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tonight on "20/20" -- highway confidential. gearing up for a labor day drive? cramming in a last summer vacation? then keep your eyes on the screen. >> oh, my god. [ bleep ]! >> we're mapping out some of the most dangerous roads in america. are you driving one of them tonight? >> dead man's curve. highway to hell. names given for a reason. >> ten roads to ruin. but even on a safe road, can your gps direct you to disaster? >> recalculating. >> theirs left them stranded in death valley. >> there's no houses. there's no landmarks. nothing. >> so, how did they survive for three days in the hottest place on earth?

>> we were pretty sure that they would be dead. >> the bum steer? >> and, how to keep from becoming road kill. >> call 911, hang on! >> in a wreck. an electrical storm -- >> oh! you just killed yourself. >> even how to survive this. drive home alive. plus, we're taking you to the hit and run capital of the country. >> that guy's completely airborne. >> how csi-style detective work is catching the drivers that left you for dead, long after they vanished. tonight, highway confidential. >> whoa! >> here's elizabeth vargas and david muir. >> good evening. if you're like some 34 million americans tonight, the highest number in years, you're already planning your get away for next week's long labor day weekend. a last hurra for the last summer. so, how do you get to where you're going? >> plug in your trusty gps, right? well, as jay schadler finds out

tonight, it eelgs not always so trustworthy. reretraces a journey that was quite literally hell on wheels for one family. lost in the hottest place on earth. the one thing they were counts on to save them didn't. their gps. ♪ on a dark desert highway >> reporter: inside the little grey hyundai, sailing along with "hotel california" playing on the radio, is donna cooper. donna, her daughter gina and their friend jenny leeung visiting from hong kong are on a day trip to an old mansion turned tourist museum in death valley. >> i had never been to scotty's castle, i'd been saying for years i'd like to go, but i never went. it's a nice day trip. >> reporter: they recently returned to death valley to relive their memories. what was the day like? >> beautiful, gorgeous. >> hot. >> hot. >> reporter: so it was a good day to take a trip? >> yeah. >> turn left on california 190. >> reporter: also along for the ride, donna's trusty gps, nicknamed "nell."

>> i named her after my mother, who was always telling me how to do things and where to go. >> reporter: that's perfect. their other, more ominous, traveling companion today is the weather. outside their climate controlled car, nature is in control. death valley's staggering beauty is matched by its deadly heat. it's the hottest place on earth. on this day, the temperature will reach 121 degrees. park rangers know what that can mean. >> for somebody stuck in the back country without water, they will begin becoming disoriented, dehydrated. kidneys will shut down. your blood starts to thicken. stroke, coma and death. >> reporter: but all that could not be further from the minds of donna and the girls. what did you take in terms of provisions? >> we took some food, some water. >> it's more than enough for a day trip. >> reporter: their decision to visit that popular tourist

museum was so fur of the moment, no one knew that they were going, not even donna's husband, roger. he's in florida, tending to their other daughter, sky, who is undergoing gallbladder surgery. did she mention that she was fog to go out to death valley? >> no, but she did tell me to have sky call her when she came out of the hospital, you know, just to find out how she was, make sure she was okay. >> reporter: at 1:00, the women arrive at the museum. and two hours later, on their way out, donna stops at the gift shop to buy gina a t-shirt. she swipes her credit card and they set off for home. >> we just headed on the road the same way we came. >> reporter: except for one small fateful detour. >> and then we saw a sign about the racetrack, and i'd never seen it, and i've always wanted to see it. it's very interesting. >> reporter: the racetrack is a geological curiosity. shifting boulders leave skid marks in the cracked mud.

but to get there, you need to go off the paved highway, onto jagged back roads. >> we drove for, like, ten miles, i would say and never saw the racetrack. never really saw anything. >> reporter: turning around, the women come to teakettle junction, a dirt intersection where a number of unmarked roads cross. here is where their day trip begins to turn into a very bad trip. >> at the end of that ten miles, we whereabout back where we began. that's when i said, well, we went the wrong way. let's put the gps on and get back on the right road. >> drive .8 miles on dirt road on left. >> reporter: nell begins dispatching directions with the confidence of a digital brain. >> drive .2 miles to intersection on right. >> we were kind of like getting aggravated with nell because she was, like, taking us nowhere.

