Bosnian collected 86 hubcaps that fell off cars to show neglect of local road

Referred by locals also as the “road of horror,” the stretch is, in fact, the main road connecting the two countries. Locals say they have been listening to authorities making reconstruction promises since the 1980s.

Dragan Drakula, one of the locals, said authorities again promised two years ago that the construction works will start and that he was hoping the project would be part of a planned fast road that is to connect Sarajevo with Albania. Since then, however, nothing happened.

The narrow, winding road from Foca toward Scepan Polje - the border crossing - is being further eroded by landslides and accidents occur there almost daily. Another resident who lives next to that road, Ranko Savic, said the sound of tires screeching is waking him up at night. In the morning, he and his neighbours find traces of the tires and pieces of hubcaps.

“I have 86 of those hubcaps,” he says, pointing out the damages on them caused by violent blows from which some of them broke in two. He would have collected 100 so far if the coronavirus had not limited travelling, he said.

Every time residents asked authorities for the road to be reconstructed, they received the same answer: we are working on it. The last time the asphalt on the road was paved was in 1972.

This is why he decided to display his hubcaps collection as a warning. Some call his garage a museum.

“A museum is a cultural institution and this is a far cry from culture,” Savic said.

His exhibition is an effort to draw attention to the year-long neglect of a road that connects two countries, and at which car accidents cause victims for decades, he explained.

Restaurant owner Cetko Grujevic said that whoever passes down that road once usually never comes back and that the road is an embarrassment and is killing his business.

“People say they have never seen something like this before,” Grujevic said, adding that officials keep talking about other projects. Such as highways and airports, but never mention the road that connects two countries.

“I am urging the new minister to come here with his brand-new car, he probably has better hubcaps,” he said.