World's most dangerous road

[Sasaki Kojiro]

The road is located in the South American country of Bolivia. It consists of 43 miles of dirt and rock heading north from La Paz, the world's highest capitol (altitude 12,000 feet), to Coroico, a beautiful cloud forest town at the rim of the Amazon basin. It's the only road that exists to get to the Amazon from La Paz. It can have vertical drops for 1,600 feet and has no guardrails. Consequently, most Bolivians take the time to pray before their descent.



An average of 26 vehicles fall off the road per year. About 200 people annually lose their lives here. A fatal accident every fortnight is not uncommon on the Coroico road (the July disaster brought the death toll during the previous eight months to 55 and in 1995 the Inter-American Development Bank declared this, the world's most dangerous road.









Road trip, anyone?

[Motep]

yaeh..definitely not traveling by that route...

[DukeofSerbia]

Gah. We have still similar roads in Serbia in some mountainous areas (not so extreme), unfortunately...

[Crazed Rabbit]

Gah. The only vehicle I'd get in on that would be a Kawasaki 650 dual sport, and stay right next to the cliff the whole time.

Those truck drivers must have nerves of steel.

CR

[professorspatula]

That's some nasty road. To think I complain bitterly whenever a lorry forces me into the side of the road and onto the muddy verge down the narrow country roads by my town, but that's nothing compared to that.

On a more positive note, local vehicle scrap merchants are allegedly amongst the largest and busiest in all of South America.

[Csargo]

Let's go Sasaki I'm game.

[Samurai Waki]

I watched a little documentary on this road on the Travel Channel a little bit ago. Dreadful, narrow thing, anyone going downhill has the right of way, so if two vehicles meet, the vehicle going up has to stop and lose momentum, generally having to back up in the process. If theres more than one vehicle behind it, then they all have to back up. Plus the switch backs and blind corners are horrendous.

[Motep]

this road definitely is not for the faint of heart....teriible if you are afraid of heights.

[Oaty]

I watched a little documentary on this road on the Travel Channel a little bit ago. Dreadful, narrow thing, anyone going downhill has the right of way, so if two vehicles meet, the vehicle going up has to stop and lose momentum, generally having to back up in the process.

They had a documetary of it on the history channel, possibly the same one that was on the travel channel.

I thought it was the vehicle going up that had the right of way due to the one going up would lose its momentum, either way driving on that road must be a nightmare

[Orb]

[Edit: Don't quote post with lots of images in please, it clogs up the thread-BKS]



Haven't been to Naples?

The roads themselves might be quite safe. The other drivers, however, aren't.

[Kääpäkorven Konsuli]

It is two-way road?!