In the world's highest mountains...
are roads only the best can survive.
- You see this BLEEP you send us to?
Where the road averages a death
every 4 1/2 minutes.
I'm scared out of my mind.
These roads have already taken out one trucker...
- India's got the best of me at this point.
And pushed three others to their limit.
- Look at this. Oh!
- I don't want to go anywhere. I'm done.
Nothing that I have ever seen
compares to my first day out here.
Now Lisa and Rick are splitting up...
And away we go!
And each driver must face the road
that almost defeated them...
- This is where I stopped and the bus was coming.
- I just want to BLEEP start smashing people.
While newcomer Dave Redmond
hits the deadly Freefall Freeway for the first time.
- Left? - Yeah, yeah, left there.
- Drive this truck across that bridge?
- Yeah, yeah, yeah. - It ain't gonna happen.
They're risking everything...
- You got no protection whatsoever.
In trucks built on wood frames.
- You get hit and it's just gonna be sticks everywhere.
Three truckers...
It doesn't get any better.
The bad road just gets worse.
Two months...
You screw up here,
they might not find you for a week.
A race at the top of the world.
Today's toughest drivers take on history's deadliest roads.
- We're gonna do what we do best.
We're gonna get out there and drive,
but right now, we've got to get this fixed.
Let's get at it.
- The ten? Ten number? - Yeah, number ten.
There's an idle stop screw down here that I want to loosen up.
Make sure it's in neutral.
Good.
You notice the truck is smoother?
The steering wheel isn't shaking.
Now it's gonna drive a lot better.
That's all we need to do.
Perfect right there.
Perfect.
Newcomer Dave Redmond's finally ready
to hit the Freefall Freeway.
- I guess we're gonna get blessed here by a priest.
But like all truckers in this Hindu culture,
he's getting blessed before driving
these deadly mountain roads for the first time.
- And this is for the trip? - Yeah.
I've never had anything
remotely close to this done before.
Needed some of that in the motel room.
Must be God calling.
Now that we've been blessed, will this truck drive itself?
So I can take a nap?
- Yeah, yeah. - Good.
I mean, that's all I needed to hear.
Go.
Let's go.
- I'm hoping I don't embarrass anybody back home.
I'm gonna try my best.
I can't make any promises now.
Dave's headed north out of Shimla
on the Freefall Freeway...
loaded with nine tons of cement for the Jaypee Corporation
hydroelectric facility in Tapri.
- You let me check brake? - Brake?
- Yeah. - Brake's off.
And like all truckers in India,
he'll be traveling with a spotter.
Pull your mirror in a little.
Oh, too much. Too much. Out.
Now I've got to really be on my guard.
Everything you know in the States as far as driving,
just leave it at the airport.
But I don't never turn down a challenge
simply because I've never done it before.
20 miles behind Dave...
- I want to buy all of what's left in here,
all of these.
Rick Yemm's still in Shimla.
How much for all of it?
This 150 and this 150.
Okay, total?
All of it.
How much for all of that?
- Yes, this total 600. Thank you so much.
- Thank you. - Okay.
And for 12 American dollars,
Rick's stocked up for a long haul.
Hi, baby.
This morning, he was chewing on everything he could find.
I'd walk around, he'd latch on to my pant leg and go flying.
- You got a way shorter trip. - No, I don't.
- Oh, yes, you do. - Why?
- Your trip's way shorter than mine is.
The only way I'm gonna make...
- Thought you were just going to Chandigarh.
- Yeah, but I got to come back to drop off the flour.
- Oh. - Drive safe.
- Yeah, you too. - Not me.
And away we go!
Let's go.
Today the veterans are headed in opposite directions.
Out of Shimla, Rick's headed south to Chandigarh
and Lisa's headed north to Kuppa.
But they'll both be facing their fears.
Bunch of BLEEP no-minds.
Rick must negotiate the onslaught of traffic
that pushed him to the edge last time.
Lisa will be driving the Ledge...
- BLEEP, BLEEP, BLEEP, BLEEP.
The same stretch of road that drove her to quit.
- I don't want to go anywhere. I'm done.
And this time, she's carrying
six tons of concrete pipe for dam construction.
- Oh, yeah, he's swinging it this way.
I don't think the gate's gonna close in the back.
With one-ton pipes that are too long for the bed,
the workers secure the back of the truck...
Got to get it secure, eh?
With rope.
More pressure.
No.
