Exorcizing an evil highway

Thanks to popular culture, the state of Utah will soon join Colorado and New Mexico in officially renaming U.S. 666 to a less evil-sounding U.S. 491.

We can all breathe a sigh of relief now. No more worries that people along the devil's highway will be subject to strange goings-on — at least if the bill clears the Senate and gets signed by Gov. Olene Walker.

Before movies such as "The Omen" and "The Exorcist," people were not as prone to interpret the Bible's Book of Revelation this way. Nor did they seem as awed by numerology. In fact, back in 1926 when the highway received its designation (the number came about because it was a branch of highway 60), no one seemed to raise a fuss — not even on Halloween. But let a few Hollywood directors get hold of a passage of scripture, and suddenly we have a beast of a roadway on our hands.

News stories said the controversy started last spring when New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson asked to rename the road, which intersects the three states. That's not true. The controversy started well over a decade ago. As far back as 1990, news stories were quoting people as saying the highway was evil, and that the number was to blame for each fatality that occurred there. In 1995, New Mexico officials were quoted as saying many people believed the road led to accidents and to "some claims of sightings of old women and things like that."

We're not sure what that was supposed to mean, exactly, but it surely evoked images of Salem, Mass., some 300 years ago. Who wants to mess with that?

Nine years ago, we offered a solution. Simply turn the highway signs upside down. U.S. 999 would sound like a nice, wholesome roadway. But then, U.S. 491 sounds plenty benign as well.

Perhaps too benign. Frankly, the folks who live along this stretch have missed a great opportunity to attract tourism and economic development. Instead, they have incurred nothing but costs. Three states have had to get involved, as well as the Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials. And every business along the 198-mile stretch has had to change its official address.

There could be an upside to this. Maybe now, people can get down to the business of understanding how to make the highway safer for motorists. At least, they can look for reasons that have some rational basis.

Perhaps, too, motorists who happen upon elderly ladies walking the highway can now stop and ask if assistance is needed, rather than fleeing in terror.