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

Roads are more than just gray strips of asphalt that divide the landscape around the world. Roads are communication routes that connect important places. They can be considered as a prerequisite for human coexistence. Only thanks to the construction of

roads

did trade and travel become possible for centuries. Now the

roads

have been a rich source of tales and history, but some of them contain dangers of death and much human suffering throughout the world. In the 20th century alone, some 35 million people lost their lives on the roads and another 1.5 billion were injured. this man says it applies to too many routes some of the most dangerous roads in the world are located in mountains far from civilization others totally congested and seemingly devoid of any order run through towns and villages or through major cities some roads were built in appalling conditions by slave workers and prisoners of war, others are even in the clutches of evil spirits who, locals believe, kill travelers, the roads surpass the mountains and force travelers to look into abysses or link them together, the roads are the arteries of humanity, its cities and its economies, whatever.

Traveling on roads where death lurks is a great risk, but there is usually no alternative. The Salang Tunnel in Afghanistan is a horrible path through the dust and ice in the Taliban country. Anyone who takes this route through the Hindu Kush defies fate. This tunnel really scares me. a tanker explodes in a tunnel like this there is no escape there is no way you can save yourself you have already had it I am some kind of tunnel three kilometers long at an altitude of 3900 meters it is just one of the many risks on the highway of Selang 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 to avoid the salang road, but anyone who wants to transport goods and raw materials to supply the afghan capital or travel to northern

afghanistan

has no other alternative in afghanistan ali asghar is a national hero and a sports model former member and coach of the Afghan national football team and former general secretary of the Afghan football association where he now works for the German Federation, helping to develop school and mass sport in Afghanistan, from the grassroots to the men's and women's national teams.

Ali travels throughout Afghanistan promoting the development of boys and girls through sports and educational projects that he himself used as a child. traveling on the loading platform of trucks, but those days are long gone today, the salang highway is also not a place for care

free

rides traveling on the roads in Afghanistan is always risky, there is a widespread fear of terrorist attacks, vehicles of all kinds are full of explosive crowds of people and detonated. The state informs its citizens through SMS about curfews and travel restrictions in the country. The messages are brief and clear. There are no movements after 6 am.

Travel is impossible. and when travel is allowed, strict controls are imposed to protect people, cars, bicycles and even pedestrians. Checkpoints are searched again and again for weapons and explosives, suicide bombers kill innocent civilians, explosive devices can be hidden on the side of the road and detonated when a car passes over them, the situation worsens Even more so by the fact that, because they are afraid of being exploited, 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 curves sometimes causes the most horrible fatal accidents.

These shattered remains give an austere appearance. indication of the dramas that may unfold on the Selang road. Dramas caused by blind curves, poor surfaces and drivers who have good reason to fear bombs on the roads, but if they somehow want to survive, people here have to travel and go to work. Many drivers on the Salan road. They are good mechanics, but those who can't help it are stuck at least for a few days and up here, without mobile phone reception, without water or food, which can be disastrous, in addition, there are also armed bandits who sometimes wear uniforms of police officers stolen and they do not hesitate to open fire they steal trucks and their loads again and again they kill the truckers when they are ambushed or they drive over an explosive device racicon 38 years old comes from pakistan all the men in his family his father his brothers and his grandfather are The truck drivers, if all goes well, travel the 400 kilometers from Islamabad to the border with Afghanistan in 28 hours.

Four men share the journey day and night with their metal bells and their black cloths fluttering. Pakistani trucks are masterpieces of decoration. The fabrics are designed to protect from the evil eye and to confuse anyone looking at the truck for too long and without reason that is what the truckers here believe and seek spiritual support the road is incredibly bad and dangerous in many places it is just a Pedregal the security forces on the road can't stand us, truckers insult us and beat 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 anywhere on the road, so I had to walk through the tunnel and came back with four more chains, they were incredibly heavy, I almost made it, large sections of Salang Highway are not paved, many trucks don't even make it when the road is dry, and in the snow and ice some truckers simply slide down the mountain with their foot permanently stuck on the brakes. when that happens the road becomes a nightmare once we were stuck for a whole week we just couldn't continue it was so cold and snowy everywhere up here you are at the end of the world you can't buy anything so the only food is what you brought.

It was a really dangerous situation. I'm glad we didn't starve or

free

ze to death. I thought the blizzard was going to kill us. The truckers get ready. In bad weather they take emergency rations and water, but even before the grueling climb into the mountains begins, they are threatened by a completely different scenario. In recent years, more than 60 men have been killed in attacks on trucks, shootings and kidnappings have occurred even during A year ago, for example, during the day, for example, you could not drive after two in the afternoon because the Taliban were kidnapping a lot of people, many did it when the weather was good and some found the wild beauty of the landscape somewhat stimulating, but up here it is always worth keeping an eye out, for example, if you are traveling with bodyguards or if you have already let it be known that You are on a certain mission that could offend the Taliban if, for example, they know that you plan to do something related to women's football that could be dangerous.

