Out of the few near-death experiences I can recall in my lifetime, just about all of them involved cars — driving them, being driven in them, being hit by one of them; even when the roads are perfectly asphalted and traffic is flowing smoothly it can still be dangerous. Just think of the times you find yourself in an overcrowded bus on Bolivia’s “Road of the Death,” which landed in the number one spot on this list of the world’s most dangerous roads.
“It runs in the Bolivian Andes, 70 km from La Paz to Coroico, and plunges down almost 3,600 meters in an orgy of extremely narrow hairpin curves and 800-meter abyss near-misses. A fatal accident happens there every couple of weeks, 100-200 people perish there every year.”
Other deadly roads include the Russian Siberian Road to Yakutsk, Russian-Georgian “Military” Mountain Roads and Mount Huashan Hiking Trail in China. Be sure and check out the list, complete with lots of goose bump-inducing photos at the Dark Roasted Blend blog.