Slaughter alley

Slaughter Alley is an American colloquial name given for sections of highway known for a high rates of fatal traffic accidents. Other terms include Blood Alley, Massacre Mountain, Deadliest Highway, Killer Highway (Canada), Route de la Mort (France), and El Camino de la Muerte (Bolivia). This last epithet is particularly attributed to the Yungas Road.

Many sections of roads have been known as "Slaughter Alley" and local residents may disagree on where "Slaughter Alley" actually is or was. Many famous "Slaughter Alleys" may no longer exist as they have been replaced by new, safer sections of road.

United States

The United States began upgrading major highways to modern freeways in the 1950s. The freeways were much safer than the old highways because the opposing lanes were separated by barriers or wide medians and grade-level crossings were eliminated by overpasses and underpasses. The significantly lower rate of fatalities on the freeways caused the busy older highways to become notorious as areas with comparatively higher rates. Some older, narrow roads have not been widened to accommodate increased traffic over the years. In many regions, the most dangerous sections of these old highways became known locally as "Slaughter Alley" (or by other similar names). Over subsequent decades many of these roads were bypassed or upgraded to freeway status.

Current examples

Noted former "Slaughter Alleys"

Bolivia

Australia

Israel

Canada

In 2009, the Canadian Automobile Association published a list of the most dangerous roads in Canada.[5] The top five were:

Also:

Croatia

The A3 motorway section from Nova Gradiška to Slavonski Brod is believed to be cursed, because of many accidents that happen there each year. In a year and a half, 12 people died and 21 were injured. Amongst others a well known Macedonian singer, Toše Proeski.[8]

Other meanings

Roads called "Slaughter Alley" for reasons other than high fatal accident rates include:

Notes

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Thursday, May 05, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.