Ali has often been threatened if he did not stop training girls. They told him something would happen to him when he received that threat in 2009. He left Afghanistan for a while. Meanwhile, an attack occurred in one of the galleries. the access road to the tunnel that is protected against rockfall is blocked, that is not a good sign, suddenly there is a lot of shouting from inside, the drivers are driving around, many of them are scared, everyone knows what can happen On the way of salang, there are no rules. Here, in this difficult situation, things can easily get out of control, on the one hand, a tractor truck with a faulty transmission has broken down in the tunnel, two trailers in the middle of the tunnel have become trapped with their load, and on the other At the other end, a military convoy is pressuring the soldiers, they don't give a damn if a load gets caught, they want to pass and they harass the drivers, they don't care if the bodywork gets scratched, that's what everyday life is like in the tunnel while some drivers are still working. in the transmission, traffic can pass a few shovelfuls of sand on the icy surface and things can at least work again.

Everyone wants to get out of the gallery and the narrow confines of the tunnel. Our Pakistani truck driver. He finally reaches the next gallery and this is the view he has of the road. It is an extremely exhausting journey. The route requires great concentration, especially with respect to oncoming traffic. Ali is also happy every time he emerges from the oppressive darkness and can head to his football project in the north. There are so many trucks on the road on the other side of the tunnel. This route carries all freight traffic from Pakistan through northern Afghanistan to Kabul.

The road is a disaster. It is full of huge ruts caused by the excessive weight of the trucks that use it. Between seven and eight thousand trucks fight through the tunnel every day but no one keeps track of those who don't make it, how many break down or suffer. an accident, it is said that before 2014, when thousands of isaf troops were still in the country, around 16,000 trucks used the salang road each day, the scant remains of the asphalt surface are a sad testimony to the time when, in some places, the ruts are so deep that the vehicles going down are almost impossible to guide.

This man is the caretaker of a memorial site in the 1990s. He had to flee to Iran due to the Taliban in 2003. He and his family returned in a bus but he was the only one who survived the trip uh when our driver misjudged the steepness of the road and we lost control our bus collided with a tanker truck going up a hill and exploded 28 men, women and children died I was the one sole survivor On Fridays many people come here to pray for the many innocent victims of this road. The road is already in a sorry state and the snow makes everything much worse.

The old man says that he asked the drivers on the route for a few Afghans. A small donation for him and the monument. Truckers like Gracigon use this road to supply Kabul with fruits and vegetables and to transport raw materials such as coal 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 stay here longer than absolutely necessary. Afghanistan, a country. somewhere between war and peace, surrounded by mountains, it depends on the arduous link that the salang highway provides between the capital, the northern part of the country and Pakistan, for truck drivers, football experts, Ali Lali and everyone the others who have to continue using the road that means. driving to the limit every time the molotow highway in the north of pretoria death lurks on this road and people fear it, but for many there is no alternative, they have to travel on it day and night, the route has seen so much suffering and tragedy that is even said to be possessed by evil spirits and demons with anger in their voices some pray for an end to the numerous fatal accidents on the Molotov highway others are virtually overwhelmed by pain and despair like this man, I repeat myself To make it clearer, his sister was hit by a car at dusk and dragged 50 meters and died on the side of the road in 2012.

At first glance, the Molotow road is just a narrow strip of asphalt that connects Johannesburg and Pretoria with the arid interior of pumalanga in the north jobs in the north, with its weak infrastructure, is sparse, so it is quite common for people living in places like Frisco or Vaga Fontaine to travel 200 kilometers to and from work every day. Sifo Mason Buca is a journalist from Pretoria. He uses the Molotow Highway every day. Sifo is coming. from the area for years he has been writing about the problem of traffic, accidents and the people involved in them. He had always been close to danger for his work, but what Sufo experienced in 2013 changed his life completely, something that will stay with me for a long time.

The rest of my life, you know, seeing people's heads rolling in the tower and the most horrible thing was that when people had to go there to identify their relatives, they told me that they were collecting legs just to match the shoe to say "okay, this." It must be my daughter's leg because she has the same shoe so it was horrible this is a terrible place for sifo when she tries to avoid it now we are approaching the sport where 30 people from my town and my friends died on the morning of November 12, 2013 a dump truck like this one, a truck, a car and a bus were involved in that terrible accident that made the headlines.

