The World's Most Dangerous Road

BBC ^ | 11-12-2006 | Mark Whittaker

[blam]

The world's most dangerous road

By Mark Whittaker
BBC News, Bolivia

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.

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 - it is a major route for trucks and buses.

Hairpin bends

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 travellers' 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.

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 tyre 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 tyre tracks headed out into the void. They told their own story.

High in the Andes, they are building a new road. A by-pass, 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.

[blam]

Go to the site to view the pictures, they're from Getty and we aren't to post them on FR.

I saw a one hour documentary on this road. I almost had a panic attack just watching the film, LOL.

There is a guy at one of the worst (hidden) turns who volunteered years ago to stand on the very edge of a cliff and warn traffic in both directionsof oncoming traffic. He makes more in tips from grateful drivers now than he did when he worked. In fact, a myth has grown up around him...those who tip, don't crash.

[cripplecreek]

The Discovery channel has been running a show about this road lately. It's pretty amazing and damned frightening.

[mysterio]

I saw the documentary, too. That's scary.

[cripplecreek]

The photo doesn't even begin to do it justice.

[operation clinton cleanup]

Geez... sure hope seat belts are mandatory in Bolivia. (or parachutes!)

[mcg2000]

lol

If I went over ... I'd want it to be full board! The gradual slide would be mindblowing.

[Mr_Moonlight]

That's nothing compared to the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, where one must dodge blown out truck tires, metal plates sticking 3" out of the roadway, numerous 'city cars' broken down in the middle lane, dog and cats living together, locusts(!), and of course the interminable bumper-to-bumper traffic 24/7

/chuckle

[sphinx]

Heck, that's nothing. All they need is Bobby Byrd and that'd be fixed in no time.

[IllumiNaughtyByNature]

Looks like a mountain we rode up Mt. Serrat in France to visit the black madonna. We rode it in a bus and I would have rather taken a taxi ride in NY on black ice that do that again.

[bannie]

I don' think there's anywhere I'd need to go to THAT badly.

There's one horrible, scary road heading east from Bakersfield, through the Kern River Canyon. I don't go that way, ever.

[19th LA Inf]

I have a friend who used to fly into La Paz for Braniff back in the DC-7 days. He said there was a huge turn arrow laid out on a mountainside in line with the airport runway (meaning, "We hope you make it!")

[chet_in_ny]

Cross-Bronx has the BQE beat. I routinely dodge king size mattresses on that mighty road, lol.

[Paleo Conservative]

I'm glad I didn't know about that when a tour guide took me and my family on that road when I was 18.

[JimC214]

Followed closely by the Cross Bronx LOL

[Muzzle_em]

I couldn't even handle the "road to Hana."
I cannot even begin to imagine this one!
I could sit on a lump of coal and would have a DIAMOND by the time we reached the end of the road! LOL!

[MinorityRepublican]

Saw this on the History Channel.

[patton]

good one. LOL.

[OregonRancher]

Good pics....
http://javimoya.com/blog/pics/200607/bolivia.htm

[Lunatic Fringe]

I believe I saw the same documentary on the History Channel. No way would I drive that road.

[Richard Kimball]

Two thoughts:

Jim Bronson would hit it. Bonnie Bedelia was hot.

[DJ Taylor]

I know that road. The first time I drove it was at night and I didn't have a full appreciation of where I was and what I was doing until I pulled off the road to let a truck by, and while I was waiting I looked out and down into the darkness and saw lightning flashing in the clouds far, far below.

That's a one-lane dirt road and all traffic keeps to the left. Trucks climbing the grade have the right of way, and traffic going down the mountain must pull over on one of the small pullover areas and let them pass. The pull-off areas are all on the drop off side, and climbing trucks are always on the cliff side. Trucks climbing the grade have the right of way because if they pulled over and stopped, they would never be able to start climbing that grade again.

When I was briefed on the “Rules of the Road,” I thought someone had to be out of their mind to come up with a plan that, with all the other problems encountered on that road, throw in, “OK, we’ll drive on the wrong side of the road just to make things really interesting.” But I soon saw the wisdom of driving on the left and found their system of driving on that mountain to be quite effective.

Driving on the left side of the road made good sense simply because the driver’s seat is on the left side of the truck. As the pull off areas are all on the left, and a driver must pull over and place his wheels within inches of the drop-off, sitting on the left side where you can see exactly where your wheels are is not just an advantage, it’s imperative. For the truck climbing the grade, and has the right of way and will not stop, the driver must keep his truck within inches of the cliff wall or he will hit the truck that is pulled off to let him by. Sitting on the left side of the truck allows him to see precisely where the cliff wall is in relation to his truck.

Their system worked, and I saw very few accidents involving the professional truck drivers. It was the tourists and the weekend sightseers who caused the accidents. Driving that road is something you do when you are either young and foolish as I was, or it is the only way you have of supporting your family. The road is dangerous, but the BBC reporter, as usual, did some exaggerating.

[patton]

Walk in the clouds.

[Moonman62]

That's nothing compared to the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway,

I once saw what I thought was a stranded car disappear down to the frame over a period of three days on that road.

[SteveMcKing]

There must be some interesting wrecks at the bottom. I wonder if they bother recovering them.

