If the biggest problem your local roads serve up is a couple of pot holes, spare a thought for the people who have to use the following ten routes. These axle-busters may seem rather exotic to us Brits, but unfortunately they've proven extremely dangerous to numerous hapless motorists. Check out these ten smashed, broken and downright perilous excuses for highways.

Are your motoring skills up to the challenge?

10 .The Stelvio Pass, Italy

Located over 9,000m above sea level, the Stelvio Pass in Italy is a series of 180 degree hairpins. A decent road surface and safety barriers ensure this highway is only at position 10 – but take care – one false move and you could find yourself on an unwitting off-road jaunt.

9. The Sichuan-Tibet Highway

Connecting Chengdu and Tibet, the Sichuan-Tibet Highway snakes around mountainsides in a very precarious manner – made worse by the threat of landslides, rock avalanches, high altitude headaches and plain old-fashioned bad drivers!

8. Skippers Canyon Road, New Zealand

Did they call this road Skippers Pass because you'll end up as the skipper of your own car if you fall into the river below? Possibly. This terrifying road was cut out of a cliff face and is so risky to drive on it requires a special permit!

7. Los Caracoles Pass, Chile

This twisting, turning, mostly snow-covered pass links Chile with Argentina and boasts absolutely no security fences to help prevent any little accidents. Be sure to attach snow-chains if you ever find yourself on it!

6. Guoliang Tunnel Road, China

Another precarious Chinese highway, the Guoliang Tunnel Road was carved into the side of a mountain in order to connect a nearby village with the outside world. Was ‘the outside world’ really worth the effort? Parts of it have been tunnelled out of the rock, while other sections are exposed on the edges of the vertical cliff face. The phrase "no second chances" comes to mind.

5.  Zoji La Pass, Indian National Highway 1D

Beautiful? Yes. Dramatic? Yes. Eye-poppingly dangerous? Yes. The Zoji La Pass is part of National Highway 1D, connecting Srinagar in Kashmir to Leh in Ladakh. There are no safety barriers but plenty of perilous overtaking manoeuvres along this narrow, winding, gravelly strip – that some people call "a road".

4.  The Dalton Highway, Alaska

Easily the USA's worst road, the 667km Dalton Highway connects Elliott Highway, north of Fairbanks, to a place they call "Deadhorse", near the Arctic Ocean. Potholed, freezing and boasting almost no petrol service stations, the only other vehicles you're likely to encounter here are tankers – tankers filled with explosive liquids.

3.  Karakoram Highway, Pakistan

Karakoram Highway, Pakistan (Jorg Hackemann/Bigstock.com)

Despite being called the "Friendship Highway", you wouldn’t wish this route on your worst enemy. It's the highest paved road on Earth and it carries traffic between Pakistan and China – if the traffic is lucky.

2. Jalalabad–Kabul Road, Afghanistan

Insurgency aside, this road would make this top 10 anyway. This 65km stretch of road winds through Taliban heartland, carved into 600m high mountainsides. The rather "assertive" local driving style makes it even more of a poor option for a Sunday afternoon jolly.

1. North Yungas Road, Bolivia

Many roads have been given scary titles, but none more deservedly so than the “Road of Death” in the Yungas region of Bolivia. It has sadly proved fatal to many motorists and was infamously named "the world’s most dangerous road” by the Inter-American Development Bank. If you only avoid one road this year, make it this one.