The international press called the Miloto road a

deadly

road and not for the first time and it was a rainy night so the road was slippery, those guys didn't stand a chance so their fate was immediately sealed when thetruck struck the dump truck from behind the dump truck, swerved to avoid a car without lights on, and hit another truck at full speed due to the force of the collision. The second truck was put into the bus. All the passengers sitting on the right side died instantly. The 29 people who were seriously injured were treated by doctors and paramedics in South Africa.

Tragic incidents like this dominate the media and political reports for several days, but As in other cases, life on the Miloto highway returned to normal and with it the risks for travelers, one of them is convinced that the government must finally do something, the government now has the obligation to try to save the lives of the people without politicizing any issue because if you bring politics into this issue that will not solve anything you politicize the people who die you continue politicizing the people are dying so the best way is to try to solve the mental plan a they can extend the road plan b in each hundred kilometers that should be traffic officers like this, but with no real solution in sight, public anger erupts again and again in the form of roadblocks and barricades for years the road itself has been the scene of protests, people make much tired of speeches in parliament Taxi companies have become the main figures in the daily battle on the Molotov Highway.

Only a few travelers can afford a car, so for the thousands of people who work in Pretoria, white taxis are indispensable. An operator runs seven or eight taxis on routes to the metropolitan regions of Johannesburg and Pretoria. A trip of about 150 kilometers costs approximately 12 euros per passenger. A fully occupied taxi can carry up to 18 people on board. It is a lucrative but brutal business because each customer counts. with money out of the way and Power plays an important role. Direct competition has come from the orange putco buses since 1945. They take black workers to where they are needed but they cannot make a living because accommodation in Pretoria is scarce and expensive.

Taxi drivers, of course, have their personal opinions. For some months of the competition there were no 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 opinion, most accidents are caused. by bus drivers Putco buses often suffer accidents, but 200 of them, with 50,000 passengers, circulate on the Miloto road every day. Tisha van deventer, 45, who runs a service station here, witnesses the horror on the road every day when she is older. on a farm and learned to drive when the maloto road was still a dirt road his gas station is used by taxis and buses after a few kilometers with tisha at the wheel you have a pretty good idea of ​​what it's like to drive on the maloto road It implies that the taxi business is almost like a mini mafia: they think they own the road and then there are the patka buses, which are bigger and think they own the road, so between the two There is a lot of competition for physical space. on the road and speed because one wants to go faster than the other tisha has taken us to a normal roundabout right in front of her gas station during the day you can't do anything wrong but at night instead of going around the roundabout many drivers They do not see the few traffic signs and simply continue straight, that is why the roundabout is a permanent work, several drivers have been decapitated when crashing head-on into the concrete structures of the roundabout, the street lights in the background are part of a sad reality , the other curious thing is that I have noticed and there is quite a bit of that, they want to make it a safer place, they have put in lighting, but the lights, of course, don't work because all the cables. have been stolen, so the maloto road only becomes really dangerous when dusk falls, but that is when thousands of people return to their villages after a long day of work in the city and the number of travelers increases constantly because no worker can pay the high rents in As a result, there is less and less space on the roads in Pretoria.

It is illegal to cross the solid line at the far left of the road. The dark unpaved strip is reserved for pedestrians, cyclists and herds of cattle, but motorists have long been traveling around the two narrows. lanes in four even at night and often with fatal consequences pedestrians who want to cross the street can suddenly appear out of nowhere not everyone is as lucky as these two according to police statistics the majority of victims on the maloto road They die early in the morning or at dusk. Late in the afternoon, this taxi also left the road in the dark.

Seventy percent of all accidents here are attributed to human error caused by working long hours drinking alcohol or driving dangerously. You only need to lose concentration for a second for the wheels on the left side to drift. into the sandy soil on the side of the road and threaten not only the lives of those traveling in the vehicle but also those of nearby pedestrians. This motorist was lucky: his small car with three women and a small child went 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 that need to be treated but the child is unharmed there are no statistics on how many accidents are caused by fatigue after a hard day's work the police carry out regular checks on the load carried by the vehicles and their suitability for circulation but still this strip of asphalt claims numerous victims every year There are no less than 24 risk zones on the Miloto highway, but there are voices that hold totally different powers responsible for the deaths on the route located not far from the highway.

This house is the home of a religious authority. Isaac Malaza is a famous figure. in the area because as a bishop he fights for the survival of the people on the maloto road a taxi stand on the road every few days the bishop comes to the miloto road itself to talk to the people because he thinks that it is not enough just to preach in the church in 1999 says that 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 of alcohol .