- I don't know exactly what's gonna happen,
so I might get confident with it
and then all of a sudden just dash my confidence.
I was like... all that I didn't need
to make me any more scared than I already was.
This is insane.
40 miles south,
hothead Rick Yemm's hitting traffic.
Go, for BLEEP sakes.
BLEEP.
You pull over to safely let them by,
and they drive slow as BLEEP.
Every day I drive this truck, I put my life at risk.
Like, it is literally dangerous on every single corner you turn
in this country.
Last time Rick was on this road,
it was a constant battle to keep his cool.
Look at this.
I'm not BLEEP grooving on this at all, man.
BLEEP hate this country.
Unsafe.
Am I stressed? To the BLEEP max.
Holy...
it's a giant train wreck.
I don't want to die 'cause someone else is an idiot.
There you go. Pass in a blind corner.
If a truck or a bus was flying down here,
it would have been ugly,
'cause there was no room for him to squeeze.
Dangerous driving.
- Very dangerous BLEEP driving.
Your driving endangers.
Blind corner again.
This BLEEP country.
Here, no, no, no. Watch.
This is how you drive in India.
BLEEP.
BLEEP done with this BLEEP.
Go.
I don't want to drive anymore.
Go.
In the Himalayan foothills,
the chaotic traffic has shutdown Rick Yemm.
I don't want to drive anymore.
Hello.
Oh, what's wrong?
I wonder how well this will go over.
People are gonna bust my balls about being a softy,
but the very small things like this
could make it so much better.
You guys want a candy?
You want one of these?
Do you want one, boyo? - Ah, yes.
- Through one of our translators here, I found out their story.
This whole little community down there,
they're, like, what we would consider gypsies back home.
They travel around for work.
But for them to even have two meals a day is massive.
They only eat once a day.
So I'm gonna grab two of their biggest watermelon here
and bring 'em down.
Two big ones.
- Plump? - Yeah, two big ones.
Two.
It's so easy to get yourself wrapped up
in the stresses of driving here
that you got to kind of find a way to release that BLEEP.
Here, sir.
These are for you.
Thank you.
Can have a good day now.
Makes my heart proud.
Bye. Bye.
And it's a luck thing, right?
I believe in karma.
Man, that felt good.
When you see children like that,
like, when they look at you,
the innocence in their eyes is...
like, it's...
it helps me as much as it helps them.
70 miles to the north...
Look at that road.
The road's gone. - Danger roads.
Dave Redmond's on the Freefall Freeway
for the first time.
That's a little unnerving.
You know, when hearing the statistics that...
what is it?
Every 4 1/2 minutes, somebody gets killed?
Have an accident right now.
That makes me really apprehensive.
We got to get a tire looked at.
That rim is not seated on there right.
You know, if that ring blows off of there,
it's just a flying guillotine.
I mean, it could kill somebody in a car.
You know, we really can't take no chances with that,
so we're just looking for the tire shop.
Dave's hauling nine tons of cement
on a 16-ton truck.
That's 25 tons on split rim wheels
that'd be illegal in the U.S.
- Let's get out of here and get this thing fixed
before we kill somebody.
You see this here?
Look at the difference.
This needs to be set on this rim better.
You can see it's not seated on this.
The wheels are constructed using three pieces:
two rim halves connected by a locking ring.
Together, these parts make a split rim.
If the locking ring slips out,
the two rim halves can blow apart with deadly force.
- Tell him I want to jack this thing up,
take the air out of this tire, and I want to move this ring.
No pneumatic tools? - No.
- No? - No.
- I just never thought that these rims
would still be in existence.
Just so dangerous and, you know, the whole U.S.
has converted everything to just a single one-piece wheel.
This country is really a culture shock.
You know, I'm used to walking in someplace
and the guy understands everything I tell him.
I got off the plane in India and they're like, "Huh?"
We're gonna be late now, ain't we?
Now, 20 miles ahead of Dave,
is Lisa Kelly.
- I've been trying to get a feel for the road, you know,
as fast as I can.
Tashi's a great help, but it would seem like
it'd be a great graduation if we could do it by ourselves
at the end or something.
Lisa might want to go it alone,
but last time, her spotter Tashi led the way
across the derelict bridge.
- Whoa. Whoa.
Go back. Go back.
- You mean this stuff isn't attached?
Bridge is falling apart.
You can see right through it all the way down.
- Yeah, you can see where... - I see the river down there.
