Traveling On These Can Cost Your Life Too
Jan 21, 2022
Road trips are always an amazing idea. And roads is the most widely used means of transportation, but
what to do when the road you taking has huge risk involved in it. About 1.3 million people die in traffic
accidents every year. But while many of those deaths could be prevented by better driving, there are
some roads that test the skill, and courage, of any driver. Whether it’s hairpin bends, sheer mountain
drops or roads through war zones, following are
Welcome message from author
Not all road trips consist of endless, repetitive highway. While some welcome the relaxation of the consistent, unchanging open road, others prefer their road trips with a side of thrills. We've scoured the web to find the most frightening, dangerous, and deadly roads you can drive.
Transcript
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Road trips are always an amazing idea. And roads is the most widely used means of transportation, but what to do when the road you taking has huge risk involved in it. About 1.3 million people die in traffic accidents every year. But while many of those deaths could be prevented by better driving, there are some roads that test the skill, and courage, of any driver. Whether it’s hairpin bends, sheer mountain drops or roads through war zones, following are
The Stelvio Pass, Italy
The Stelvio Pass located in Italy, at 9045 feet is the highest paved mountain pass in the Eastern Alps, and the second highest in the Alps, slightly below the Col de l’Iseran 9088 feet. Some roads look a lot more dangerous than they really are. With more hairpins than Helena Bonham Carter, the Stelvio Pass looks like a child’s scribble over the hills. The road climbs almost two kilometers and, with just a low concrete barrier between you and the steep mountain drop, it’s best not to look down. A bit too much speed on one of the road’s 60 180-degree corners could spell disaster.
Los Caracoles Pass, Chile
This road passes through mountain Andreas between Chile and Argentina.The road has many steep slopes and sharp turns without fences security. The road is snow-covered almost all the year. Snow together with the complex natural landscape requires extreme patience and driving skill to drive in emergency situations. However, this road is maintained in working condition, which significantly reduces the number of accidents on it. Trucks and even double-decker tourist buses travel daily on this road.
Skippers Canyon Road, New Zealand
The Skippers Canyon Road, located in New Zealand, is unbelievably scary as it’s made from a very narrow cut in the middle of a sheer cliff face. This winding road actually requires a special permit to drive. If you do manage to get permission though, be ready for a slippery challenge and good luck if you run into someone coming from the other direction.
Guoliang Tunnel Road, China
The Guoliang Tunnel is carved along the side of and through a mountain in China. It may be hard to see in the photo, this road was hollowed out of the side of a mountain by several villagers from the town of Guoliang. Before the construction of this mountain pass the village was cut of from the rest of civilization by the surrounding cliffs. Although it doesn’t see much traffic, due to its construction it is inherently fairly dangerous.
James Dalton Highway, Alaska
The Dalton Highway is a 667 km road in Alaska. It begins at the Elliott Highway, north of Fairbanks, and ends at Deadhorse near the Arctic Ocean and the Prudhoe Bay oil fields. Although appearing serene at first glance, is filled with potholes, small flying rocks carried by fast winds, and worst of all it runs through the middle of nowhere.
Butcher of the Extreme (France)
The author doesn’t know exactly where this road is located; nevertheless, it must be one of the most dangerous roads in existence. Of course, there are many other logging roads throughout the world, many of which are not paved, while others are little more than animal trails. At any rate, if traveling on this road is any indication of what this work entails, then the men and women driving logging trucks deserve pay for hazardous work—that’s for certain!
Taroko Gorge Road (Taiwan)
Similar to the Guoliang Tunnel Road (number 4 on our list), Taroko Gorge Road is carved out of and through the mountains. Due to the spectacular beauty of its surroundings, the road is well frequented in spite of its fearsome reputation. This means a slew of tour buses, cars, scooters, bicyclists, and pedestrians are all vying for space on the same narrow road—a frightening prospect, considering the number of blind turns and extremely narrow bends in the road. The road is also very hard to keep in good condition, as heavy rainfall and typhoons often cause landslides and rockslides that leave sections of the road impassable.
Karakoram Highway (Pakistan to
China)
This dangerous road covers more than 1,300 kilometers and, at least in some places, follows the old Silk Road. Cutting through the most mountainous region in the world, the Karakoram Highway is beset with hazards: rock falls, landslides, avalanches, flooding, snow drifts, reckless drivers, herds of animals, precipitous cliffs and terrible storms. Interestingly, the road meanders through the Hunza Valley, the scene of James Hilton’s Lost Horizon, a novel about the mythical Shangri-La, a harmonious place where people live for centuries.
