Comments on: Death Road

By: Stef S

Stef S — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 17:11:20 +0000

The “new” road is only partially completed. So in essence you still are required to used the old delapadated one-lane unsafe mountain road. To make matters worse, negotiating one lane traffic AT BEST down hill you are trying to look for bicycles??? That’s lunacy! There are some volunteers from local villages that stand on the mountain for tips that attempt to control traffic w/ hand signs on the blind curves. They are some brave yet helpful souls.

By: kinzie

kinzie — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 20:57:11 +0000

actually most vehicles still perfer to use the original Yungas Road because the waterfalls act as a natural coolant to the delapadated trucks and the death toll still stays between 200 and 300 a year

By: nova72

nova72 — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 15:01:03 +0000

horay my first post! thanks guys.

By: Neil B

Neil B — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 16:37:42 +0000

I’ve love to mountain biking down that.

By: TaC24

TaC24 — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 22:22:07 +0000

The old Death Road is now only used by some trucks and “mountain biking lunatics” so there are no more deaths (or at least far less than before). Cars and buses take the new road (the one on the left in GM) which opened about a year ago.
Anyway, the mountain bike “tour” is REALLY impressive and actually kind of safe since the cars take the new road.

By: ZippyInPA

ZippyInPA — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 20:17:46 +0000

“Notoriety hasn’t helped the death tool here, as thrill-seeking tourists now visit the area just to drive on the road and it’s even popular with mountain biking lunatics.”

Nothing like a self fulfilling prophecy. Seems like a little bit of regulation would go a long way here. I would assume at 69 km, the road could be traversed by a convoy of vehicles in two hours. So, for two hours all traffic goes one way, then the following two hours it goes the other. Probably a major inconvenience, but death is much bigger.