>> reporter: getting lost like this in death valley has a nasty history. legend has it the park got its name during the california gold rush, when treasure seekers discovered the valley was a shortcut to the gold and the undertaker. >> continue .3 miles. >> reporter: but gps has added a cruel twist to the old tale. in 2009, a 6-year-old boy died after his mother became lost following her gps. >> as i learned more about that case, i found out that they had went down a road that no longer existed. >> reporter: ranger charlie callahan says growing numbers of visitors to these remote areas are being put at risk by devices with directions that are misleading or plain wrong. >> if you're asking to go home, but if you're not saying lead me to the closest paved road, just the shortest route, that gps could lead you, you know, through 100 miles of dirt road before you reach the paved road. >> reporter: though charlie's been working with gps

manufacturers to improve their databases, a quick test we performed confirmed there are still major problems. either because of outdated maps or a device that hasn't been updated. >> in .6 miles, then turn right on golden canyon road. >> reporter: for example, the directions to golden canyon road couldn't be clearer. that seems pretty straightforward. >> this is a good paved highway. >> turn right on golden canyon road. >> reporter: but where the gps says there's road -- i don't see a road. what we have here is a canyon wall. >> oh, definitely. the road used to go a mile in here but that washed out in 1976 in a flash flood. so this road has not existed for 35 years. >> reporter: whether something like this is happening to donna and the girls is unclear. but it's unmistakable that instead of heading home, they are moving deeper into the desolation of death valley. >> recalculating.

recalculating. >> it just kept saying, you know, go this distance and take a turn, go this distance and make a u-turn. >> turn left on old ghost road. >> there's nothing there. >> reporter: the gps is confusing and their cell phones are useless. back in florida, roger and sky's calls aren't being answered. >> sky tried to call her and just got voicemail. and it was a minor concern. it wasn't a major concern at that point. >> reporter: it should have been. death valley's vast featureless landscape is disorientating the women. >> there's no landmarks. there's no people. there's no houses. there's no cars. there's no animals. we didn't even see an ant. >> reporter: the temperature is now peaking at 121, and their provisions are vanishing. a half bottle of water left and a quarter tank of gas. and then, in the middle of all this immense emptiness, a curious sign of hope. >> and straight out of the clear blue sky there's these, this row of mailboxes.

mailboxes! there's not a soul. there's not any sign of civilization. >> so, i got out, opened them, and one of them mailboxes there's a piece of yellow paper. >> yellow paper. >> saying that, "sorry we have missed you. come by again. we were under the big tree." whatever big tree means. >> reporter: whatever its meaning, it's lost on the lost. >> so we put it back in the mailbox and we kept going. >> reporter: now the light and their mood grows dimmer. the gas tank light flashes on like an exclamation point and the car spits and sputters to a stop. >> we were out of gas. we were out of road. we were out of everything. >> reporter: tonight, they remain lost. but tomorrow, stripped of their air conditioned cocoon, will be deadly.

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"20/20" continues. once again, jay schadler. >> reporter: when you're lost or stranded, sunrise is normally a welcome sight. but not in death valley, not in july. >> weather forecast today, mostly sunny. high near 121. >> reporter: unprepared to survive in the desert and possibly mislead by their gps, donna, her daughter gina and their friend jenny have driven aimlessly through 100 miles of wasteland. they measure their chances of survival now in droplets of water. >> there's only three ounces left. we are all dehydrated. >> reporter: the gas is gone too.

last night their car had staggered to a stop. >> the car was empty. like, empty empty. >> reporter: but with the punishing heat returning and the prospect of death, gina convinces her mom to try the car one more time. >> so got in the car, said a prayer, turned the key -- and the car started right up. right up. to this day, i cannot believe it. >> reporter: whether it had to do with condensation, the air temperature or maybe that prayer, the little grey hyundai is rolling again. but to where? and for how long? back in florida, donna's husband and daughter, sky, know something has gone dreadfully wrong. gina has not shown up for work and donna gave came home.

