North Yungas Road ‘Road of Death’

Road of Death’ or ‘Death Road’ as it’s called, the North Yungas Road, 35 miles (56 km) northeast of La Paz in the Yungas region of Bolivia has one of the toughest terrains in the world. Connecting La Paz to Coroico, the road stretches 61 to 69 km depending upon the source.

The estimated suggests that the ‘killer-road’ takes 200-300 lives every year. Owing to the dangers associated with the road, in 1995, the Inter-American Development Bank christened it as the “world’s most dangerous road”. Full of stones, rocks and shingles, the road offers a dirt track edging the mountain connecting La Paz and Coroico.

It gets worse with rain and fog, which not only reduces the visibility, but also makes the road surface muddy, and slackens rocks from the hillsides. This is why the region is highly prone to accidents. Often the mini-buses skid over the sides of the road plunging into the deep canyons, this has lead to high death count over the years. The spots of accidents have been marked with crosses. Further, high drop-offs of at least 600 meters (1,969 ft), lack of guard rails, single-lane width of 3.2 meters (10.5 ft) through most of the road makes the ‘Death Road’ most vulnerable for accidents.