Quote:
Originally Posted by RalphJ
Disagree 100% here. It is VERY dangerous driving in Brazil during daylight, and ultra-dangerous at night!
As Wolfgang correctly stated, most roads that are NOT toll roads have areas that are full of potholes, many are larger than cars themselves. One can be driving along at 80-100 km/hr on a good road, and then suddenly, without any warning, you enter a piece of road that can last kilometers that appears as if the american military just cluster bombed it. Of all the countries in the world that that United Nations keeps statistics on as far as traffic accidents and fatalities.....Brazil is at the top of the list!
Also, driving at night can be very dangerous for other reasons. It is not uncommon for thieves to place a tree across the middle of a road and when you stop your car they rob you. This happened to a friend of mine two years ago near Caruaru, they found his truck on the highway engulfed in flames and he was nowhere to be found....and has yet to be found until this moment. Every single sensible Brazilian will advise you to NOT drive at night for the reasons listed above as well as others. Another being animals on the road, cows, horses, donkeys, etc.
To illustrate this point even more accurately, approximately 5 years ago on Avenida Paulista in Sao Paulo, they put up an outdoor billboard that stated the U.N. stats on highway fatalities in Brazil, and how it was the most dangerous country in the world per U.N. stats to drive a car, within 4 weeks, a car had somehow driven directly through the middle of the billboard!!!  I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen the footage on the news. |
The US is still double Brazil for road fatalities in raw numbers and about the same for deaths per 100k.
I grew up driving on potholed roads in the countryside which were one and a half car widths wide, so to me the less well travelled roads in Brazil aren't that bad at all, but I concur, stick to the well travelled roads and drive in the daytime if possible.
If you want a real experience driving try countries where they don't keep stats! Egypt is a great one to test your wits, drivers drive without their headlights on at night so when they flash you with their high beams it has a greater effect!!