>> oh, i'm panicking now. where is my wife? where is my daughter? where is jenny? now it's like, oh my god. something's really wrong here. >> reporter: they notify authorities in nevada and california. california highway patrol chopper pilots tyler johns and scott steel lift off from their base 200 miles south of death valley. >> 3.5 million acres, almost 1,000 miles of back country roads. our search area is daunting. >> reporter: still, the searchers have one small clue, given to them by donna's daughter, sky, back in florida. running a check on donna's credit card accounts, she sees her mom made a purchase the day before. that t-shirt at scotty's castle. it's an unexpected break, but the inferno that is death valley is huge and unforgiving.

but then, on the burning horizon, the women seem to see a tiny patch of green. recalling for them that strange note they found in the mailbox yesterday. "we're under the big trees," it said. leaving their car, risking the exposure, they stagger back from the road. it's not a mirage. >> there was a screened porch and three trailers. it was like -- >> heaven. >> reporter: this paradise has a curious collection of camping trailers, locked and abandoned during these hot months and even a little dirty well water to share. what does it taste like? >> hose. hot hose. >> it was hot. >> reporter: but as night falls again, they wonder if they have now only postponed the inevitable. >> i was, like, i don't want to die here. nobody's ever going to find us.

>> reporter: as the third day begins, even the searchers are growing doubtful. >> yeah, let's bring it down to about 500. yeah, we don't find them that day, we -- we're pretty sure that they would be dead. and our next mission up to the park would be a body recovery. >> reporter: for six hours, the choppers sweep the skies. though they are running low on fuel, pilots johns and steel decide they will check one last remote corner of the park. >> saline valley, which is, in my experience, the most remote part of the park. >> reporter: but tucked away in saline valley is that dusty camp with big trees. >> quite possibly a vehicle? you see the dirt road? >> we saw their vehicle next to a road, which we're like, "hey, is that -- is that a car?" because we hadn't seen a car all day, it seemed like. >> definitely looks like a vehicle. >> and i jumped out, put my sneakers on, grabbed the yellow emergency blanket, rushed out to the big tree.

and there i see the chp helicopter. >> down on the left. >> i waved that blanket. >> i heard her screaming. >> and i just go, "donna, come out. !" >> i went outside and there it is. the happiest thing i've seen in my life. >> i cried. i started crying. >> got a phone call from the california highway patrol. they've been found. whew. >> reporter: recently "20/20" brought the women and the pilots together again. the reunion almost felt like being rescued all over.

>> never thought i would see them again. this is wonderful. hello! >> how are you? >> i am so happy to see how. hello. >> good to see you. >> oh, my gosh. >> oh, my gosh. >> look at you. >> your ears must ring constantly. i talk about you all the time. oh this is so nice. this is wonderful. >> reporter: as for nell, donna's old gps, it was eventually given the boot. seems it became stuck on only one direction. >> it just would not get off home. it just, home, home, home, home, home. >> reporter: suppose you can hardly blame it. and anyway, donna's bought a new one. >> yes, her name is rosie. she usually gets us back on the right track, and i know enough not to listen to every word she says. >> continue 11 miles on

california 190. >> garmin, the manufacturer of the gps, tells us just this month they released the most recent update for the north american map, which including death valley. but they add that gpss shouldn't be followed blindly. it is incumbent for users to obtain and update their gps devices with the most recent map updates. do you think that's your responsibility or theirs? tell us your gps stories on twitter using #abc2020. we'll be right back. next, it's the hit and run capital of the country. do you live there? >> the impact was so hard that it literally knocked the boots off her feet. >> one man's lifelong mission to put deadly drivers away. >> is that blood? >> it's blood. >> it's "csi" for cars. >> it's blood. >> it's "csi" for cars. when we return.

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tonight, we turn to the hit and run capital of the country, los angeles. and a detective determined to track down the rivers who hit your loved ones and race from the scene. cecilia vega tonight inside the unit out to find justice for the families, desperate to track those drivers down. >> reporter: in l.a.'s smoldering, gritty skid row sits an unassuming concrete building -- the lapd central

division. and inside sits a man, waiting for the phone to ring. >> central traffic padilla, can i help you? >> reporter: his name is detective felix padilla, and he's fighting a war against a special breed of killer. detective padilla works hit and run crimes like these. sometimes the victims survive, even walk away. others are not so lucky. >> the things that i've done, the things that i've seen, the average person doesn't see in their lifetime. for better or worse. >> reporter: it seems to be a dangerous time for bikers and pedestrians. according to a report out two weeks ago, nationally, pedestrian deaths by car are up 8% between 2009 and 2011. a study by the university of michigan said in l.a., pedestrian fatalities are three times the national average.

