Letter: Highway 6 not dangerous, drivers are

This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2014, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

A fatal accident last week involving a car that crossed the road into the path of a loaded coal truck has once again got the local media calling this highway "The most dangerous road in the nation" ("Questions remain after fatal head-on crash with semi in Spanish Fork Canyon," Tribune, Jan. 6). To this I say "Bunk!" Our family has safely driven Spanish Fork Canyon on this very highway hundreds of times since before I was born in 1948.

We have seen many changes and improvements over the years as well. Both the state and federal highway departments have been trying to make this particular stretch of road safer for the motoring public, working with the natural flow of the canyon, weather, natural disasters (Thistle landslide) and big-rig driver miscalculations.

The only real danger in the Spanish Fork Canyon are the drivers who use it! We have had some close calls, but none was due to the road or the conditions. Every encounter was because of an impatient, distracted or plain downright dangerous driver too intent on passing everything!

We all have room for improvement. Let's make safe and courteous driving our New Year's resolution, shall we?

Jim Blackburn

Cottonwood Heights