Deadly Roads | Afghanistan, South Africa & India | Free Documentary

roads are more than just grey strips of asphalt dividing up the landscape all over the world roads are communication routes linking important places they can be seen as the prerequisite for human coexistence it was only through the construction of roads that trade and travel became possible for centuries now roads have been a rich source of tales and history but some of them harbor dangers death and a lot of human suffering worldwide in the 20th century alone some 35 million people lost their lives on roads and a further one and a half billion were injured what this man says applies to far too many routes some of the world's most dangerous roads are located in the mountains far away from civilization others totally congested and seemingly devoid of any order run through towns and villages or through major cities [Music] [Music] some roads were built under appalling conditions by slave laborers and prisoners of war others are even in the grip of evil spirits which so the locals believe kill travelers roads overcome mountains and force travelers to look down into chasms or they bridge them roads are the arteries of humankind its cities and its economies [Music] anyone traveling on roads where death stalks is taking a great risk but usually there is no alternative [Music] the salang tunnel in afghanistan is a horrific road through dust and ice in taliban country anyone taking this route through the hindu kush is challenging fate this tunnel really scares me if a tanker explodes in a tunnel like this there's no escape no way you can save yourself you've had it i'm kind of the three kilometer long tunnel at an altitude of 3900 meters is only one of many risks on the selang road the only route from kabul the capital to northern afghanistan landslides and avalanches along with roadside booby traps are among the many dangers that make the route more than just an arduous challenge there are many good reasons for avoiding the salang road but anyone wanting to transport goods and raw materials to supply the afghan capital or to travel to northern afghanistan has no alternative in afghanistan ali asghar is a national hero and sporting role model an ex-member and coach of the afghan national football team and former general secretary of the afghan football association he now works for the german fa helping to develop school and mass sport in afghanistan from grassroots right up to the men's and women's national teams ali travels the length and breadth of afghanistan furthering the development of boys and girls through sports and educational projects as a child he himself used to travel on the load bed of trucks but those days are long gone today the salang road too is no place for carefree outings traveling on roads in afghanistan is always risky there's a general fear of terrorist attacks vehicles of all kinds are filled with explosives driven into crowds of people and detonated the state informs its citizens via sms about curfews and travel restrictions in the country the messages are short and clear no movements from 6am travel impossible and when travel is permitted strict controls are imposed to protect people cars bicycles and even pedestrians are searched at checkpoints for weapons and explosives time and again suicide bombers kill innocent civilians explosive devices can be concealed by the roadside which detonate when a car drives over them the situation is made even worse by the fact that because they are afraid of being blown up as far as possible most motorists drive in the middle of the road taking this road has become very dangerous there is no speed limit many drive too fast this narrow road with its many bends sometimes cease the most horrific deadly accidents with this this mangled wreckage gives a stark indication of the dramas that can unfold on the selang road dramas caused by blind bends poor surfaces and drivers who have good reason for fearing roadside bombs but if they are somehow to survive people here have to travel and go to work many drivers on the salan road are good mechanics but those who can't help themselves are stuck at least for a few days and up here with no cell phone reception no water and no food that can prove disastrous what's more there are also armed bandits sometimes wearing stolen police uniforms who don't hesitate to open fire they steal trucks and their loads time and again truckers are killed when they're ambushed or drive over an explosive device [Music] 38 year old racicon comes from pakistan all the men in his family his father his brothers and his grandfather are truck drivers if everything goes smoothly they cover the 400 kilometers from islamabad to the afghan border in 28 hours four men share the driving day and night with their metal bells and fluttering black cloths pakistani trucks are masterpieces of decoration the cloths are designed to ward off the evil eye and to confuse anyone staring at the truck for too long and without reason that's what truckers here believe and they seek spiritual support the road is incredibly bad and dangerous in many places it's just scree the security forces on the road can't stand us truckers they insult us and hit us if we break down recently i wanted to drive through the icy tunnel but even though i had chains on two of my 12 wheels i still couldn't get any perches on the road so i had to walk through the tunnel and come back with four more chains they were incredibly heavy i just about