There's a stretch of road in a remote oil-rich region of West Texas.

It's two lanes flanked by barbed wire and surrounded by prairie.

Tumbleweeds and cattle loiter along the fence line.

It's a kind of road that's inspired a whole jukebox worth the country song.

At least that was the case until a few years back.

Today it's a different story.

Two lane road is the nations and perhaps the world's most critical artery for crude oil.

Officially it's Route 285.

But locals have taken to calling it something different.

I'm sure you all hear that report too.

It's a death highway.

How would he go?

Today Route 285 looks like a scene from Mad Max.

50,000 pound trucks barrel through day and night.

Overwork drivers use infetomines to stay awake.

The road is crumbling with potholes the size of VW beetles.

No stretch of American asphalt is more dangerous.

Ambulance storage is just a few blocks from my house and every time I hear it I go,

oh my god, don't let anybody be dead.

The reason for this transformation is simple.

Oil.

This region of West Texas known as the Permian Basin is in the midst of the biggest old boom

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