He also mentions much worse dangers on the Molotov Highway. There are blood-drinking demons who have this road in their power. Some families do not bring home any family member who has been murdered. but if no one cares about these poor souls and brings them home, they will become evil spirits. Those demons are to blame for the many accidents and deaths on this road, so Isaac fights the demons on the road itself. I order you demons to take your greedy fingers. release the brakes of the bus shout leave the cars and the people alone the mission of the bishop is not folklore nor is it the excessive zeal of a preacher acting alone it is simply part of the culture here tischef and deventer are very aware of the importance of such In the rituals it's very important to them that, if someone is knocked down, they have what they call a cleansing ceremony where they go to the actual site and wash the site and, you know, wash away the blood and let you know one of The pastors or a person from the church come and, you know, they pray and you know, they have a whole little ceremony where they clear the way to chase away, you know, evil spirits and things like that, so Isaac blesses many. putco buses and pray fervently for the safe arrival of all van travelers for now six years now politicians have been arguing about the right measures to make the maloto road safer some recommend basic structural improvements others would like to see the construction of a railway line but As long as the demons continue to demand so many sacrifices, Bishop Malaza will maintain his fight against evil spirits and continue preaching on the Miloto Highway, driving in India is a challenge for everyone, even those who have pushed themselves to the limit on the

deadly

roads. of Afghanistan and I Survived Evil Demons on the Roads of South Africa.

The roads in India are extreme and, as even the locals themselves will tell you, the dangers are even greater on the mountain roads of the north. I think it is a very difficult job to drive in India. Is not easy. Think about it once, if you drive in India or drive on mountain roads, you can drive to all parts of the world. I think so, you will also see the cows there. The journey from the province of Kulu in the federal state of Himachal Pradesh to the mountain of corpses is 93 kilometers of adrenaline on difficult and narrow roads that are full of unpleasant surprises every day.

No one knows how many hair-raising situations and near-collisions occur. Sometimes drivers get lucky, but not always. There has been a new accident on the winding N21 national road. A truck fell backwards down a slope and overturned even before the police arrived early in the morning on a motorcycle. Curious people are already commenting on how the accident occurred. The truck driver seems to want to avoid an obstacle that suddenly appeared in the darkness. It could have been a car without lights on or a stray cow which he couldn't say exactly, he tells the officers that while maneuvering in the dark shortly afterwards he lost his way and almost plunged into the gorge, which he only managed to get out of by climbing through. from a window many people say that truckers and bus drivers dominate the roads.

Bus drivers consider the road as their workplace. They say that it is mainly others who are impatient. We continue to tell our passengers. These men say they just have to be patient. We do our best. but we don't promise them that they will reach on time if they kill you on the way, we tell them that you won't even reach your destination because the roads here are very dangerous, the bus parking on the outskirts of manali there is a small regional airport is nearby, But due to the high mountains and poor visibility, air connections are considered unreliable, so tourists heading north from the capital New Delhi prefer to opt for the 14-hour bus journey.

This bus parking lot is a place where drivers can rest. and also exchange news and information meet friends and family eat and drink something and try to recover from the stresses and strains of their last trip there is not much time to carry out all the repairs that 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. Poor road conditions place heavy demands on buses. Bus drivers say the chaos on the roads is also due to other reasons.

Rock falls and potholes they say are just a part of reality motorists and motorcyclists we learn are a major problem they never use the rearview mirror there is constant friction the men say but we can't keep going out and fighting it's quite a long trip so They try to stay calm, but the fact is that nobody follows the rules here. Traffic jams are often caused by flocks of sheep and herds of cattle wandering down the road, you slow down, he says, but then cars force their way through or simply swerve, causing you to crash. brakes and the whole bus shakes it's crazy for years

india

has held a grim leadership position in world traffic statistics kept by the world health organization in 2013 more than 200,000 road deaths were recorded, half of them pedestrians, even if the size of the country and the poor quality of many of its roads is taken into account, which 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 roads.

It's stressful when I have to brake hard. Passengers sometimes shout, but most are used to it. Few people between Lulu and Manali own a car, so the yellow regional buses here are a must, but passengers' nerves are always on edge. Surprises and obstacles can lurk around every curve. You can never feel totally safe here. The poor condition of the roads is the problem. Says it can handle traffic. In fact, he likes driving here in the mountains, but the locals are bad drivers and cause serious problems for Indian tourists on the trip north. It's a winding adventure, but for those who live here it's part of everyday life.

