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Alex Cabrero reportingThe Utah Department of Transportation recently released its highway fatality report, and one of the success stories was Highway 6 through Spanish Fork Canyon.
It was starting to get a reputation as one of the deadliest roads in the state. Two years ago, UDOT and the Utah Highway Patrol started making changes, and it looks like those changes worked.
There were nine deaths on Highway 6 in 2007. Any state trooper will tell you that's nine too many. But two years ago the number was almost double. That's when the state really started making the road safer.
2005 was a deadly year on Highway 6 through Spanish Fork Canyon, with crashes during which cars burst into flames, to 18-wheelers flying off the road.
Trooper Benjamin Cox has only been patrolling this stretch of road for a year now, but he's certainly heard the stories from his fellow troopers.
"They would say they had a couple of fatals a month up here," he said.
That was then; this is now. Since 2005, UDOT has made a lot of improvements to Highway 6, like widening the road as much as it could in the canyon, to adding a lot of signs. The signs let drivers know when it would be safe to pass, point out that there are sharp curves ahead, and show how fast drivers are going and how fast they should be going. UDOT even added rumble strips.
"If I'm to drift over here just over the double yellow line, there's a rumble strip to give you a little bit of a heads up," Cox said.
All those changes seem to be working. There were nine deaths on Highway 6 last year, and seven in 2006. Fatalities from those two years combined equal the number of deaths in 2005 alone.
The highway patrol also got a federal grant that paid overtime for troopers who wanted to patrol the road after their normal shift. Their presence alone slowed drivers down. All of it added up to fewer deaths.
"The numbers show for themselves that the improvements to the roadway as well as education to the drivers has improved the safety of this road," Cox said.
Crews have also straightened out some sharp curves on Highway 6 as best as they can. UDOT has spent millions of dollars making these improvements. Looking at numbers from the past two years, so far it seems to have been worth it.