Fairy Meadows Road, a.k.a. Nanga
Parbat Pass (Pakistan)
Starting from Karakoram Highway and leading to the village of Tato, this road may only be 10 miles long, but it is absolutely harrowing. It is narrow (approximately the width of a Jeep Wrangler), unpaved, and unmaintained, and instead of guardrails, there is a multi-thousand-meter drop to the valley below. The road also climbs nearly 8,000 feet in a short distance, meaning much of the drive is composed of frighteningly steep sections. While the Fairy Meadows that await those who make the drive (and complete the rest of the hike on foot) are unspeakably gorgeous, few are brave enough to make it there.
99-Bend Road to Heaven (China)
It comes as no surprise that the country that brought us the Zhangjiajie Grand Canyon Glass Bridge and the rickety wooden walkways of Hua Shan also has its share of dangerous roads. Located in Tianmen Mountain National Park in central China, the 99-Bend Road to Heaven features—you guessed it—99 death-defying hairpin turns constructed hundreds of feet in the air. If you went off the road in such places, you’d surely die in a fiery crash.
Pan American Highway (Alaska to
Chile)
The Pan American Highway (PAH) is not entirely dangerous, that is, it’s probably no worse than your average American highway. But in some places, you risk your freedom and even your life by using the PAH as a means of travel. Certainly, a dangerous section of the PAH winds through Mexico and Central America, where drug cartel terrorists roam.
Kolyma Highway and Lena Highway
("The Road of Bones")
Travel through Siberia is always a challenge. Nicknamed the “Road of Bones,” this Siberian road from Magadan to Never meanders its way through one of the coldest regions in the world. It is a combination of two highways—the R504 Kolyma Highway and the A360 Lena Highway, both of which are subject to the same dangers (though the R504 is better maintained). The highways are joined by the Lena River Ice Road, which is exactly what it sounds like: a "road" across the river that is open yearly from December through April, when the ice is frozen enough to drive on . . . or so one hopes. Sadly, dozens lose their lives each year when their vehicles fall through the ice.
Zoji La Pass (India)
Just about any road that winds through the highest mountain range in the world would probably be at least somewhat dangerous to travel. The Zoji Pass certainly qualifies in this regard, since it’s a dirt road with no guardrails or traffic signs and where landslides are a continual problem. Moreover, the road zigzags among craggy peaks at over 11,000 feet at its highest elevation.
North Yungas Road ("The Road of
Death")
If you don't want to travel on a road nicknamed “The Road of Death,” stay away from this one! Leading from La Paz to Coroico, the Road of Death is almost 50 miles of one-lane road, featuring vertical drops of as much as 3,000 feet into the Amazon rainforest below. Astonishingly, the road has over 200 hairpin turns. Up until 1994, nearly 300 travelers died on the road every year. Numerous makeshift memorials can be seen in places where hapless folks have plunged over precipices and gone crashing down into the jungle ravines below.
Killar to Pangi Road, via Kishtwar
(India)
This hair-raising road is only for people who love to drive in the mountains and have nerves of steel. Open only during the summer months, this rocky, gravelly road is about 70 miles long. A six- mile stretch of it is particularly hazardous; rocky overhangs look as if they could fall upon the roadway at any moment. The road was built hundreds of years ago by local villagers and has not been repaired over the decades.
Bayburt D915 Highway, Turkey
The Bayburt D915 Highway is a stack of hairpin bends so narrow that vehicles often need more than a single manoeuvre to turn. The road is poorly maintained, and no guard rails - it isn't recommended to tourists.
Hana Highway, Hawaii
Hana Highway curves around the coast of Hawaii’s Maui Island and has spectacular views over the ocean, lush rainforest, plunging waterfalls and scenic bridges. However, the route is so stressful to drive along that it’s also been dubbed the ‘Divorce Highway’.
The Atlantic Road in Averoey, Norway
A bridge on Norway's Atlantic Road is so steep and curvy that from some angles it seems to simply end. On a stormy day, gusts of wind and huge waves crash over the barricades and onto unsuspecting cars winding over the narrow bridge.
The Vitim River Bridge in Siberia
This wooden bridge is so narrow it's barely wide enough for one car. It also doeasn't have railings. To top it off, the bridge is also iced over for most of the year thanks to Siberia's chilly climate. Needless to say, surviving this crossing is considered a huge accomplishment. The few who have done it even created their own Facebook page to celebrate it.
Highway 1 in Florida
Florida's Highway 1 was recently ranked the most dangerous road in the US for having the highest fatal crash rate. In fact, 1,079 people have died on the road in the last 10 years alone.
The Million Dollar Highway in
Colorado
This stretch of US Route 550 traverses three 10,000-foot mountains passes, and winds across steep cliffs and hairpin curves, all without guardrails. Local folklore says Colorado's Million Dollar Highway got its name because an early traveler said you'd have to pay her one million dollars to drive it again.
Jalalabad in Afghanistan
Running through the Kabul Gorge, the narrow, winding lanes of this roadway are the most dangerous in the world. Fatal crashes on the road from Jalalabad to Kabul in Afghanistan are a daily occurrence. So many have perished driving this highways that people have stopped counting years ago.