Regional bus drivers know every curve and slope of their route, but they can never be sure what awaits them after having worked for many years as truck drivers. and taxi drivers. sunja sherman haExperienced roads across India Today he is a social worker and takes care of accident victims especially 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 follow Sanjav's advice, you just have to be very careful, you have to be on your side because the people of Delhi don't leave the road, you have to be right, I mean, they'll push you out of the way, they'll push you.

They push you right off the cliff, yeah, yeah, if you're not careful, you gotta watch your car and yourself, you know, otherwise they'll push you and throw you off the cliff, they don't care with a tooth. On one side a cliff and on the other a steep gorge. Driving on the mountain roads of India is often a matter of self-assertion that for some proves fatal. In the summer months, everything on the road leading to the mountains is flooded, carrying goods, animals and travelers. For Hindu pilgrims in their bright orange robes, the journey to their temples in the north is much more than a simple excursion.

The road belongs to everyone, but most road users show little respect for traffic rules by adopting a arrogant attitude many think oh everything will be fine when the truck starts going up and down and then it's like oh wow, which means the sunlight quickly clears a load and passengers in a truck or on blind curves here you see minor damage on the body all the time in some places the road is actually too narrow for such tall trucks and overloaded transporters to open a new lane in the rock would require time and money, but with trucks getting bigger, unless it is improved the condition of the road surface, the consequences will be easy to predict uphill or downhill, everyone wants to progress and as quickly as possible a section of the road about six kilometers north of manali the border road organization the Brother is part of the Indian Army It was the Sapper Brothers who blew up this strategically important road into the rock in difficult terrain almost half a century ago.

Since then the military unit has supervised the annual repair work, Brother not only determines when the road is safe enough to open it to tourists and pilgrims in the summer at the end of October, it also checks the condition of the road and decides when it will have to be opened closed which all depends on the temperature and the degree of rain and snow when the road was built. highway in the 1970s, the brother told motorists in India to remember that it was not only built with cement and concrete but also with the blood of many workers.

We must forget that 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 hard work here, often there is no space to use heavy machinery and In addition, the substrate is too soft if necessary, the men and women of the construction teams also have to work at temperatures of about 20 degrees below zero. They live in accommodation right next to the road and that also has its dangers, it is a slippery area. total is a 50 meters and it is a complete professional slide so regular slides due to precipitation, snowfall and water leaks and that is why this area is a little difficult to maintain despite great efforts.

On the part of the State, the impact of the forces of nature in the form of heavy downpours and severe frosts cannot always be kept under control, but the N21 is the only road to the border with Tibet for that reason alone, since the Army closely monitors its owner and operator. the road also here in case of emergency it should be possible to move troops to the mountains very quickly at the headquarters of the border road organization the commander of the mountain warriors explains how the 3980 meter high Rotang Pass got its name, which actually means hanging, it is called white a mountain of corpses there have been many victims while people cross somehow we have to stop the rush towards the mountain in summer and at the same time widen the road to prevent everything up here from collapsing plunge into total chaos the number of vehicles allowed to leave towards the hanging road the pass from manali is limited to one thousand per day it is prohibited to return.

Anyone who returns to Manali on the same day the 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 must be crossed on the stipulated day . The commander reminds us why, for the time being, this road will remain one of the most dangerous in the world. Our men have made many sacrifices during construction. When we do this path, we start by cutting the formation which is in a mountainous terrain, it is a very arduous task and many people get injured during the cutting of hard rock formation or by the sliding of the stones.

This is the reason why that many sacrifices have been made during construction. Images of the summit taken in early July. The road to Lee should have been open some time ago, but more than three meters of new snow fell during clearing in March. work three out of 220 workers died these casualties occurred due to avalanches that are triggered on the mountain tops and there is hardly any warning about these avalanches and this is the difficulty we can face while clearing the snow on the mountain tops The enormous attraction of the snow-capped peaks for the Indians of the warm

south

ern cities remains intact.

This car gets in the way, so without hesitation it overturns. Anyone looking for peace and quiet in a natural environment drives the road hung quickly because even though the road beyond. The mountain of corpses still has its dangers. There is much less traffic on it when the military closes the road in November due to snow. The twenty thousand people who live up here are isolated from the valley by the Wardhang Pass which would make a tunnel. The road is usable all year round, but until you travel 8.8 kilometers through the enormous Himalayas, traveling on the NH21 will continue to be a journey into the unknown.

Some of the dangers on the roads have natural causes. Travelers are threatened by the weather avalanches and landslides other risk factors include family duties pressure at work and social difficulties force people to take risks by going from a to b every day other dangers can be attributed to human errors such as lack of concentration or a mistake behind the wheel, but simple bad luck can also mean Tragedy in the ways of death.