made it large sections of the salang road are not paved many trucks don't even make it when the road is dry and in snow and ice some truckers just slide down the mountain with their foot permanently jammed on the break when that happens the road becomes a nightmare [Music] once we got stuck for a whole week we just couldn't go on it was really cold with snow everywhere up here you're at the end of the world you can't buy anything so the only food is what you've brought with you it was a really dangerous situation i'm glad we didn't starve or freeze to death i thought the snow storm was going to kill us the truckers prepare for bad weather they take emergency rations and water with them but even before the strenuous climb into the mountains begins they're threatened by a totally different scenario in recent years more than 60 men have been killed in attacks on trucks shootings and kidnappings even occur during the daytime a year ago for instance you couldn't drive after two in the afternoon because lots of people were being abducted by the taliban many were when the weather is fine some might find the wild beauty of the landscape somehow exhilarating but up here it always pays to be vigilant for example if you're traveling with bodyguards or if you've already made it known that you're on a certain mission that might offend the taliban if for instance they know that you plan to do something involving women's football that could be dangerous ali has often been threatened if he didn't stop coaching girls he was told something would happen to him when he received that threat back in 2009 he left afghanistan for a while in the meantime a tailback has occurred in one of the galleries the access road to the actual tunnel which is protected against rockfall is blocked that's not a good sign suddenly there's a lot of shouting from inside drivers are milling around many of them are frightened they all know what can happen on the salang road [Music] there are no rules here in this tight situation things can easily get out of control on one side a tractor unit with a defective transmission has broken down in the tunnel two trailers in the middle of the tunnel have got their loads caught oh at the other end a military convoy is exerting pressure the soldiers couldn't care less if some load or other has got snagged they want to get through and are harassing the drivers it doesn't matter to them if the bodywork gets scratched this is everyday life in the tunnel while a few drivers are still working on the transmission the traffic is able to squeeze past a few shovelfuls of sand on the frozen surface and things can at least get going again everyone just wants to get out of the gallery and the close confines of the tunnel [Applause] our pakistani truck driver finally reaches the next gallery and this is the view he has of the road it's an extremely strenuous trip the route demands great concentration especially with regard to oncoming traffic ali too is glad every time he drives out of the oppressive darkness and can head on to his football project in the north oh [Music] there are just as many trucks on the road on the other side of the tunnel this route carries all the goods traffic from pakistan through northern afghanistan and on to kabul the road is a disaster it's full of huge ruts caused by the excessive weight of the trucks that use it the health between seven and eight thousand trucks struggle through the tunnel every day but no one keeps a record of the ones that don't make it how many break down or are involved in an accident it's said that before 2014 when thousands of isaf troops were still in the country around 16 000 trucks used the salang road every day the sparse remnants of the asphalt surface bear sad testimony to the time in some places the ruts are so deep that vehicles heading downhill are almost impossible to steer [Music] this man is the guardian of a memorial site in the 1990s he had to flee to iran because of the taliban in 2003 he and his family returned in a bus but he was the only one to survive the trip uh when our driver misjudged the steepness of the road and lost control our bus collided with a tanker coming up hill and explode 28 men women and children were killed i was the only survivor on fridays many people come here to pray for the many innocent victims of this road [Music] the road is already in a pitiful state and the snow makes everything a lot worse the old man says he asked drivers on the route for a few afghani a small donation for him and the monument truckers like gracigon use this road to supply kabul with fruit and vegetables and to take raw materials like coal back to pakistan turkmenistan or uzbekistan on each trip ratigon earns around 200. with that he can make ends meet but his income comes from a risky profession no one wants to hang around here any longer than is absolutely necessary afghanistan a country somewhere between war and peace surrounded by mountains it is dependent on the arduous link the salang road provides between the capital the northern part of the country and pakistan for truckers for football experts ali lali and all the others who have to continue using the road it means driving at the limit every time [Music] the molotow road in northern pretoria death lurks on this road and people fear it but for many there is no alternative they have to travel on it by day and by night the route has seen so much suffering and tragedy it is even said to be possessed by evil spirits and demons with