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NEW YORK (CBS) ― Every 12 minutes, someone is killed on America's roadways. Which highways in New York and New Jersey have the most deaths?

Three roads top the New Jersey list. In 2004, there were 21 fatalities on Interstate 80, 35 on the New Jersey Turnpike and 42 on the Garden State Parkway.

Sgt. Bill Casey, a N.J. State Trooper showed CBS 2 a two-mile section of the Garden State that has seen a cluster of 16 dead in four years -- 15 from hitting trees in the median.

"Well there's no guard rails and you can see there's no shoulder, so if you just drift off a bit, you're caught and its going to bring you right down into the woods," Casey said

New York's worst roads for highway deaths: Interstate 87 -- 17 dead. State Route 5, upstate -- 24 dead, and on Long Island, Sunrise Highway -- 22 dead.

"Really, truly I did not dream that I would come home and not see my husband, not in my wildest dreams," said Rutha Bush, the widow of an experienced truck driver, Czar Bush.

Bush and three others were killed last June when the fuel tanker he was driving exploded during a pile up on busy Sunrise Highway.

"If I don't have to be there, I try hard not to be on Sunrise Highway," Rutha Bush said.

Statistically, some roads appear to be more dangerous than others. Sunrise Highway is one of the deadliest roads in our area. But those same statistics show that in three out of four crashes, the human element is the primary cause.

"Almost all of our fatal accidents are attributed to some kind of driver error," Sgt. Casey said, referring to the Garden State Parkway.

The vast majority of deadly crashes occur on dry roads, with clear skies, and nearly half happen in daylight.

Take the Garden State Parkway -- there's no question cars are striking trees with deadly results. That's why State Police got funding for new guardrails, but the officers say the real question is: what's causing drivers to veer into the median in the first place?

"All roads lead to the driver. If you stay on the roadway you don't have to worry about impacting a tree," Casey said.

In rare video of one such fatal crash an aggressive driver tailgates a woman in the fast lane. She steers left in a panic, but catches the narrow shoulder and over-corrects. Devorah Jurkanski, a mother of four, crashed into a tree and died. The aggressive driver sped off and has not been found.

The Garden State Parkway and Sunrise Highway have completely different features; the roads aren't inherently dangerous, some of the drivers are.

CBS 2 also rode along with Sgt. Keith Boyle of the Nassau County Police.

"When you're talking on your cell phone, putting on your makeup, when you're reading, fiddling with the radio ... all of these things take your attention away from the roadway," Boyle said.

"The bottom line is people should be paying attention to the task at hand because it only takes one second and it could change your life dramatically," he added.

You don't have to tell that to the family of professional driver Czar Bush.

When we asked Rutha Bush what her husband would have thought if asked what was the single biggest threat on the road, she was candid.

"People," she replied. "If you're driving safe then everybody else is safe."

Cars are safer than ever. Roads are safer than ever. But with more than 42,000 people killed on our nation's roadways every year, traffic crashes remain the leading cause of death for Americans ages 3 to 33. So when it comes to reducing highway deaths, it's up to us. We're all literally in the driver's seat.

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