Not all road trips consist of endless, repetitive highway. While some welcome the relaxation of the consistent, unchanging open road, others prefer their road trips with a side of thrills. We've scoured the web to find the most frightening, dangerous, and deadly roads you can drive.
Conclusion
Road trips are always an amazing idea. And roads is the most widely used means of transportation, but what to do when the road you taking has huge risk involved in it. About 1.3 million people die in traffic accidents every year. But while many of those deaths could be prevented by better driving, there are some roads that test the skill, and courage, of any driver. Whether it’s hairpin bends, sheer mountain drops or roads through war zones, following are
The Stelvio Pass, Italy
The Stelvio Pass located in Italy, at 9045 feet is the highest paved mountain pass in the Eastern Alps, and the second highest in the Alps, slightly below the Col de l’Iseran 9088 feet. Some roads look a lot more dangerous than they really are. With more hairpins than Helena Bonham Carter, the Stelvio Pass looks like a child’s scribble over the hills. The road climbs almost two kilometers and, with just a low concrete barrier between you and the steep mountain drop, it’s best not to look down. A bit too much speed on one of the road’s 60 180-degree corners could spell disaster.
Los Caracoles Pass, Chile
This road passes through mountain Andreas between Chile and Argentina.The road has many steep slopes and sharp turns without fences security. The road is snow-covered almost all the year. Snow together with the complex natural landscape requires extreme patience and driving skill to drive in emergency situations. However, this road is maintained in working condition, which significantly reduces the number of accidents on it. Trucks and even double-decker tourist buses travel daily on this road.
Skippers Canyon Road, New Zealand
The Skippers Canyon Road, located in New Zealand, is unbelievably scary as it’s made from a very narrow cut in the middle of a sheer cliff face. This winding road actually requires a special permit to drive. If you do manage to get permission though, be ready for a slippery challenge and good luck if you run into someone coming from the other direction.
Guoliang Tunnel Road, China
The Guoliang Tunnel is carved along the side of and through a mountain in China. It may be hard to see in the photo, this road was hollowed out of the side of a mountain by several villagers from the town of Guoliang. Before the construction of this mountain pass the village was cut of from the rest of civilization by the surrounding cliffs. Although it doesn’t see much traffic, due to its construction it is inherently fairly dangerous.
James Dalton Highway, Alaska
The Dalton Highway is a 667 km road in Alaska. It begins at the Elliott Highway, north of Fairbanks, and ends at Deadhorse near the Arctic Ocean and the Prudhoe Bay oil fields. Although appearing serene at first glance, is filled with potholes, small flying rocks carried by fast winds, and worst of all it runs through the middle of nowhere.
Butcher of the Extreme (France)
The author doesn’t know exactly where this road is located; nevertheless, it must be one of the most dangerous roads in existence. Of course, there are many other logging roads throughout the world, many of which are not paved, while others are little more than animal trails. At any rate, if traveling on this road is any indication of what this work entails, then the men and women driving logging trucks deserve pay for hazardous work—that’s for certain!
Taroko Gorge Road (Taiwan)
Similar to the Guoliang Tunnel Road (number 4 on our list), Taroko Gorge Road is carved out of and through the mountains. Due to the spectacular beauty of its surroundings, the road is well frequented in spite of its fearsome reputation. This means a slew of tour buses, cars, scooters, bicyclists, and pedestrians are all vying for space on the same narrow road—a frightening prospect, considering the number of blind turns and extremely narrow bends in the road. The road is also very hard to keep in good condition, as heavy rainfall and typhoons often cause landslides and rockslides that leave sections of the road impassable.
Karakoram Highway (Pakistan to
China)
This dangerous road covers more than 1,300 kilometers and, at least in some places, follows the old Silk Road. Cutting through the most mountainous region in the world, the Karakoram Highway is beset with hazards: rock falls, landslides, avalanches, flooding, snow drifts, reckless drivers, herds of animals, precipitous cliffs and terrible storms. Interestingly, the road meanders through the Hunza Valley, the scene of James Hilton’s Lost Horizon, a novel about the mythical Shangri-La, a harmonious place where people live for centuries.
Fairy Meadows Road, a.k.a. Nanga
Parbat Pass (Pakistan)
Starting from Karakoram Highway and leading to the village of Tato, this road may only be 10 miles long, but it is absolutely harrowing. It is narrow (approximately the width of a Jeep Wrangler), unpaved, and unmaintained, and instead of guardrails, there is a multi-thousand-meter drop to the valley below. The road also climbs nearly 8,000 feet in a short distance, meaning much of the drive is composed of frighteningly steep sections. While the Fairy Meadows that await those who make the drive (and complete the rest of the hike on foot) are unspeakably gorgeous, few are brave enough to make it there.