anger in their voices some pray for an end to the many fatal accidents on the molotov road others are virtually overwhelmed by pain and desperation like this man i repeat myself for the sake of vividness his sister was hit by a car at dusk and dragged 50 meters she died by the roadside that was in 2012. at first glance the molotow road is just a narrow strip of tarmac linking johannesburg and pretoria with the barren hinterland of pumalanga in the north [Music] jobs in the north with its weak infrastructure are scarce so it's quite common for people living in places like frisco or vaga fontaine to commute 200 kilometers to and from work every day [Music] sifo mason buca is a journalist with the pretoria times he uses the molotow road every day sifo comes from the area for years now he's been writing about the traffic problem about accidents and the people involved in them he'd always been close to danger to his job but what sufo experienced in 2013 changed his life completely something that will stuck with me for the rest of my life you know seeing people's heads rolling on the tower and the most horrific was you know when people had to go there to identify their relatives they were they told me that they were picking up legs just to match the shoe to say okay this must be my daughter's leg because it has the same shoe so it was horrific this is a terrible spot for sifo when he tries to avoid now we are approaching the sport where 30 people from my village died and my friends [Music] on the morning of november the 12th 2013 a tipper truck like this one a lorry a car and a bus were all involved in that horrific accident which hit the headlines the international press called the miloto road a killer road and not for the first time and it was a rainy night so the road was slippery those guys didn't have a chance so their fate was sealed immediately when that the truck hit the tipper truck from behind [Music] the dump truck swerved to avoid a car with no lights on and hit another truck at full speed the force of the collision held the second truck into the bus all the passengers sitting on the right hand side were killed instantly the 29 people who were seriously injured were treated by doctors and paramedics in south africa tragic incidents like that dominate the media and political reporting for several days but as in other cases life on the miloto road returned to normal and with it the risks for commuters one of them is adamant that the government must finally do something the government is now having an obligation of trying to save people's life without politicizing any matter because if we put politics into this matter that won't resolve anything you politicize people that die you keep on politicizing people are dying so the best way is to try to resolve the mental plan a they can extend the road plan b in each and every hundred kilometer they should be traffic officers that's like but with no real solution in sight public anger erupts time and again in the form of roadblocks and barricades for years now the road itself has been the scene of protests people long since became sick and tired of speeches in parliament [Music] the taxi companies have become the main figures in the daily battle on the molotov road only a few commuters can afford the luxury of a car so for the thousands who work in pretoria the white taxis are indispensable one operator runs seven or eight taxis on routes to the johannesburg and pretoria metro regions a trip of about 150 kilometers cost roughly 12 euros per passenger a fully occupied taxi can have up to 18 people on board it's a lucrative but brutal business because every customer counts on this road money and power play a major role [Music] [Music] direct competition comes from the orange putco buses since 1945 they've been taking black workers to where they're needed but can't live because accommodation in pretoria is scarce and expensive the taxi drivers of course have their personal opinions of the competition for a few months there were no put go buses on the road because the drivers had gone on strike during that time no accidents were reported so i can only recommend people to use our taxis instead of buses in my view most accidents are caused by bus drivers [Music] putco buses are often involved in accidents but 200 of them carrying 50 000 passengers are in operation on the miloto road every day 45 year old tisha van deventer who runs a filling station here witnesses the horror on the road every day she grew up on a farm and learned to drive when the maloto road was still a dirt track her filling station is used by taxis and buses after just a few kilometers with tisha at the wheel you've got a pretty good idea of what driving on the maloto road entails the taxi business is almost like a mini mafia they they think they own the road and then you've got the patka buses who are bigger and they think they own the road so there's between the two there's a lot of competition for space physical space on the road and speed because the one wants to get there faster than the other one tisha has brought us to an ordinary roundabout right in front of her filling station during the daytime you can't really do anything wrong but at night instead of going round the roundabout many motorists fail to see the few traffic signs and simply drive straight on into it that's why the roundabout is a permanent building site several drivers have decapitated themselves through ploughing head-on into the concrete structures