrow, demanding the utmost of caution.
But there’s more madness involved here – the road apparently includes sharp drop-offs on not just one, but on both sides. And there aren’t any barriers. Strictly for your driving pleasure, of course.
4. Luxor – al – Hurghada Road (Egypt)
The road connecting Luxor (the site of the ancient city of Thebes) with the Egyptian Red Sea resort town of Hurghada is paved, marked, and appears to be relatively safe. However, bandits, terrorist attempts to undermine the tourism industry, and frightened drivers have all combined to turn this route into a major nightmare.
The violent attacks along this road are dangerous enough by themselves, but what sometimes makes it even worse is the fact that most people who drive at night don’t use headlights for fear of announcing their approach. Yes, it could be a great way to avoid unseen enemies, but it also invites other disasters in the form of head-on collisions.
Invisibility might save you from one threat, but there’s a good chance it will deliver you into the hands of another. Consider buying some of those night vision goggles if you plan to drive this road after dark.
3. Fairy Meadows Road (Pakistan)
From Raikot Bridge to the village of Tato, this ‘road’ offers the motorist all the insane features of your typical mountainside dirt trail. It’s narrow, unpaved, steep, and of course there aren’t any guardrails to prevent your Jeep from rolling down into the gorge. You can’t even drive it all the way to Fairy Meadows; the last section has to be covered by bicycle or on foot.
A great road for adventurers, Fairy Meadows Road is definitely not for the faint of heart.
2. Nairobi – Nakuru – Eldoret Highway (Kenya)
In other words, you might actually have a better chance of surviving on one of those precarious mountain roads.
1. Old Yungas Road (Bolivia)
In 1995 the Inter-American Development Bank christened it as the "world's most dangerous road". One estimate is that 200-300 travelers are killed yearly along the road, or one vehicle every two weeks. The road moreover includes Christian crosses marking many of the spots where such vehicles have fallen.
Upon leaving La Paz, the road first ascends up to around 5km, before descending to 1079 ft (330 m), transitioning quickly from cool altiplano terrain to rain forest as it winds through very steep hillsides and atop cliffs.
The road was built in the 1930s during the Chaco War by Paraguayan prisoners. It is one of the few routes that connects the Amazon rainforest region of northern Bolivia, or Yungas, to its capital city. However, an alternative, much safer, road connecting La Paz to Coroico is nearing completion.
On July 24, 1983, a bus veered off the Yungas Road and into a canyon, killing more than 100 passengers in what is said to be Bolivia's worst road accident.
One of the local road rules specifies that the downhill driver never has the right of way and must move to the outer edge of the road. This forces fast vehicles to stop so that passing can be negotiated safely. The danger of the road ironically though has made it a popular tourist destination starting in the 1990s. Mountain biker enthusiasts, in particular, have made it a favorite destination for downhill biking.
Updated: 5:35 p.m. CT Oct 21, 2006
LA PAZ, Bolivia - A bus plunged off a mountain road in central Bolivia early Saturday, killing 29 people and injuring 25, police said.
The crash happened as the bus was attempting to make room for a vehicle heading in the opposite direction along a narrow dirt road near Chulumani.
The bus slipped off the edge and tumbled down the side of a cliff 50 miles east of the Bolivian capital of La Paz, said an official with the regional police speaking on condition of anonymity according to official policy.
The driver was among those killed in the crash.
The injured were taken to hospitals, while five of the dead remained trapped in the wreckage. More deaths were possible given the severity of injuries, the official said.
A bus wreck in August killed 24 after the driver apparently backed over a cliff on another mountainous Bolivian road known as the "Highway of Death" for its frequent fatal crashes.
Deadly wrecks are common in the Andean region, usually involving inexpensive, unregulated buses traveling fast on poorly maintained mountain roads.
Article Two: The World's Most Dangerous Road!
Written by Mark Whitaker,
BBC News, Bolivia
"Every year it is estimated 200 to 300 people die on a stretch of road less than 50 miles long."
It seems perverse that one of the main roads out of one of the highest cities on Earth should actually climb as it leaves town.
But climb it does - just short of a lung-sapping five kilometres (three miles) above sea level, where even the internal combustion engine is forced to toil and splutter.
Then it pauses for a while on the snow-flecked crest of the Andes before pitching - like a giant white knuckle ride - into the abyss.
The road from Bolivia's main city, La Paz, to a region known as the Yungas was built by Paraguayan prisoners of war back in the 1930s.
Many of them perished in the effort. Now it is mainly Bolivians who die on the road - in their thousands.
In 1995, the Inter American Development Bank christened it the most dangerous road in the world. And, as you start your descent, and your driver whispers a prayer, you begin to see why.
The bird's eye view is on the left, on the front seat passenger's side, where the Earth itself seems to open up.
Crosses at the roadside mark the locations of fatal accidents.