and nearly half of all car accidents are hit and runs, according to the lapd. a fatal hit and run is padilla's specialty, like the case of carlos perez, struck in 2010 by an infiniti while crossing the road on his way to work. >> his body was found about a hundred feet down the road. >> reporter: he was dragged. >> he was dragged. and nobody should die that way. >> reporter: is it fair to say that l.a. has a hit and run epidemic? >> it's a serious problem. if you want to call it an epidemic, maybe. we'll come up with the solution. >> reporter: after a decade on the job, padilla doesn't even flinch when watching a video like this. whoa. i mean, that guy is completely airbor airborne. >> he is completely airborne. >> reporter: the victim survived. his friend takes off running. >> and that's the good part. if he gets a partial license plate, at least we have something. >> reporter: but with video typically not clear enough, hit and runs are notoriously hard to solve, needing forensic work and

witnesses to step forward -- which they often don't do, as in this fatal hit and run. >> he's underneath the car and is rolled over. >> reporter: and clearly, the two people who witnessed the whole thing just turn around and walk away. >> yeah, exactly. >> reporter: what percentage of accidents that you investigate do you think you've got a witness out there that's just not coming forward? >> most of them. >> reporter: according to padilla, the explosion of hit and runs and lack of witness help might have something to do with the high number of undocumented immigrants living in los angeles. many afraid of any police interaction. >> they feel that, since they're without a license that, you know, it could jeopardize their status. >> reporter: so, these cops hit the streets to make their cases. for clues, suspects and anyone willing to come forward. but every once in a while, a gumshoe gets lucky. things come together. take padilla's most recent serious hit and run case. >> the impact was so hard that

it literally knocked the boots off her feet. >> reporter: late one night this past june, yolanda nunez was walking in a marked crosswalk to get a bite to eat, when a red honda mowed her down. yolanda, good to meet you. how are you hanging in there? >> well, the leg right here is swollen and it has stitches on this side and this side. >> reporter: looks like you got a gash on your eye, also? >> yeah, right here. >> according to witnesses, the car was going freeway speed and just never braked, good-bye. >> reporter: when a car is ghost, every little bit of evidence left behind helps, so padilla can track them down. "csi," hit and run style. his team of forensic workers can take pieces of a broken mirror like these and match them to a suspect's car. tread marks can i.d. the tires. chips of paint can give a make and model. most prized? dna. like the blood left by a suspect in these pictures. he was eventually tracked down

in mexico. but it gets down to that level of detail, the investigation, where a paint chip could give you the clue to lead you to another avenue. >> some type of idea of what kind of car it was. >> reporter: from the type of car, they need the car. this is where those rare witnesses are key, and yolanda's case had them. >> one of the witnesses got the first number, the first letter of the license plate. >> reporter: a partial plate still leaves a lot to be found, but sometimes the suspect does the work for him. >> well, the following morning, the driver called, wanting to make a place report. >> reporter: padilla says the suspect called her insurance company first, then police, and failed to mention a person caused the damage. according to her lawyer, that's only because she didn't realize it. >> she looked down. when she looked back up, she had felt something and proceeded home. she thought a rock had been thrown at her so she was scared to stop. >> reporter: police paid her a visit, matched the plate numbers and description to yolanda's

case and the car was impounded. is there any way that you see in how a person could be driving this car and not know that it was a human being on the windshield? >> i don't see how you could not at least pull over to see what happened. >> reporter: fortunately, what happened was still all across the front of the car. is that blood i'm looking at? >> it's blood, yes. we were able to take some touch dna from the hood. there was some skin, some clothing fabric, imbedded in the glass. and the blood that you see. >> reporter: the evidence was brought to this lab and matched to yolanda. bingo. the puzzle complete and the driver charged with felony hit and run. potentially a couple of years in prison. she pleaded not guilty. >> it is very clear that she did not know she hit a person, and left the scene. >> reporter: as for yolanda? what do you want to say to the person who hit you when you were crossing that street? >> what do i want to say?

