The World's Most Dangerous Roads
Ever feel like you're on the Highway to Hell? Well, with road injuries almost always in the top 3 causes of death for 5-44 year olds worldwide, you kind of are... anyway! Buckle up, and enjoy this ride. These are all the travel-sickness-inducing facts you need to know about the world's most dangerous roads. Since 1995, the official world's most dangerous road is the 56 kilometer North Yungas Road, which links the Bolivian capital La Paz and Coroico. The road winds around mountains surrounded by dense rainforest. It could be romantic, if only the track was larger than the width of a single vehicle. With a summit 4800 meters, getting a little off-track means tumbling down the mountainside never to be seen again…and, in 2006, that's exactly what happened to over 200 people. This perilous hellhole of a road has been an issue for almost 80 years. The 1937 comic book “Tintin and the Broken Ear” includes an eye-watering car chase round roads based on this one. Good to know the government takes road improvement seriously; guess I know where I won't be taking a vacation next year… Numerous roads lay claim to the title of ‘world's highest motorable road', which is actually a difficult award to judge. Do you judge it by whether an expert motorist could drive over it? Or whether the average driver in a Ford Focus could give it a go?
Seriously, I have no idea. One popular choice for the title is Khardung La, in the Indian Himalayas, which has been measured at 5,359 meters high, making it the highest regularly-used road. However, India is also home to an absolutely insane pass at Marsimik La, which is 3,590 meters high. Yet, while skilled riders on motorcycles or army jeeps would be able to cope on its nightmare-inducing bends, it's unlikely that that the average driver would consider it motorable. While we're discussing India, the country actually has the highest total number of road deaths in the world, despite its typically ‘zen' reputation. Horrifyingly, 16 children are killed on Indian roads daily.
In 2013 alone, one person died in a road accident every 4 minutes, meaning the total figure reached a massive 137,000 over the course of the year. That's higher than the combined Indian death toll from every war they've been involved with since their 1947 independence, which is - you know - mind-boggling. The US isn't far behind though, coming behind China, with the third highest number of road deaths in the world. In 2016, figures released by the National Safety Council revealed that 2015 had seen the highest percentage increase in American road deaths in the last 50 years. The 8% increase from 2014 came after 38,300 lost their lives this way. Tragically, a further 4.4 million sustained injuries serious enough to warrant medical consultation. The organisation thinks this might be due to higher levels of employment getting people out and about. I always knew there was something inherently dangerous about an office job. The Interstate 10 is the deadliest American road of all. The 3,959-kilometer road runs across desert from Arizona to California, and experiences around 85 deaths every year. Analysts attribute this to how intensely crowded the road is. To put this into perspective, the entire road death toll for the state of Arizona is around 700, so 12% of the state's road fatalities come from this stretch alone. However, in the same year, road deaths in New Mexico dropped by 20%, so it's not all death and doom in America. Back to more global stats now… The African nation of Eritrea scores the highest for roads per capita deaths, with 48.4 per 100,000 thousand citizens. This probably doesn't help the country's relatively low average life expectancy of 64.7.
While there are bad drivers wherever you go in the world, the unequal distribution of wealth globally translates into an unequal distribution of road risks. 50% of the world's registered vehicles are in low and middle-income countries. Yet, over 90% of the world's road deaths take place in the developing world. Aside from turning your liver into fois gras and convincing you that calling your ex at 3am would be a good idea, alcohol is also a massive problem on the world's roads. In the United States, alcohol causes 30.8% of road deaths, closely followed by speed at 30% and distracted driving at 26%. Sobering analysis, I think we'll all agree. Freakier still are sinkholes, which swallow cars from healthy-seeming roads with no apparent warning. These terrifying events are induced by underground water erosion.
In May 2016 a horrifying 200-meter-long sinkhole appeared on one road in Florence, swallowing 20 parked cars. But with no injuries, the event wasn't as deadly as another sinkhole that opened up on a main road in Crimea in 2014. This usually uneventful stretch of tarmac transformed into a real life horror movie when a family of 6 – including 3 -year-old twins - drove right into the six-meter-deep hole, killing them all. And then there's the problem of road rage. The Auto Vantage auto club claims that as much as 66% of American on-road deaths have an aggressive driving element. In the last 7 years, 218 murders and 12,610 horrible injuries in the USA were attributed to road rage. So next time another driver growls menacingly and flips you the finger, maybe try going to your happy place instead of letting it get to you. And now for another hair-raising example of a dangerous road, because we know you all love those. This time we look to a road in China's Chongqing [CHONG-CHING] province, which takes drivers from 625 to 1175 meters above sea level, via 45 lethal hairpin turns.
