SIX people have died in four years at Golden Hill on the A64, a terrible toll that cannot be ignored. It is only right that the Highways Agency is considering ways to make this stretch of road safer.

The agency must decide what to do with the crawler lane on the hill. This allows faster moving vehicles to pass lorries and farm traffic, but dangerous overtaking has led to a number of crashes, some with fatal results.

One option would be to close the crawler lane altogether. The proposal is attractive because it is inexpensive and immediate.

The agency has removed motorists' access to road hazards before, most notably when it closed dangerous central reservation gaps on the A64 following an Evening Press campaign. However, that was a more straightforward decision: eliminating the gap eliminated the danger.

At Golden Hill, highway experts are faced with a dilemma. The crawler lane is intended to be a safety feature. It gives motorists the room to pass slower vehicles. Without it, frustrated drivers are more prone to take risks with overtaking.

Road safety experts must decide whether closing the crawler lane would prevent more potential accidents than it caused.

Three-lane roads used to be a common sight in Britain. Then a spate of accidents highlighted the dangers of a middle lane used alternately by opposing traffic. Such roads were quickly redesigned.

Crawler lanes are the remnants of the three-lane system. Only two things prevent drivers from a head-on collision in the middle lane. One is a white line, the other is common sense. When there is a lack of the latter, the former offers little protection.

Therefore if the crawler lane is closed, a central reservation barrier must be built to stop the idiots who would risk lives by overtaking anyway.

All of this should only be a temporary measure. The A64 should have been expanded into a dual carriageway many years ago: that is the only way to improve long term safety on this road.