on the roundabout the street lights in the background are a part of sad reality [Music] the other funny thing is that i've noticed and there's quite a bit of it they want to make it a safer place they've put lighting in but the lights of course don't work because all the cables have been stolen [Music] thus it only gets really dangerous on the maloto road when dusk falls but that's when thousands are returning to their villages after a long day's work in the city and the number of commuters is steadily increasing because no worker can afford the high rents in pretoria as a result there is less and less room on the roads it is illegal to cross the continuous line on the far left of the road the dark unpaved strip is reserved for pedestrians cyclists and herds of livestock but motorists have long been turning the two narrow lanes into four even at night and often with fatal consequences pedestrians wanting to cross the road can suddenly appear as if from nowhere [Music] not everyone is as lucky as these two according to police statistics most victims on the maloto road are killed in the early morning or the late evening this taxi also came off the road in the dark seventy percent of all accidents here are put down to human error caused by working long hours drinking alcohol or driving dangerously you only need to lose concentration for a second for the left side wheels to drift onto the sandy ground next to the road and threaten not only the lives of those traveling in the vehicle but also any pedestrians nearby [Music] this motorist was lucky his small car with three women and a little child in it came off a straight stretch of road when he swerved to avoid an obstacle one passenger has a broken leg and there are some cuts and lacerations to be treated but the child is uninjured there are no statistics on how many accidents are caused by fatigue following a hard day at work [Music] the police regularly make checks on the load vehicles are carrying and on their roadworthiness but even so this strip of asphalt claims numerous victims every year there are no less than 24 risk zones on the miloto road but there are voices that make totally different powers responsible for the deaths on the route [Music] situated not far from the road this house is home to a religious authority isaac malaza is a celebrated figure in the area because as a bishop he fights for the survival of people on the maloto road [Music] a taxi rank on the road every few days the bishop comes to the miloto road itself to talk to people because he thinks it's not enough just to preach in church in 1999 he says jesus came to him in a dream and told him to help people here and now that is his mission he appeals to the conscience of taxi and bus drivers imploring them not to drive too fast or under the influence he also mentions far worse dangers on the molotov road there are blood drinking demons who have this road in their power some families don't bring home any relatives who have been killed on it but if nobody cares for these poor souls and brings them home they will become evil spirits such demons are to blame for the many accidents and deaths on this road so isaac fights the demons on the road itself i command you devils to take your greedy fingers off the bus's brakes he shouts leave the cars and the people in peace the bishop's mission is neither folklore nor is it the excessive zeal of some preacher acting alone it is simply part of the culture here tischef and deventer is well aware of the importance of such rituals it's very important for them that if somebody is knocked down that they have what they call a cleansing ceremony where they go to the actual site and they wash the site and they you know they wash off the blood and they get you know one of the pastors or a church person comes along and um you know they pray and they you know do you know have a whole little ceremony where they cleanse the road so as to to drive away you know the bad spirits and things like that so isaac blesses the many putco buses and prays fervently for the safe arrival of all commuters go for a good six years now politicians have been arguing about the right measures for making the maloto road safer some recommend basic structural improvements others would like to see the construction of a railway line but as long as demons keep demanding so many sacrifices bishop malaza will maintain his fight against the evil spirits and continue to preach on the miloto road [Music] [Music] driving in india is a challenge for everyone even for those who have pushed themselves to the limit on afghanistan's deadly roads and survived evil demons on routes in south africa india's roads are extreme and as even the locals themselves will tell you on the mountain roads of the north the dangers are even greater i think it's very hard job to drive in india it's not a easy this thing i think once if you drive in india or you drive in the mountain roads you can drive everywhere in the world i think yeah you will see the cows also there the drive from kulu province in the federal state of himachal pradesh to the mountain of dead bodies is a 93 kilometer long adrenaline rush on difficult and narrow roads that are full of nasty surprises every day no one knows the number of hairy situations and near collisions that occur sometimes drivers are lucky but not always there's been yet another accident on the winding n21 national route a truck has somehow plunged backwards down a slope and overturned even before