When the
school run Mum comes bearing down on you in her Chelsea tractor, you might
think panic, but at least your not near a 500 foot cliff. Your local roads might be full of crazy
pedestrians, but not wilderbeast? From Bolivia to China and beyond, we name the
world's 10 worst routes.
We all know local roads which can be considered 'dangerous' - poorly lit lanes,
potholed tracks, stretches of motorway which attract the area's wannabe
Schumachers and so on.
But what are considered the worst roads if you're travelling overseas? Below,
in reverse order, is a top 10 of the world's worst roads, compiled by the
Association for Safe International Road Travel.
These roads will have you driving among the clouds, along fast-eroding cliff
tops with 3,500m drops, across deadly streams, through bandit territory and
more. Suddenly, our local drive looks a whole lot less stressful...
10) Grand Trunk Road (India)
'GT', as it's often called, was built about 500 years ago to connect the east
and western regions of the Indian subcontinent. Rudyard Kipling called it 'a
river of life', but for the modern driver it's a nightmare. The 1,550 mile road
is full of trucks and rattling buses manned by drivers without much respect for
their lives - or yours. And then there's the cyclists, the pedestrians, the
salesmen, the ox carts, the cows, the buffalos... You get the idea.
9) Patiopoulo-Perdikaki Road (Greece)
This dirt track leads from Patiopoulo down to Perdikaki in the Agrafa region of
Greece. It's steep, busy, full of huge potholes and extremely slippery (due to
the gravel surface). It's also very narrow in places, with no lines or guard
rails on the edges. That's less than ideal given the sheer drop… on BOTH sides.
The majority of the many fatalities here occur at night. Funny, that.
8) A44 (United Kingdom)
Much of the A44, a major road which runs from Oxford in southern England to
Aberystwyth in west Wales, is fairly innocuous, but a 25mile section between
Leominster and Worcester has a load of blind corners. A quarter of accidents
here involve vehicles leaving the road, and even more are head-on collisions.
Campaigners have helped get the speed limit reduced to 40mph in recent years,
and it's monitored closely by officials. Nevertheless, the route remains
popular with speeding bikers.
7) Luxor-al Hurghada Road (Egypt)
Egypt's most dangerous road links two tourist locations - the ancient city of
Luxor in the south, and Hurghada, a hub for diving schools on the coast of the
Red Sea. The route is well-known bandit territory, with travellers facing a
high risk of ambush and hijack. To avoid detection at night, the vast majority
of drivers opt not to use their headlights. And that has a rather predicable
side-effect...
6) Cotopaxi Volcan (Ecuador)
This 25mile-long dirt track, one of countless dangerous roads in Ecuador,
connects the Pan American Highway with the Cotopaxi Volcan National Park, which
boasts one of the highest active volcanoes in the world. The treacherous route
is peppered with holes, but the 'highlight' of the journey comes when you need
to cross a bridge-less stream. It's particularly dangerous during flash floods…
and flash floods seem to occur here even in the lightest of rains. You won't
find that mentioned in any travel brochure.
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5) Coastal roads (Croatia)
The Croatian coast (yes, a rather generic entry) makes the list due to the
narrow and twisty nature of the roads, and a general lack of markings, lay-bys
and side rails. For tourists, it's a particularly scary proposition when you
add crazy, fast-driving Croats into the mix. The scenery on the jagged coast is
absolutely stunning, but if you're driving, it's probably best to watch where
you're going - and keep your fingers crossed that others do too.
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4) Pan American Highway (Costa Rica)
The Pan-American Highway system, the longest drivable road in the world, runs
an incredible 30,000 miles from Alaska to the lower reaches of South America.
Several stretches can be considered 'tricky', but the most infamous section is
Cerro de la Muerte, a high mountain pass which runs from San Isidro de El
General to Cartago in Costa Rica. It's steep, narrow, twisty, full of holes and
susceptible to flash floods and landslides. Did we mention that the name
translates as Hill of Death?
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3) Sichuan-Tibet Highway (China)
China has a massive population but, even so, the road accident figures make
grim reading. At least 100,000 people are said to die on Chinese roads each
year - or one person every 5 minutes. And, in fact, the least populated regions
boast the highest death rates. If that bothers you, you'll want to avoid the
1,240 miles-long (but not very wide) Sichuan-Tibet Highway, which traverses at
least a dozen different mountains with an average height of 4,000-5,000m. The
high altitude means you'll be driving among clouds, and there's a high risk of
landslides and avalanches to boot.
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2) BR-116 (Brazil)
Brazil's second longest road runs 960 miles from Porto Alegre to Rio de
Janeiro. The middle section, which covers around 250 miles from Curitiba to São
Paulo, is the most infamous due to its high accident rate. Officially it's
named Rodovia Régis Bittencourt, but it's known locally as 'Rodovia da Morte'.
That's Highway of Death. Think steep cliffs, poor road conditions and unstable
weather. Enough said?
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1) The North Yungas Road (Bolivia)
Some of the nominations here may seem a little quirky, but few will deny that
Bolivia's 'Death Road' is THE most dangerous in the world. North Yungas Road
snakes across roughly 70km of the Andes, from La Paz to Coroico, with drops of
up to 3,500m... and dozens of wrecked vehicles at the bottom. Drivers need to
contend with crazy hairpin turns, oncoming traffic (often rushing to beat you
into bends), an almost constant layer of fog and, during tropical downpours, high
risk of landslides too. In the past, as many as 200-300 travellers are thought
to have died in a single year, but it's carried significantly less traffic
since the opening of a bypass in 2006. Tourist companies continue to cash in on
the road's notoriety by offering extreme bike tours down it. We'll give that a
miss, thanks.
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