i don't know. next time, be careful. >> reporter: but a hollywood ending is hard to come by. almost half of padilla's fatalities are unsolved. there are binders full of stories without a final chapter at his office. what are the hardest types of cases for you to investigate? >> the ones where you have no leads. all you have is a torn family, or a person who's had his beautiful car destroyed, or, you know, somebody's in the hospital. >> reporter: like the case of carless per -- carlos perez. all that was left were parts of that infiniti, a dead father and plenty of questions. is the problem of hit and runs in l.a. so big that you will retire and the problem will be as it is today? >> i don't think so. i think if we let the public know that these crimes are so frequent that we need their assistance, the more they help us, the more cases we'll solve.

next -- when mother nature throws up a road block, what do you do? natural disasters. we take you to a disaster proving ground to show you how to drive home alive. >> you're crawling out, you're going to survive another day. >> when we return. copd makes it hard to breathe... but with advair, i'm breathing better. so now i can help make this a great block party. ♪ [ male announcer ] advair is clinically proven to help significantly improve lung function. unlike most copd medications, advair contains both an anti-inflammatory and a long-acting bronchodilator working together to help improve your lung function all day. advair won't replace fast-acting inhalers for sudden symptoms and should not be used more than twice a day. people with copd taking advair may have a higher chance of pneumonia. advair may increase your risk of osteoporosis

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they are the things you see on the news that you think could never happen to you. trapped in a raging electrical storm. sinking under water, even buried in an earthquake. but that's what they thought, too, until it happened to them. so, we sent gio benitez to play test subject to show you how to survive. >> reporter: for today's motorist, there are threats around every corner. from "earth." >> oh my god. >> reporter: "wind." >> we're caught in the middle of a tornado right now. >> reporter: and "fire." disaster strikes suddenly, and

first responders won't appear in an instant, so survival depends on you. >> if you think and act like a navy s.e.a.l., you can survive anything. >> reporter: cade courtley is a former navy s.e.a.l. who wrote the "s.e.a.l. survival guide." secrets to surviving any disaster. when disaster strikes in the car, do you abandon ship or do you stay put? >> it depends on the situation. >> reporter: so we brought cade to the l.a. city fire department's preparedness training facility -- dubbed "disaster city" to put me to the test and teach you how to survive. >> the worst decision you can ever make is not making a decision. you think of three options, do a quick pro and con, and then just pick one and go with it. >> the car is sinking. it's up to my legs. i can't get out of the car. >> reporter: disaster number one -- submerged. your car plunges into the water. more than 200 people drown this way every year.

>> i hit the water pretty hard. i thought i was going to die. >> reporter: last month, 22-year-old morgan lake hopped into her sporty red sebring and headed for maryland's chesapeake bay bridge. >> i was going to go salsa dancing with my best friend. just have fun. >> reporter: a routine drive becomes a near death experience in seconds. a harrowing disaster that grabbed the nation's attention. >> this is a miracle, this survival story. >> i look into my rear view mirror and see a huge 18-wheeler coming full speed and it hit me pretty hard. everything around me just shattered. >> reporter: morgan's car is teetering on the guard rail. then plunges 27 feet into the choppy bay below. with time ticking away, instead of dialing 911, morgan fights for her life and gets out fast. >> i unbuckled my seatbelt, visualized my car, went at a angle to come out of my driver's side window. >> reporter: that's morgan climbing the rocky base of the bridge. clawing herself to safety.

>> hang on! we called 911. hang on! >> my name is morgan lake. >> morgan, hang on, help is coming, okay? >> reporter: a quick exit is key. so keep a window hammer in your car for this. >> you've given yourself a emergency escape route. you're out of there. >> reporter: disaster number two? a downed power line on top of a car. a potential hazard in any storm. >> downed power lines, a very dangerous situation. >> that is charged, still. >> reporter: if you are not in immediate danger, resist the urge to flee. stay put. >> you've got four tires, rubber. that is acting as insulation. that's keeping you in -- within this car from getting electrocuted. >> reporter: wait for help. shockingly, having another car push you out of the way may be safe. but don't let anybody approach on foot. it could kill them. >> don't touch the car! >> worst case scenario now. the car is on fire. so you are forced to leave your car. most floor mats are made of rubber. that's going to help act as the