the police arrive in the early morning by motorcycle onlookers are already discussing how the accident happened the driver of the truck it seems wanted to avoid an obstacle that had suddenly appeared in the dark it might have been a car with no lights on or a stray cow he couldn't tell exactly he tells officers that as he was maneuvering in the dark shortly afterwards he lost his bearings and nearly plunged into the gorge he just managed to get out by climbing through a window many people say that truckers and bus drivers dominate the roads bus drivers regard the road as their workplace it's mainly the others they claim who are impatient [Music] [Music] we keep telling our passengers these men say that they just have to be patient we do our best but we don't promise them that they'll arrive on time if you get killed along the way we tell them you'll never even reach your destination because the roads here are so dangerous [Music] the bus park just outside manali there is a small regional airport nearby but because of the high mountains and the poor visibility flight connections are regarded as unreliable consequently tourists heading for the north from the capital new delhi would rather opt for the 14-hour bus journey this bus park is somewhere the drivers can take a rest and also swap news and information they meet friends and family have something to eat and drink and try to recover from the strains and stresses of their last trip [Music] there's not much time to carry out all the repairs the buses need and with 60 to 70 buses arriving here every day from delhi and other cities in the densely populated south the small workshops in the region are never short of work the poor road conditions place heavy demands on buses bus drivers claim there are also other reasons for the chaos on the road rock falls and potholes they say are only part of the reality [Music] motorists and motorcyclists we learn are a major problem they never use their rear view mirror there's constant friction the men say but we can't keep getting out and having a fight it's a fairly long trip so they try to stay cool but the fact is nobody here abides by the rules tailbacks are often caused by flocks of sheep and herds of cattle wandering across the road you slow down he says but then cars force their way past or simply turn around causing you to slam on the brakes and the whole bus shudders it's crazy for years now india has held a somber leading position in the global traffic statistics kept by the who the world health organization in 2013 more than 200 000 road deaths were registered half of them pedestrians even if the size of the country and the poor quality of many of its roads are taken into account that is still an alarming figure with all the cars and motorcycles animals of all kinds and commuters and countless regional buses traveling and working on the road is becoming more and more stressful when i have to break heavily passengers sometimes scream but most of them are used to it few people between lulu and manali own a car so the yellow regional buses here are indispensable but passengers nerves are always on edge surprises and obstacles can lurk behind every bend here you can never feel totally safe poor state of roads are the problem he says he can cope with the traffic in fact he likes driving here in the mountains but the locals are poor drivers they cause him serious problems [Music] for indian tourists the trip to the north is a serpentine adventure but for those who live here it's part of everyday life the regional bus drivers know every bend and slope on their route but they can never be certain what they're going to encounter working for many years as a trucker and taxi driver sunja sherman experienced roads all over india today he's a social worker he looks after accident victims especially the bus and truck drivers who break down on the road between kulu and manali anyone who wants to travel safely on mountain roads here in the north would do well to heed sanjav's advice you just have to be very careful you have to be on your side because the the delhi people they don't leave the road you have to be right i mean they will push you out of the road they'll push you over they push you just over the cliff yeah yeah if you if you're not careful you have to take care of your car and yourself you know otherwise they'll push you and throw you out of the cliff they don't care with a jagged cliff face on the one side and a steep gorge on the other driving on india's mountain roads is often a question of self-assertion one which for some proves fatal in the summer months everything floods onto the road leading into the mountains goods traffic animals and commuters for hindu pilgrims in their bright orange robes the trip to their temples in the north is far more than just an excursion the road belongs to everyone but most road users show little respect for traffic regulations adopting a cavalier attitude many think ah everything will be fine when the truck starts going up and down then it's like oh wow what sunshine means quickly becomes clear a load and passengers on one truck or blind bends here you see minor body damage all the time in some places the road is actually far too narrow for such high trucks and overloaded transporters blasting a new lane out of the rock would take time and money but with trucks getting bigger and bigger unless the state of the road surface is improved the consequences will be easy to predict uphill or downhill everyone wants