A gigantic vertical crack appears. Way below, more than half a mile beneath your passenger window, you can see - cradled between canyon walls - a thin silver thread: the Coroico River rushing to join the Amazon.
On the driver's side there is a sheer rock wall rising to the heavens. There is no margin of error. The road itself is barely three metres wide. That is if you can call it a road.
After the initial stretch to the top of the mountain it is just dirt track. And yet - incredibly - despite no guard rails and hairpin turns, it is a major route for trucks and buses.
Drivers stop to pour libations of beer into the earth - to beseech the goddess Pachamama for safe passage.
Then, chewing coca leaves to keep themselves awake, they are off at break-neck speeds in vehicles which should not be on any road, let alone this one.
Perched on hairpin bends over dizzying precipices, crosses and stone cairns mark the places where travelers' prayers went unheeded. Where, for someone - the road ended.
But even these stark warnings are all too often ignored. As first one - and then a second impatient motorist - overtook our car on the ravine side of the road, my own driver - who hardly ever spoke a word and only then in his native Aymara - intoned loudly, eerily and in perfect English..."You will die."
It is not a rash prediction to make.
Extreme weather conditions make driving more hazardous.
Every year it is estimated 200 to 300 people die on a stretch of road less than 50 miles long. In one year alone, 25 vehicles plunged off the road and into the ravine. That is one every two weeks.
It is the end of the dry season in Bolivia. Soon the rains will come - cascading down the walls of the chasm. Huge waterfalls will drench the road - turning its surface to slime.
Then will come those heart-stopping moments when wheels skid and brakes fail to grip. There are stories told of truckers too tired - or too afraid - to continue, who pull over for the night, hoping to see out an Andean storm. But they have parked too close to the edge. And as they sleep in their cabs, the road is washed away around them. Perched atop the cliff edge, this is not a good place to drop off.
But for now the road is a ribbon of dust. Every vehicle passing along it churns up a sandstorm in its wake.
Choking, blinding clouds obscure the way ahead. Around one hairpin, a cloud of debris was beginning to clear.
Further down the road we passed a spot where a set of fresh tire tracks headed out into the void
As it did, I could see people milling around in the road. Passengers from one of the overloaded and decrepit buses which run the gauntlet of this road.
It seemed at first that they had got off to stretch their legs, while their driver argued with another vehicle coming in the other direction about who should give way. (Reversing is not something you undertake lightly on a cliff edge.)
It transpired instead though, that the bus driver was dying. Blinded by the dust, he had run into the back of a truck. The bus's steering column had gone through him - severing his legs.
There was nothing anyone could do. Mobile phones do not work here. In any case, who would you call? There are no emergency services.
And no way of getting help through, even if any were to be found. The bus driver bled to death.
We edged past the crumpled bus, and headed on.
Further down the road we passed a spot where a set of fresh tire tracks headed out into the void. They told their own story.
High in the Andes, they are building a new road, a bypass to replace the old one. But this is Bolivia, and already it has been 20 years in the making.
Who knows when it will be complete? Until it is, people will have to continue offering up their prayers, and taking their lives in their hands on the most dangerous road in the world.
Article Three: Bolivia's
"Road of Death"
(This was taken from an article written by a man who had finished traveling this road. Here he warns others about the dangers of tourists traveling this road)
The North Yungas Road is hands-down the most dangerous in the world for motorists.
It runs in the Bolivian Andes, 70 km from La Paz to Coroico, and plunges down almost 3,600 meters in an orgy of extremely narrow hairpin curves and 800-meter abyss near-misses.
A fatal accident happens there every couple of weeks, 100-200 people perish there every year.
Among the route there are many visible reminders of accidents, wreckages of lorries and trucks lie scattered around at the bottom... (read BBC article)
The buses and heavy trucks navigate this road, as this is the only route available in the area. Buses crowded with locals go in any weather, and try to beat the incoming traffic to the curves.
It does not help that the fog and vapors rise up from the heavily vegetated valley below, resulting in almost constant fogs and limited visibility. Plus the tropical downpours cause parts of the road to slide down the mountain.
Apparently some companies make business on the road's dubious fame by selling the extreme bike tours down that road. "Gravity Assisted Mountain Biking" is one of them.
I read a scary account of a biking accident. The cyclist hit a rock going downhill and flipped over his handle bars. He landed face first on the ground. As he lay writhing in agony, a car coming around the curve missed hitting the man by a mere 6 inches. The driver later said he swerved as much as he could, but any more to the right and he feared his own car would go over the edge!
If you are nuts enough to consider it, please be advised that you will be only adding to the road hazards, as it's hard to spot a cyclist on the road's hairpin curves, and your shrieks (as you fall down the abyss) will disturb the peace and quiet of the villagers nearby.
Bonus :
In addition to the above article we released a few photos in Indonesia highway is very dangerous. enjoy
Ditulis Oleh : Unknown ~ Blogger Kalianda
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