CHEYENNE - Just weeks before six people were killed in a 22-vehicle pileup on Interstate 80, the Wyoming Department of Transportation completed a study saying that stretch of highway needed several safety improvements.

The 415-page report on I-80 between Rawlins to Laramie, finalized in February and reviewed by The Associated Press on Wednesday, offered several recommendations, including installation of more snow fences and increased video monitoring of the road during winter storms.

The department was in the process of looking at the recommendations and deciding how many it could afford to implement when the crash happened, WYDOT spokesman Dave Kingham said Tuesday.

While it's not clear the improvements would have prevented the pileup, experts say improved technology and monitoring equipment are available and could be installed if funding was available.

"It's in the Legislature's hands now," said Ron Tabler, an independent consultant in snow and wind engineering, who did the study for WYDOT and has researched that stretch of I-80 for more than 30 years.

The Legislature's Interim Transportation, Highways and Military Affairs Committee plans to study I-80 safety issues during its summer meetings.

"We can't leave it how it is," said Rep. Dave Edwards, R-Douglas, one of the committee's co-chairmen.

Blizzard conditions on the highway reduced visibility to near zero on Sunday, prompting a chain-reaction crash that killed six people. Four of the victims were family members traveling in the same car. A funeral was scheduled for Friday in Morgan, Utah, for the Graves family - Laura, 40, Kaleb, 18, Kelsey, 16, and Cameron, 14 - of Conifer, Colo.

Edwards said he thought the best way to fix the corridor might be to expand it to six lanes, but acknowledged that would be an expensive project. He said I-80 would be among the first topics the committee addresses this summer.