to make progress and as fast as possible [Music] a section of the road some six kilometers north of manali the border road organization the bro is part of the indian military it was bro sappers who blasted this strategically important road out of the rock in difficult terrain nearly half a century ago since then the military unit has monitored the annual repair work not only does the bro determine when the road is safe enough to be open for tourists and pilgrims in the summer in late october it also checks the state of the road and decides when it will have to be closed that all depends on the temperature and the degree of rain and snow when the road was constructed in the 1970s the bro told india's motorists to remember that it was built not only with cement and concrete but also with the blood of many workers it should not be forgotten they said that many of the workers had paid for the road with their health and in many cases with their lives even today road construction is still tough work here often there's no room to use heavy machinery and besides the substrate is far too soft if necessary the men and women in the construction teams also have to work at temperatures of around 20 below they live in accommodation right next to the road and that too has its dangers it's a it's a total sliding area it's a 50 meter and it's a complete slide pro so regular slides due to rainfall snowfall water seepages and that's why this area is a little bit difficult to maintain despite great efforts by the state the impact of the forces of nature in the forms of heavy downpours and hard frost cannot be always kept under control but the n21 is the only road to the border with tibet for that reason alone as its owner and operator the military closely monitors the road here too in an emergency it must be possible to move troops into the mountains very quickly at the border road organization's headquarters the commander of the mountain warriors explains how the 3980 meter high rotang pass came by its name what hang actually means white is called a mountain of dead bodies a lot of casualties have taken place while people crossing across [Music] somehow the rush to the mountain in summer has to be curbed and at the same time the road widened to prevent everything up here sinking into total chaos the number of vehicles allowed to set out for the road hanging pass from manali is limited to a thousand a day turning back is forbidden anyone returning to manali on the same day their permit is issued must pay a fine of between 70 and 140 euros because then theoretically there would be 1001 vehicles on the mountain so the pass leading to tibet has to be crossed on the day stipulated the commander reminds us why for the time being this road will remain one of the most dangerous in the world [Music] a lot of sacrifice is done by our men while constructing this road when we do the we start off by doing the formation cutting which is on a mountainous terrain it is a very arduous task and the lot of people get injured during the formation cutting of hard hard rock or because of the sliding of the stones that is the reason why a lot of sacrifice has taken place during the construction part [Music] footage of the peak taken in early july the road as far as lee should have been open some time ago but in march more than three metres of new snow fell during the clearance work three of the 220 workers were [Music] killed these casualties have happened because of the avalanches which trigger uh on mountain peaks and there are there is hardly any warning to these avalanches and this is the difficulty which we may be facing while clearing the snow at mountain peaks the huge appeal of the snow-covered peaks for indians from the hot cities of the south remains unbroken this car is in the way so without hesitation it's overturned anyone seeking peace and quiet in natural surroundings drives the roadhang pass quickly because even though the road beyond the mountain of dead bodies still has its dangers there is far less traffic on it when the military close off the road in november because of snow the twenty thousand people who live up here are cut off from the valley by the wardhang pass a tunnel would make the road usable all year round but until it's driven 8.8 kilometers through the himalayan massive traveling on the nh21 will remain a trip into the unknown [Music] some of the dangers on roads have natural causes travelers are under threat from the climate avalanches and landslides other risk factors include family duties pressure at work and social hardship they force people to take a risk in getting from a to b every day other dangers can be put down to human error like a lack of concentration or a mistake at the wheel but simple bad luck can also mean tragedy on the roads of death [Music] you

Channel: Free Documentary

Views: 672,927

Keywords: Free Documentary, Documentaries, Full documentary, HD documentary, most dangerous roads, most dangerous journeys, worlds most dangerous roads, worlds most dangerous journeys, deadliest roads, deadliest roads in the world, dicing with death, deadliest journeys, dangerous india, most dangerous roads india, dangerous roads india, deadliest roads india, india, south africa, Afghanistan

Id: 5XDBCySKvxQ

Length: 44min 53sec (2693 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 04 2022

Reddit Comments

[u/DonlishkoDH]

These documentaries don't only show the roads but the culture behind it, in my opinion they're worth a watch.