The World's Top 10 Most Dangerous Drives

By Chris Rowlands

Chris Rowlands

LATEST ARTICLE
The World's Top 10 Most Dangerous Drives
The world has its fair share of dangerous roads but some are more notorious than others when it... Read More

• N/ALEADERBOARD RANK
• 1ARTICLES CONTRIBUTED
• 0COMMENTS POSTED

516 views Jul 19, 2010

Bolivia Road of Death North Yungas Road

Enlarge Photo

The world has its fair share of dangerous roads but some are more notorious than others when it comes to striking fear into the hearts of those who have driven them; with locals even labelling them with such names as "Road of Death" and the "Devil's Backbone".

A new breed of adventure tourist--intent on finding and travelling down a selection of the most dangerous roads the world has to offer--travels every year to search for adrenaline fuelled twists, dizzying heights and peril awaiting them at every corner.

Follow below for the world's top 10 list in descending order of peril:

1: North Jungas Road ("The Road of Death"); Certainly deserving of being labelled "the most dangerous" road in the world, a dizzying high altitude 61 km stretch of perilous road with no guard rails to offer safety from the surrounding 2,000 ft drops waiting to claim the unwitting tourist.

2: Sichuan Highway; A road with rock and landslides a plenty along its 2,412 km long stretch, winding through incredibly scenic landscape and crossing some of the worlds most well-known rivers. Beautiful it may be but very deadly having claimed the lives of many thousands of Chinese people between 1985 and today.

3: Russia's Highway from Hell (Lena Highway); In one of the coldest civilised parts of the world--with temperatures often achieving record breaking lows--a treacherous enough stretch in winter but an absolute mud bath in summer when traffic jams numbering into the thousands renders travel impossible. Crime is rife during this period with kidnapping and robbery not uncommon.

4: Guoliang Tunnel Road; literally hewn from the cliff face, this road is certainly an engineering feat for the Taihing mountain tribe who built it during the latter part of last century (and responsible for many fatalities in the process). Scenic views await but so does peril for the incautious driver due to the solid stone walls and sheer drops awaiting you should your attention wander too much to the marvellous scenery.

5: James Dalton Highway; made popular by the "Ice Road Truckers" TV series, an extremely dangerous and remote road with danger lurking at every turn.  Hazards include rocks flung into your windscreen by passing trucks and an extremely slippery & pothole filled road surface. Cars with poor or new suspension can be seriously damaged and this drive should not be attempted by the faint hearted or those without plenty of supplies and extra fuel should the unfortunate happen.

6: Halsema Highway; A treacherous 241km stretch of road with mudslides and rock-falls an all too common occurrence. With drops of up to 1,000 ft and not much in the way of guardrails, overturning your vehicle--or worse--is quite possible, especially during the wet season when the road becomes virtually impassable.

7: Van Zyl's Pass; More of a dirt track created by the frequent travelling of vehicles along the route, but certainly a deserving contender for this list. An extremely steep trail with boulders and rocks strewn across the path as if flung there to await the unlucky, inexperienced driver; the surrounding ravines make mistakes here unforgiving but the journey is worth it to experience the spectacular views of the Marienfluss Valley (carved by a glacier in the last ice-age) from the top of the pass.

8: Karakoram Highway; Sometimes labelled as the 9th wonder of the world, this engineering wonder spans 1,300 km in length and connects China and Pakistan with what is the highest paved road in the world. An unfortunate 892 workers died during its construction (mainly on the longer Pakistani side) and it remains perilous today with landslides a regular occurrence.  The most recent of which, in fact, created the new Attabad Lake (22 km in length & over 100 metres in depth) and caused a closure of a stretch of the road in the Hunza valley.