insulator. open your car door, grab that floor mat and put it our maybe about a foot and a half, two feet outside. now, you want to rotate slowly, 90 degrees, keeping your -- oh, you just killed yourself -- >> reporter: oh. >> right there. you just allowed an arc to come through one leg that was separated and killed yourself. so, if you keep your feet together, out on the mat and now without touching the exterior of the vehicle, use the seat, go ahead and push yourself up. all right. keep the feet together. now slowly hop with your feet together away from the car. >> reporter: so, i'm going to hop away? >> feet together. right. that's your best bet for getting out of this area. >> reporter: disaster number three, avalanche. it may seem unlikely, but would you know what to do if this happens? >> oh! an avalanche just hit that guy. >> reporter: they don't get much snow in l.a., so, to simulate an avalanche, we blacked out our car. sure to set the heart racing.

>> go ahead and turn on the overhead dome light. this is a calming effect. >> reporter: it's for situations like this that cade recommending keeping a survival bag, equipped with things hike water, power bars and a flashlight in your backseat for easy access. now, your instinct is probably telling you to get out. don't. >> the pressure and the weight of all that snow is -- would be like trying to dig through concrete. >> reporter: snow is insulating and will keep the heat in. temperature won't president a problem, but air could be. preserving precious oxygen is crucial. so calm down. catch your breath and breath slowly. then kill the engine before it kills you. >> first thing you want to do is the conserve this pocket of oxygen. you're going to die from carbon monoxide a lot faster than you will from suffocation. and it's all about time. it's about people coming to get us. >> reporter: so let them know you're there. >> honk that horn. >> reporter: oh, that's not something people think about. >> exactly. >> reporter: our final disaster, an earthquake.

if you are driving, the biggest concern is heavy falling debris. so stay in your car. >> now, there's one exception to this rule. if you're in a parking garage, the last place you want to be is inside that vehicle. >> reporter: we dropped a six-ton, 12,000-pound parking structure slab on our cars. it completely smashes the top of the vehicles down to the steering wheel. no chance of survival if you are sitting inside. but outside of it? >> hopefully, you'll end up with a void space like that. >> reporter: surprisingly, cade says get out and lay down next to the wheels of your car. and so here, it worked. but really, you have to trust the science and that can be scary. >> take a look. that's it. it feels really strange to want to get out of the safety of your vehicle, but you can see what this does. you're crawling out, you're going to survive another day. >> reporter: the navy s.e.a.l.'s final advice when confronted

with life or death options? >> create a trigger. it could be a family member. and then now you're in that survival situation and it's going to take 150% of everything you have to get out of that. so think about that trigger. >> reporter: remember morgan lake, who plunged 27 feet in her car and fought to save her life? her survival trigger was her family. >> i did not want to drown. my inner superwoman strength came out. i wanted to see my family again. my name is morgan lake! >> reporter: and they were back by her side just weeks later as she celebrated her 23rd birthday. and another year alive. >> our thanks to gio for putting it all to the test tonight. what's the scariest situation you've ever found yourself in driving your car? how did you survive? tell us on twitter, use #abc2020. don't go away. we'll be right back. next -- if you drove home tonight, did you use one of the most dangerous roads in america?

>> there is no room here, you know, for any kind of mistake. >> we'll tell you where they are. the top ten list, according to some. when we return. ding finish power up tooudeterg brings your dishwasher back to life. dishwasher buildup, cloudiness, spots, even tough stains- gone! so don't give up. add finish power up. check for more!

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well, the labor day holiday is just a week away. we have a staggering number for you tonight. 29 million americans will be traveling in a car for the holiday. but would you drive on these roads if you knew their nicknames in advance? highway to heaven, blood alley, massacre mountain? here's john quinones tonight with some of the most dangerous roads in this country. will you be traveling on any of them as the summer comes to a close? >> did you see that? that was a little crazy. >> reporter: the locals in these hills know john cossentine as the photographer who makes a living capturing death-defying rides along a legendary stretch of road called "the snake" on mulholand highway in the mountains outside l.a.