Ugh, I feel sick just thinking about it. In August 2016 a highway between Mumbai and Goa collapsed suddenly, with vehicles and their passengers tumbling into the raging Savitri River below. At least 22 bodies were never recovered, and tragically the lost vehicles included two state buses. So, thanks to roads at ridiculous heights, collapsing bridges, sinkholes, and alcohol-fueled angry drivers, it's a wonder that any of us have the confidence to get behind the wheel at all. Still, the future does actually look comparatively bright… in 2011, the UN launched the Decade of Road Safety, which - as well as sounding like the title of the most PG-rated action movie ever - will aim to cut the $518 billion burden on governments worldwide caused by road accidents. Still, this is a mega-ask, seeing as approximately 50 million people are horribly injured thanks to road accidents every year. Fingers crossed…
Seriously, I have no idea. One popular choice for the title is Khardung La, in the Indian Himalayas, which has been measured at 5,359 meters high, making it the highest regularly-used road. However, India is also home to an absolutely insane pass at Marsimik La, which is 3,590 meters high. Yet, while skilled riders on motorcycles or army jeeps would be able to cope on its nightmare-inducing bends, it's unlikely that that the average driver would consider it motorable. While we're discussing India, the country actually has the highest total number of road deaths in the world, despite its typically ‘zen' reputation. Horrifyingly, 16 children are killed on Indian roads daily.
In 2013 alone, one person died in a road accident every 4 minutes, meaning the total figure reached a massive 137,000 over the course of the year. That's higher than the combined Indian death toll from every war they've been involved with since their 1947 independence, which is - you know - mind-boggling. The US isn't far behind though, coming behind China, with the third highest number of road deaths in the world. In 2016, figures released by the National Safety Council revealed that 2015 had seen the highest percentage increase in American road deaths in the last 50 years. The 8% increase from 2014 came after 38,300 lost their lives this way. Tragically, a further 4.4 million sustained injuries serious enough to warrant medical consultation. The organisation thinks this might be due to higher levels of employment getting people out and about. I always knew there was something inherently dangerous about an office job. The Interstate 10 is the deadliest American road of all. The 3,959-kilometer road runs across desert from Arizona to California, and experiences around 85 deaths every year. Analysts attribute this to how intensely crowded the road is. To put this into perspective, the entire road death toll for the state of Arizona is around 700, so 12% of the state's road fatalities come from this stretch alone. However, in the same year, road deaths in New Mexico dropped by 20%, so it's not all death and doom in America. Back to more global stats now… The African nation of Eritrea scores the highest for roads per capita deaths, with 48.4 per 100,000 thousand citizens. This probably doesn't help the country's relatively low average life expectancy of 64.7.
While there are bad drivers wherever you go in the world, the unequal distribution of wealth globally translates into an unequal distribution of road risks. 50% of the world's registered vehicles are in low and middle-income countries. Yet, over 90% of the world's road deaths take place in the developing world. Aside from turning your liver into fois gras and convincing you that calling your ex at 3am would be a good idea, alcohol is also a massive problem on the world's roads. In the United States, alcohol causes 30.8% of road deaths, closely followed by speed at 30% and distracted driving at 26%. Sobering analysis, I think we'll all agree. Freakier still are sinkholes, which swallow cars from healthy-seeming roads with no apparent warning. These terrifying events are induced by underground water erosion.
In May 2016 a horrifying 200-meter-long sinkhole appeared on one road in Florence, swallowing 20 parked cars. But with no injuries, the event wasn't as deadly as another sinkhole that opened up on a main road in Crimea in 2014. This usually uneventful stretch of tarmac transformed into a real life horror movie when a family of 6 – including 3 -year-old twins - drove right into the six-meter-deep hole, killing them all. And then there's the problem of road rage. The Auto Vantage auto club claims that as much as 66% of American on-road deaths have an aggressive driving element. In the last 7 years, 218 murders and 12,610 horrible injuries in the USA were attributed to road rage. So next time another driver growls menacingly and flips you the finger, maybe try going to your happy place instead of letting it get to you. And now for another hair-raising example of a dangerous road, because we know you all love those. This time we look to a road in China's Chongqing [CHONG-CHING] province, which takes drivers from 625 to 1175 meters above sea level, via 45 lethal hairpin turns.
Ugh, I feel sick just thinking about it. In August 2016 a highway between Mumbai and Goa collapsed suddenly, with vehicles and their passengers tumbling into the raging Savitri River below. At least 22 bodies were never recovered, and tragically the lost vehicles included two state buses. So, thanks to roads at ridiculous heights, collapsing bridges, sinkholes, and alcohol-fueled angry drivers, it's a wonder that any of us have the confidence to get behind the wheel at all. Still, the future does actually look comparatively bright… in 2011, the UN launched the Decade of Road Safety, which - as well as sounding like the title of the most PG-rated action movie ever - will aim to cut the $518 billion burden on governments worldwide caused by road accidents. Still, this is a mega-ask, seeing as approximately 50 million people are horribly injured thanks to road accidents every year. Fingers crossed…
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