If you’re in love with driving and your daily commute isn’t enough to quench your thirst for the open road, getting a driving job is a good option. Instead of using your car as a way to get from A to B, you can spend all day every day behind the wheel. There are a lot of general dangers involved with driving every day but there’s an easy way around most of them. If you’re a delivery driver, you might struggle with fatigue, and aches and pains from sitting down all day but you can easily get around that by taking breaks and getting out of the car for a walk around. However, there are a lot of jobs that are far more dangerous than your typical driving jobs. These are some of the world’s most dangerous driving jobs out there today.
War Zone Drivers
Standard truck drivers have some dangers that they have to deal with on a daily basis. The length of the trips is probably the biggest concern because there is always the chance that you can fall asleep behind the wheel, and sitting down for that long can cause a bad back. If you’re in an accident you also need to consider getting 18 wheeler accident lawyers to help you make a claim if you get a serious injury. But none of that compares to the dangers you’ll face if you’re a truck driver in a war zone. Army bases are always in need of food and supplies and somebody has to deliver them out there. These drivers are not part of the military and so don’t have the combat training or equipment to protect themselves in risky situations. In particularly dangerous areas, you’ll have a military escort alongside you but that doesn’t mean that you’re completely safe. In war zones like Iraq and Afghanistan, roadside bombs are very common so you always need to be vigilant. You’ll be paid a very high salary to compensate you for those dangers but even still, hundreds of civilian truck drivers have been killed out there.
Drag Racers
Racing of any kind is always going to be dangerous because you’re hitting high speeds but perhaps the riskiest motorsport is drag racing. Those cars can easily get up to a top speed of over 300 miles per hour, doing 0 to 100 in less than a second. Even the slightest movement can send you off course and cause a serious accident. As well as the risk of crashes, the ridiculous speeds that drag racers experience on a regular basis causes huge amounts of g-force which can, in some cases, detach the retinas of a driver. A lot of drag racers have retired because of this.
Ice Road Truck Drivers
Driving a truck on ice roads is such a dangerous job that an entire TV series has been made about it. The mining industry in Canada uses trucks to deliver most of their output and the drivers put themselves at risk on a daily basis. The most obvious risk is the cold weather. With temperatures regularly getting as low as -50 degrees Celsius, drivers can easily catch hypothermia if they don’t take enough care. On top of that, their routes often take them over frozen lakes which could crack at any moment. The ice will take the weight of a vehicle while it’s moving but if it stops, it can crack very quickly, that means drivers need to maintain a very specific speed, otherwise, they risk certain death.
Taxi Driver
Taxi drivers are a bit of an unexpected entry on this list because they don’t face any of the more extreme dangers like combat in a warzone, high speed races and ice lakes, but they have their own set of risks to worry about. As a taxi driver, you’re constantly picking up complete strangers with no way of telling whether they’re dangerous or not. That means putting yourself at risk every time you pick up a fare. Taxi drivers are always carrying large amounts of cash on them which makes them a prime target for criminals, this is especially dangerous considering they’re always working on their own. The result of all that danger is that taxi drivers actually suffer more deaths from violent crime than most other professions, even including police officers and security guards. That might surprise you but it makes sense considering people in those jobs have weapons that they can use to protect yourself, whereas taxi drivers do not.
These jobs are all incredibly dangerous but they usually pay pretty well so if you think you can handle the pressure, why not try one of them out?