- Yeah, yeah, everywhere. You can keep your tire one side.
- Your tires over here? - And one this.
Oh, yeah, you bet.
Slow.
If you keep slow, it's more safe.
- Let's get it over with before I think about it too much.
Okay.
- The more I play head games with myself,
the more scared I get.
Don't think about falling off. Just do it.
Come this way.
Whoa.
Slowly, slowly.
22 tons of truck and cargo on an unsecured plate
could send the truck through the bridge.
- I don't look over the edge when I'm driving,
'cause I don't wanna follow my eyeballs over the edge.
Slow, slow, slow, slow, slow.
Watch out, watch out.
You have done it!
- Good, that was a long ways down.
How you feel crossing bridge?
- I'm learning don't think about stuff, just do it.
80 miles to the south...
Rick Yemm's pulling into Chandigarh to pick up his load.
- Chandigarh, pick up a load of flour
to take to the workers in Tapri.
Chandigarh is India's only pre-planned city
and was designed by famed Swiss architect Le Corbusier
after the 1947 India-Pakistan partition,
when the province of Punjab was cut in half
and needed a new capital.
- I got someone standing there, run him over, so...
No wasting time, eh? Go, go, go.
Oh, BLEEP.
I gotta stick to grabbin'.
I'm gonna do this.
Yeah, ugh.
I ain't doing that again.
It's too hard to walk up these ramps.
Let's go.
Rick's trucking the 40,000 pounds of flour
back to Shimla
and onto the Jaypee Corporation Tapri facility,
where the load will help feed workers.
I just had a really good time,
and it's right away back into the BLEEP chaos.
BLEEP.
Sending him back up the road
that pushed him to the edge of sanity twice before.
You almost wanna Mad Max it
and just run BLEEP everything over.
Shh!
- Bus driver turned, and we were rubbing backends.
Right down the side of my truck.
And he's not stopping. He's a BLEEP green bus driver.
Since he arrived, green buses have tormented Rick.
- Buses drive like madmen on the BLEEP.
BLEEP.
I see a bus driver stopped, I'm gonna punch him.
Punch.
- Boy, this BLEEP gonna be scratched up
by the time I get outta here.
80 miles to the north...
- We're gonna be, you know, running short on time
to get rid of this load of cement.
Dave's discovering why they call it
the Freefall Freeway.
- Man, oh, man, oh, man, oh, man.
We're driving through some BLEEP I've never seen before.
The road deteriorates the farther as you go north.
It's just probably the most dangerous situation
I've ever been in in my life.
You are literally just one slip,
one inch away from meeting your maker.
Now what the BLEEP is this?
Holy BLEEP.
Go, go, go, go.
Go. Left.
- Left? - Go left, left.
- There? - Left turn.
- Left? - Yeah, yeah, left turn.
- BullBLEEP, we ain't goin' across that BLEEP bridge.
- Yeah. - That's a footbridge.
Yeah, drive the bridge.
- Drive this truck across that bridge?
- Yeah, yeah, yeah. - You're full of BLEEP.
You wanna drive across this?
Yeah, no problem.
It ain't gonna happen.
Not today.
- Drive this truck across that bridge?
- Yeah, yeah, yeah. - You're full of BLEEP.
Halfway to his drop-off,
Alabama trucker Dave Redmon's at a standstill.
You wanna drive across this?
Yeah, no problems.
It ain't gonna happen.
Not today.
A powerful bridge.
- Man, it's made out of steel, but I don't know.
I don't think this is made for big trucks.
I think this was made for cars, Sanjeev.
We're gonna hold our breath and go on blind faith.
We got a delivery to make today.
- Yeah, okay. - Good?
Good? - Go slow.
Okay, okay, hold on.
Okay, slow.
Man.
Okay, okay, go, go.
Go.
Holy BLEEP.
Go, go.
It's an absolute death trap.
Go, go.
Go, go, slow.
Holy rickety bridges, Batman.
Holy BLEEP.
Come on, baby. Come on, baby.
It's creaking.
Go, go, go.
- Man, I think I lost ten pounds going across that bridge.
Man, I'm glad that's over with.
That's one of the scariest things
I've ever done in my life.
30 miles ahead of Dave is Lisa Kelly.
- I feel like a mountain goat up here.
This is fresh?
After heavy rains,
the roads are littered with recent landslides.
Wow, look at that.
Holy crap, did we hit that?
Do you want me to stop?
I feel stupid.
