Story By: Anna Guran, Sub Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Central European News

Video Credit: CEN/Alexey Taximo

This crisp footage shows a daring Russian truck driver driving across a rickety-looking bridge which had been previously burnt down and had wooden sleepers placed across it.

The startling incident occurred at the Vitim Bridge, considered one of the most dangerous in the world, located on the border of Buryatia and the Trans-Baikal Territory in Russia, when a local villager who works or the transport network decided to drive across the bridge.

In the video, an unnamed truck driver who is from the village of Buryat in the Taksimo area of Russia and who works for the Rostelecom transport network, can be seen driving across the dangerous bridge.

Pictures Credit: CEN/Alexey Taximo

The narrow bridge has no crash barriers and has uneven wooden sleeper lain across it to support the truck. Footage taken from insiden the truck shows how close to the edge the driver needed to be to cross the bridge.

The video was uploaded to social media with the caption: “Working visit of the brigade of the Rostelecom transport network. In 2018, the support was washed away with water on this bridge, but people, at their own peril and risk, continue to cross it to the other side of the shore.”

The 565-metre crossing was erected as a temporary bridge in the early 1980s during the construction of the Baikal-Amur Railway bridge next to it.

After the construction of the permanent railway bridge, the ‘temporary’ one was set on fire, but the metal base remained and locals laid sleepers on the beams.

The bridge was used by residents of the village of Kuanda, which has a population of around 1,300 people. Last year, one of the pillars was washed away by an ice drift. Local authorities were going to block the accesses so that drivers did not try to cross the bridge.

No injuries were reported in the incident.

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