4. Jalalabad-Kabul Road – Afghanistan
When it comes to the Kabul-Jalalabad road in Afghanistan, there are a few factors that play into why it is one of the most dangerous roads in the world. One of them being that, like the Brazillian highway below, the road is often the scene of gang (or Taliban) violence. But if that wasn’t enough, the amount of reckless drivers is enough to ensure it is one of the most dangerous roads in the world.
Juma Gul owns a fabric shop that allows him to look out onto the highway, and when asked about it, he said “The fighting with the Taliban lasts only for a day or two, but the crashes are every day. It’s a kind of theater. Sometimes, a car will fly by in the air.”
Dexter Filkins wrote about the road back in 2010, saying “The cars zoom at astonishing speeds, far faster than would ever be allowed on a similar road in the West, if there was one. Like Formula One drivers, the Afghans dart out along the sharpest of turns, slamming their cars back into their lanes at the first flash of oncoming disaster. Most of the time they make it.”
While other roads may boast a higher fatality count, Filkins also pointed out that the people in Afghanistan have long stopped keeping track of the high number of fatalities. While this is hardly a big enough sample size, Filkins wrote that on one of his days there he saw 13 accidents in two hours, all of which were catastrophic and several of which were fatal.
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