Just not good at gauging how wide this thing is.
See, if I was doing all the work,
I'd learn from my mistakes.
I'd be like, "Oh, I never wanna do that again.
I guess I won't run over rocks anymore".
I can do it if you want.
You can.
I'm gonna hit your hand.
See, I'm gonna hit your hand, dude.
Oh, okay.
Okay?
Did you jack it up at all?
Brand-new?
BLEEP.
With a flat tire and no jack,
Lisa and Tashi's only option is to wait for help.
And 20 miles back down the road is Dave Redmon.
- This is a pretty treacherous looking road,
just this little piece right here.
But the Alabama trucker's taking it slow
as he winds through the Cutouts.
- 2,400 meters is about 8,000 feet.
You don't even wanna look over there, do you?
How's that for nerve-racking?
That's some crazy BLEEP right there.
How far we got to go?
One hour?
Huh?
No unloading after 5:00.
It's literally 3:59 right now.
That's not good to hear.
After hours of delays...
Dave's behind schedule and risks missing the delivery cut-off.
- We don't have any time to kill.
So it'll be a big relief to get this load off this truck.
Oh, yeah, look at that.
There's no barriers.
You know, that's when it starts getting scary.
How spooky is that?
Bad accidents happen, people get killed.
Absolute total blindness coming around these corners.
Whoa, God.
Oh, BLEEP.
Seriously close.
Oh, this is just crazy.
I don't have God on speed dial, so... I'm really screwed.
There's... it's just no room for error up here.
There's no running off the road and getting stuck in a ditch
and calling a tow truck.
You went over the side here...
in one of these trucks?
Survivability is zero.
I don't see how anybody could survive.
Bump.
I heard a big boom.
I think we just blew a tire.
Yeah?
- Something made a big pop right here.
Let me pull up here, and we'll see... we'll go look.
They don't call these the world's most deadliest roads
for nothing.
We can't afford a flat tire right now.
60 miles to the south is Rick Yemm.
- Bad enough thing's slowing me down here with a traffic jam.
Oh, green bus, man, green bus.
Ugh.
I'd love to see the guy driver
by himself rolling off this cliff.
I know he's got a whole load of people in there.
In India, truck drivers are paid
for delivering the load safely.
But bus drivers make their cash
according to how fast they make the journey,
encouraging them to take big risks on the deadly roads.
Here we go.
The thing with the buses, to me, that's a bully.
And I like to fight bullies.
Look at this clown.
I'm gonna punch him.
Deep in the Himalayas...
Rick Yemm's in a cliffside drag race.
BLEEP, BLEEP.
Look it. Look, look, look, look.
You can die up on this road.
And this place here,
where my temper's at its absolute height,
my temper gets me into a lot more trouble than good.
Hopefully I can make time back up
where I don't BLEEP kill myself.
40 miles to the north, Lisa's going nowhere.
He throws it over and then...
what'd you throw it over the side for?
BLEEP.
Do you have a jack?
A jack?
Do you have a jack?
- A jack? - Yeah?
I think he has one, Tashi.
- Yeah, I never changed a truck tire before,
but I'm glad I'm getting the chance to learn how.
The hard way.
I really love figuring things out.
Like, I don't have the strength that guys have,
so I have to figure it out with a tool.
And when I do, I have that sense of accomplishment.
You want me to help?
I think I got her.
That's as tight as she going.
I'm so happy I did it.
- Becoming more like one every day, eh?
So Tashi, since Buddhism, you have to, like,
be compassionate toward animals and people?
It doesn't include jacks, huh?
Yeah.
20 miles to the south...
- Tube might be salvageable. - Yeah.
Dave Redmon's also sidelined with tire problems.
You know, ever since we left,
you know, we've had nothing but tire troubles:
these rims...
flats.
By now, you know, I should have been
an hour and a half up the road.
Look too bad?
This is how this was probably done 50 years ago.
It's called vulcanizing.
He's gonna rough that rubber up
so the glue's got something to stick to.
See, he's gonna put some glue on his thing,
spread a little glue on there.
Then he'll cut his little patch out.
He's gonna heat his little plate up on his fire.
And then he's just gonna basically
just fuse the two together on his little machine there.
And it'll just literally melt that patch to the tube.
Yeah, we need to be going.
Just one more thing before we take off
so that I can express myself here,
you know, my state of mind.
"What was I thinking?"
That says it all.
I really didn't know what to expect.
