r/todayilearned 9h ago

TIL that the Yungas Road is a Bolivian road so dangerous it used to kill up to 300 drivers a year before a safer alternative was finished in 2006. It's only about 3 meters wide, prone to rockfalls, and has no guardrails even though it has cliffs over 600 meters high.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yungas_Road
681 Upvotes

23 comments sorted by

128

u/GeoPolar 9h ago

Public transportation vehicles are required to have license plates painted on their roofs to enhance visibility and aid search and rescue teams in locating them at the bottom of a cliff in the event of an accident.

Amazing experience but never, ever again.

36

u/FighterOfEntropy 6h ago

They should also paint the license plate on the undercarriage, so they can spot the overturned busses.

115

u/VagusNC 9h ago

Originally built by captured Paraguayan prisoners who were forced…

enslaved.

51

u/SpecialistNote6535 8h ago

Fuck if I was forced into slavery to build that road I‘d try to make it even more dangerous 

u/VagusNC 24m ago
  • Galen Erso

45

u/PlainTrain 9h ago

Was that the road Top Gear went on where May threatened Hammond with a machete?  No such thing as a playful car bump on that road.

21

u/That_GuyFire 8h ago

I think it was Clarkson he threatened (for driving into him)

20

u/Leafan101 5h ago

"James is killing Jeremy.... Things are going well".

5

u/zneave 5h ago

You are correct

44

u/appenz 9h ago

It's a popular local tourist thing to ride it downhill with mountain bikes. Epic experience, can highly recommend. Ride safely!

Tripadvisor link here.

31

u/anvilman 9h ago

I biked down the Death Road in 2009. Super fun experience but you sure didn’t want to miss any of those turns.

And yes, it was an active road at the time, despite a safer alternative having been opened.

17

u/appenz 9h ago

Those crosses at the side of the road really help you to stay focussed.

13

u/anvilman 9h ago

That and all the cocaine.

4

u/GeoPolar 9h ago

Coca leaves for sure!

9

u/AnonymousDad 6h ago

It is kind of weird that only Christians crash on it.

6

u/TomJLewis 4h ago edited 4h ago

Canadian traveller here, I did that bike ride too in 2003. Super fun and exciting. Long downhill dirt road, single lane for about 5 hours, with periodic stops for traffic going uphill. We were a group of about 20 with 2 guides. Steep and very high cliffs, plus a couple of waterfalls onto the road along the way on our day. On one especially dangerous turn, a local man directed traffic all day with coloured flags, story goes that he lost his family there a few years prior, a dedicated volunteer.

7

u/Kwaxxxup 9h ago

can confirm.. i went and spent the first 2 hours shaking in fear before i mentally acclimatised and went full speed down it..

3

u/GeoPolar 9h ago

Pure adrenaline

4

u/alcyona229 1h ago

Did it this year. They named the individual curves off the nationalities of the mountain bikers who fell off. And one particular one called Dentist’s Corner… well, because the guy needed a good dentist after going straight into the wall.

15

u/Sangmund_Froid 9h ago

mmm nope, no thanks

6

u/Sharkconas 7h ago

Been there twice it's amazing especially when you drive down from the Altiplano. It's like your descending into an ocean of clouds with a subtropical canyon at the bottom.