>> here, there's no room more mistake on the snake. >> reporter: the snake leads off our list of ten treacherous american roads. >> it's very seize si to get into trouble up here. we have a lot, accidents every weekend. >> yeah, i don't know what happened. it just totally slid. >> reporter: even the most experienced riders can wipe out on the snake. adey bennet trashed his tibia. >> i never broke a bone until that day and it happened on the snake. >> reporter: curiously, it's rural roads like these and not the big interstates where those notorious pileups usually occur. >> whoa! >> reporter: they account for a majority of the 37,000 annual traffic deaths across the country. that's more than gun deaths, industrial accidents and soldiers killed in action, combined.

some of the reasons these scenic roads are lined with crosses? well, people more often don't wear their seat belts and tend to drive faster. and there are plenty of animals sharing the roads. if a driver has an accident, they are on their own. the road's gallery includes north carolina's scenic highway 129. it has so many twists and turns, it's earned the nickname "tail of the dragon." route 6 on cape cod became suicide alley for its frighteningly narrow lanes. and it's obvious why this hairpin turn on route 17 near binghamton, new york, is known as kamikaze curve. this is where sheriff david harder has seen more than 300 accidents. >> kamikaze curve got its name because as soon as it rains, it's like an ice skating rink. cars slide right off the road and crash. >> reporter: but for sheer body count, it's hard to match the

innocently named red narrows, a treacherous stretch of utah's route 6, where the beautiful meets the deadly as cars and trucks traverse through rockslides, ice and switchbacks. >> it's dangerous, because you're hitting these curves and people are going too fast. and there's a truck or somebody coming the opposite direction. >> reporter: kathy justice says that practically everyone who lives in this small utah community of price has lost a friend or loved one to this road. a staggering 30 people per year. kathy lost her own mother. >> i became involved because many of my friends passed away and i attended their funerals. every time i see it, it's fresh, just like it happened yesterday. >> reporter: it took kathy's friend jeanette sorensen ten years to muster the courage to drive down the same route 6, the road her son dusty died on when he was just 18 years old. >> i just wonder what he would

have grown up and been, if he would've been married and had children. he just was so young. he missed out on his whole life. >> reporter: now most of us will never drive down these little, lethal thoroughfares. but don't think everything's honky-dory on the major interstates millions use every day. they have major problems of their own. dan mcnichols is passionate about how america's crumbling roads have become death traps from coast to coast. he's devoted himself to restoring this 1951 hudson for a cross country ride, a look at the underbelly of america's deteriorating road network. what's the common denominator in all of america's deadliest roads? >> all the things that you don't see. you don't see breakdown lanes. you don't see lit tunnels. you don't see good signage. you don't see divided highways.

>> reporter: exhibit a -- new york city's cross bronx expressway that touches the tip of manhattan. 175,000 people use it every day and there are an average of 777 accidents here every year. it's a treacherous, tortured mess. >> when you have an old highway that is trying to behave like a modern highway, you're in trouble. that's exactly the problem of the cross bronx expressway. it is jammed into rock. it's below grade. it's in a crowded area. >> reporter: and that we could never fix? >> we could, but it would be just too disruptive. >> reporter: adding to the danger -- >> you get tunnel blindness when you first drive into a tunnel. and what they try to do is hit you with a lot of light in modern tunnels. but you can see it's barely lit at all. >> reporter: come out of the tunnel only to find an obstacle course through the potholes. >> but in the immediate moment that you strike something like a deep pothole, you have an adrenaline rush, you lose your

focus. you might swerve into another lane. >> reporter: there are other crowded deadly interstates in the mcnicoll hall of shame. perhaps you survived one of these today. the highway of death, u.s. 24 near toledo, ohio, notorious for gruesome, head-on collisions. the beeline expressway in florida with its lethal lack of guardrails. and the highway to heaven, around cincinnati, with its h l hellish hills and poor visibility. even roads that look safe like highway 15 from las vegas, can be a roll of the dice. >> i call it crap shoot alley. what's dangerous is what you would think it would be safe. it's flat and straight. people either overcome by highway hypnosis, they fall asleep or they pick up their speed and they drive too fast. >> reporter: now, the good news. some of the most dangerous roads are being made safer. and road deaths have been on the decline. partly because of people like kathy justice, who lobbied her

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we'll have the latest from the fire line.