All of the different dangers here,
they really take a toll on you.
It gives you a real unnerving feeling
of how close to death you really are.
You ready to go? - Go, go.
BLEEP.
Yeah, we're gonna be, you know, running short on time.
I'm gonna, kind of, push it as much as I can.
We've really got to get this load off our back before dark.
Traffic jammed with the buses.
We'll never get through this BLEEP.
Yeah, we just can't win.
- I just don't think we're gonna make it.
30 miles to the north, Lisa is headed up the Ledge...
It doesn't get any better.
The bad road just gets worse.
Super BLEEP stressful.
A narrow side road
that shut her down the first time.
Go, go, go.
- I don't want to go anywhere. I'm done.
I'm gonna be on the cliff side, so that's gonna make it harder.
And then, to make things worse,
then we got these fragile concrete pipe in the back
and this really bumpy road.
Last time Lisa climbed this road, she was empty.
And with the back gate only secured with rope...
- I don't think the gate's gonna close in the back.
Any jolt could send the pipes
out the back of the truck.
- Boy, these corners suck. I can't see.
I'm not gonna get used to how skinny this is for a while.
It's hairy.
- Go, go, go, go, go. He'll go there.
Go, go, go. - Mm.
He's about scarier than anything else.
My heart's pounding.
I won't deny it.
This is terrifying.
It just almost hurts.
My heart's pounding so hard.
A week ago, this turn was Lisa's breaking point.
- This was where I stopped, when the bus was coming.
I don't want to go anywhere. I'm done.
Scared out of my mind.
Nope.
We're dead.
On a narrow side road, deep in the Himalayas...
We're dead.
American trucker Lisa Kelly
is trying to overcome her fear.
So you see the road?
Yeah, I see it.
- I'll trust you that we'll be safe there.
- Yeah, let's get up there before it gets dark.
Yeah.
Let's get out of here.
All right, ready?
I'm not a fearless person. I have plenty of fear.
The people that are bravest, they aren't fearless.
They have the fear, and they work through it,
and they do it anyway.
And that's how they become great people.
Yeah, the last part. The hardest part.
Oh, I don't want to go that way.
Last time, you were driving.
I didn't want to drive here last time.
Yeah.
Oh, even better.
I mean, look at those rocks.
Oh, this is a skinny part too.
Geez louise, that was tight.
Almost down off this cliff side.
It's gonna be like kissing the ground.
Finally, at the Jaypee Corporation Kuppa Dam site,
Lisa has conquered her own fear.
Yeah!
I did it.
That road is not fun.
At all.
I think I'm starting to get a feel for it,
so I need Tashi's help less and less.
And that's good, yeah.
30 miles south is Alabama trucker Dave Redmon.
- You know, the sun's coming down, blinds you.
You know, makes your eyes tired.
And he's been fighting the clock all day.
- It's probably the most dangerous
time of the day to drive.
If you're gonna stop for the night, you know,
that would be the time to stop.
The sun just dipped below the horizon.
It's... it's gonna be getting dark pretty soon.
These cliffs, you know, you screw up here,
they might not find you for a week.
It's pretty scary looking over the edge, there.
Makes you a little nervous.
You know, all hopes of making it tonight before sundown
have just faded into the night.
It's time to call it a day
and go to the motel, get some sleep.
And, hopefully, tomorrow I arrive like I'm supposed to
and safe and in one piece.
Let's get out of here.
Okay.
Another 40 miles to the south...
Now it's another traffic jam.
Is maverick trucker, Rick Yemm.
We're sitting and waiting.
I don't know how far it goes in, but...
we're 14 hours into our day so far, and oh, yeah,
there's definitely mental fatigue setting in.
Oh, I'm BLEEP pissed off today.
As daylight slips away...
Rick's only moved 1/2 mile.
- What would you people want me to do?
I just want to start smashing people,
because everybody in this country's
gotta be in front of a truck.
Good job.
Yes, yes, yes.
Go, go, go, yes.
- Oh, there's a sight for sore eyes
is our hotel for the night.
I'm tired, man. I'm beat.
All around, a pretty BLEEP day,
but I'm here now.
Get some food and a beer and a shower and some sleep.
When Rick wakes up,
he'll struggle to stay alive on the Ledge.
- All's I know is, I'm 12 inches from the edge
of a very long fall.
But another trucker's not so lucky.
- Look's like the road's about to give out at any second.
I'm a little bit concerned.