Can a road lure people into making bad driving decisions?

Apparently it can, if vast stretches tempt drivers into speeding or impatiently passing slower vehicles.

The state has spent $115 million over the past eight years to make U.S. 6 a safer road. And yet the highway, dubbed Utah's deadliest, has claimed so many lives this year it is as if nothing had been done at all. Thirteen people have died along the 128-mile stretch so far this year, including three who perished in a head-on collision Sunday. That's higher than the average for the road over the past four years, and almost exactly the same as the average before the improvements.

State highway officials seem perplexed by this. They are given to remind people that if drivers were cautious, patient and smart, if they weren't drowsy and didn't feel the need to speed, the road would be perfectly safe.

But then, one could say that about drivers on any roadway in the state. Even though, as officials assert, the road's design has never been blamed for any accident, there are attributes to Highway 6 that make driver error more serious. Most of the accidents are of the head-on variety. Poor weather conditions seem to make things much worse. Some curves are particularly hard to negotiate if one is traveling too fast.

And whether in a canyon or on I-15 in the middle of a city, human beings seem always to be driving too fast.

The only effective solution would be to widen the entire highway.

In recent years, the state has installed strips along the roadway that cause tires to make noise when vehicles cross over the center line. That's to help awaken drivers who drift without knowing it. The state has installed tougher guardrails and truck climbing lanes to help faster drivers get around. The next plan is to erect overhead electronic signs at key danger spots that read and report an oncoming car's speed. Such speed readouts have been shown to work on city roads. They operate under the premise that most drivers are law-abiding and are not aware that their speed has surged beyond posted limits.

All of these are good ideas. But they are unlikely to end the highway's deadly reputation.

Three years ago, this newspaper reported that widening the road from Spanish Fork to Green River would likely take almost 25 years and cost half a billion dollars or more. There are concerns about wetlands that such a project may disturb. Frankly, it's still worthwhile to pursue such a project.

With Utah County growing rapidly, and with Moab and the Canyonlands becoming more popular destinations, traffic along Highway 6 is bound to increase. Utahns can look toward Sardine Canyon, near Logan, as an example of how such a widening project could enhance safety.

People often make poor driving decisions, regardless of what highway they're on. But for some reason, Highway 6 lures some people into making poor decisions at exactly the wrong times. The only real solution is to rebuild the road so those poor decisions are less costly.