[Leisler]

I was towing a bass boat with a minivan from Florida to Massachusetts. I timed it so I could do the GWB and the Cross Bronx after midnight. Coming up from the Jersey turnpike and just after the bridge it was pouring rain, pitch black, wipers on max. I am doing about sixty and come upon a car, dead stop, doors open and three black guys in suits pointing at a overpass sign and trying to figure it out. I lock up and swerve every which way. The the boat and trailer doing their thing. I do not know how I missed them. I could not believe what I saw. But I had my fishing buddy and after he pried his fingers out of the dashboard he confirmed everything. Lots of swearing.

After that just the usual forty miles to Connecticut on the usual New York roads that remind me of Germany. Like Germany as in Berlin 1945.

[Ax]

Try riding a rickety Air Force bus from Clark Air Base up to Camp John Hay in Baguio. Look out the window and down the abyss at your own peril. And the road going up the escarpment from Jeddah to At Taif is no day at the beach.

[Mike Darancette]

Then some people think it would be a great place for a mountain bike rally.

[LdSentinal]

The most dangerous road is the one where Ted and Pat Kennedy are driving on.

[FlJoePa]

I saw that show. Parts of it were absolutely insane.

I remember trail riding snowmobiles where we would be a few feet from some pretty steep drops, but nothing like this.

This was certain death if you went over the edge (and there were ample opportunities). Scary, amazing stuff.

[Boazo]

Spiral highway drops down into Lewiston Idaho, will make a flatlander crap their pants everytime.

[patton]

Cattle car?

[Mike Darancette]

A little closer to home try Utah Rt 61, It will surprise you and scare you to death.

View from the top (stright down).

[Continental Soldier]

Wow! Quite a road! I wonder if Butch Cassidy and Harry Longbaugh ever traveled it on horseback?

[Mr_Moonlight]

I once saw what I thought was a stranded car disappear down to the frame over a period of three days on that road.

Was the stripped down frame still living in the middle lane? LOL

[angkor]

That looks much worse then the road between Kathmandu and Jiri in Nepal. You wanna ride that one on the *roof* of the bus - not inside - so that you have at least a fighting chance if they go over the edge.

Which reminds me of coming down Mt. Evans near Denver (14,264 feet, the highest paved road in North America) in a rental car driven by an Indian software engineer, just after dark. Right out of the summit parking lot he's riding the brakes hard, so after a few minutes I explain that he should use low gear or we'll have no brakes left in short order. "No problem, I drove trucks in Kashmir for the Indian Army."

Sure enough we reach the very end of the road, the brakes are burning and we almost run the stop sign into a ditch. I made him park for 15 minutes to let the brakes cool off.

There are no guardrails on Mt. Evans.

[Fierce Allegiance]

They should hold a race up that road like they do at pikes peak. Not that would really separate the men from the boys!

Some Pikes Peak racers:

[1066AD]

Try going from Kaanapali west about to Wailuku, gets really narrow with sheer drop one side !

[IronJack]

While it's not a commercial road, I drove myself, a friend, and my son over Imogene Pass (alt. 13000+) from Ouray, Colorado to Telluride in a 97 Ford Expedition. There was at least one point where not all four tires were on this earth.

Ill advised, to say the least.

[mtbopfuyn]

I dunno, there's one in New Mexico (from Santa Fe to Farmington???) that's as white knuckled as I've ever been. The state map claimed it was paved. Yeah, in the middle of the two plus hour drive about a 100 yards was paved. The remainder was single laned with a cliff on one side and lord knows what down to the center of the earth on the other side. No where to pass an on-coming car much less turn around and get back to civilization. Then there were the dudes wandering down the road with their huntin' rifles which lead to me humming "Dueling Bangos" to Mr. M. But the worse was the homemade plywood painted sign "Hole in Bridge"....

[68 grunt]

I took that road and you've sure got a point! Beautiful road until you get to the cliff and the great road resumes when you've reached the bottom.

[Ready4Freddy]

Travel ping! ;>)

[OregonRancher]

A ford Expedition? We did it in a VW camper 12 years ago...

[Yardstick]

Heck, that's nothing. All they need is Bobby Byrd and that'd be fixed in no time.

lol -- true.

And of course it'd be rechristened the Robert C. Byrd Parkway.

[okie01]

Ill advised, to say the least.

Imogene and Ingram are best done in a Jeep. For a reason...

[gun_supporter]

I saw the documentary on this road, it looked pretty crazy.

[Maringa]

Here's a link to some amazing photos of the highway....

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=116537

[Muzzle_em]

Hey, we DID that!
I was going to mention it, but I figured more folks would be familiar with the road to Hana.
Did you notice on the rental car maps that it has a disclaimer saying the road (you mentioned) is not allowed or covered under your car rental agreement and that you are responsible should anything happen to the vehicle?
That should have tipped us off. There was a boulder in the road the size of a Volkswagen when we rounded the first curve! I made a few diamonds on that drive!

Another SCARY drive was the taxi drive from the airport to the Sandals Resort on St. Lucia. We witnessed several minivans run off the wet roads and down an embankment through the banana trees.

[Muzzle_em]

OMG!
I got a panic attack just looking at the photos.
I'd be nervous riding a bicycle on that road, much less a BUS! Can you just imagine being on that road during a torrential downpour?

[BlazingArizona]

Wow! This one could be worse than Arizona 179!

[Larry Lucido]

I think they need to widen that mountain.

Or narrow the top of it.

Sheesh.