99-Bend Road to Heaven (China)
It comes as no surprise that the country that brought us the Zhangjiajie Grand Canyon Glass Bridge and the rickety wooden walkways of Hua Shan also has its share of dangerous roads. Located in Tianmen Mountain National Park in central China, the 99-Bend Road to Heaven features—you guessed it—99 death-defying hairpin turns constructed hundreds of feet in the air. If you went off the road in such places, you’d surely die in a fiery crash.
Pan American Highway (Alaska to
Chile)
The Pan American Highway (PAH) is not entirely dangerous, that is, it’s probably no worse than your average American highway. But in some places, you risk your freedom and even your life by using the PAH as a means of travel. Certainly, a dangerous section of the PAH winds through Mexico and Central America, where drug cartel terrorists roam.
Kolyma Highway and Lena Highway
("The Road of Bones")
Travel through Siberia is always a challenge. Nicknamed the “Road of Bones,” this Siberian road from Magadan to Never meanders its way through one of the coldest regions in the world. It is a combination of two highways—the R504 Kolyma Highway and the A360 Lena Highway, both of which are subject to the same dangers (though the R504 is better maintained). The highways are joined by the Lena River Ice Road, which is exactly what it sounds like: a "road" across the river that is open yearly from December through April, when the ice is frozen enough to drive on . . . or so one hopes. Sadly, dozens lose their lives each year when their vehicles fall through the ice.
Zoji La Pass (India)
Just about any road that winds through the highest mountain range in the world would probably be at least somewhat dangerous to travel. The Zoji Pass certainly qualifies in this regard, since it’s a dirt road with no guardrails or traffic signs and where landslides are a continual problem. Moreover, the road zigzags among craggy peaks at over 11,000 feet at its highest elevation.
North Yungas Road ("The Road of
Death")
If you don't want to travel on a road nicknamed “The Road of Death,” stay away from this one! Leading from La Paz to Coroico, the Road of Death is almost 50 miles of one-lane road, featuring vertical drops of as much as 3,000 feet into the Amazon rainforest below. Astonishingly, the road has over 200 hairpin turns. Up until 1994, nearly 300 travelers died on the road every year. Numerous makeshift memorials can be seen in places where hapless folks have plunged over precipices and gone crashing down into the jungle ravines below.
Killar to Pangi Road, via Kishtwar
(India)
This hair-raising road is only for people who love to drive in the mountains and have nerves of steel. Open only during the summer months, this rocky, gravelly road is about 70 miles long. A six- mile stretch of it is particularly hazardous; rocky overhangs look as if they could fall upon the roadway at any moment. The road was built hundreds of years ago by local villagers and has not been repaired over the decades.
Bayburt D915 Highway, Turkey
The Bayburt D915 Highway is a stack of hairpin bends so narrow that vehicles often need more than a single manoeuvre to turn. The road is poorly maintained, and no guard rails - it isn't recommended to tourists.
Hana Highway, Hawaii
Hana Highway curves around the coast of Hawaii’s Maui Island and has spectacular views over the ocean, lush rainforest, plunging waterfalls and scenic bridges. However, the route is so stressful to drive along that it’s also been dubbed the ‘Divorce Highway’.
The Atlantic Road in Averoey, Norway
A bridge on Norway's Atlantic Road is so steep and curvy that from some angles it seems to simply end. On a stormy day, gusts of wind and huge waves crash over the barricades and onto unsuspecting cars winding over the narrow bridge.
The Vitim River Bridge in Siberia
This wooden bridge is so narrow it's barely wide enough for one car. It also doeasn't have railings. To top it off, the bridge is also iced over for most of the year thanks to Siberia's chilly climate. Needless to say, surviving this crossing is considered a huge accomplishment. The few who have done it even created their own Facebook page to celebrate it.
Highway 1 in Florida
Florida's Highway 1 was recently ranked the most dangerous road in the US for having the highest fatal crash rate. In fact, 1,079 people have died on the road in the last 10 years alone.
The Million Dollar Highway in
Colorado
This stretch of US Route 550 traverses three 10,000-foot mountains passes, and winds across steep cliffs and hairpin curves, all without guardrails. Local folklore says Colorado's Million Dollar Highway got its name because an early traveler said you'd have to pay her one million dollars to drive it again.
Jalalabad in Afghanistan
Running through the Kabul Gorge, the narrow, winding lanes of this roadway are the most dangerous in the world. Fatal crashes on the road from Jalalabad to Kabul in Afghanistan are a daily occurrence. So many have perished driving this highways that people have stopped counting years ago.
Not all road trips consist of endless, repetitive highway. While some welcome the relaxation of the consistent, unchanging open road, others prefer their road trips with a side of thrills. We've scoured the web to find the most frightening, dangerous, and deadly roads you can drive.
Conclusion
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