Roadside memorial

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A roadside memorial is a marker erected usually by loved ones of the victim(s) at the site of a fatal road crash. The memorials often consist flowers, wreaths, plaques, or religious symbols such as a cross. These are sometimes made more personal, with names and mementos.

Roadside memorials have been placed for centuries. Eleanor crosses in England, for example, were erected in 1290 along the route of the Queen's funeral procession, though these were not intended to mark a death place.

The first automobile fatality may have been Mary Ward's accident with a steam car in 1869^{[citation needed]}. Prior to this, roadside memorials would have been placed for deaths unrelated to motor vehicles.

In the 1940s and '50s the Arizona State Highway Patrol began using white crosses to mark the site of fatal car accidents. This practice was continued by families of road-crash victims after it had been abandoned by the police^{[citation needed]}.

The number of memorials erected in Australia since 1990 has increased considerably. In 2003 it was estimated that one in five road deaths were memorialised at the site of the crash.^{[citation needed]}

It has been suggested that the urge to erect roadside memorials is related to a growing reluctance to seek spiritual solace in organised religion, and it is interesting to note that although religious symbols are often still used at roadside memorials, these seem merely to mark the place of a violent death and are probably not intended to carry any particular religious significance.^{[citation needed]} It may be that roadside memorials mean more to families than do cemeteries.^{[citation needed]} At the very least, there is an immediate reminder of the person in the site of his death.^{[citation needed]} These 'sacred places' however, unlike cemeteries, usually serve only as a place for immediate grieving and tend not to be maintained.^{[citation needed]}

The phenomenon of roadside memorials may perhaps be associated with another growing trend: public outpouring of grief for celebrities. The death of Diana, Princess of Wales, for example, precipitated an avalanche of flowers and wreaths at the Paris site of her death and at Kensington Place. While car-crash victims are rarely so well-known, something of the same sort of impulse to make a public display of emotion at the site of a tragedy may be partly responsible for the growing popularity of roadside memorials.^{[citation needed]}

Another aspect of these memorials is that they serve as a warning to other road users, both as a general reminder of the dangers of driving, and to mark a place where a fatal accident took place.

Contents 1 Controversy 2 See also 3 External links 4 References

[edit] Controversy

In the United Kingdom, the practice of erecting roadside memorials has recently sparked a media debate about the danger these may pose to other road users and to people erecting the memorials in unsafe places. This debate has been sparked by accounts of dangerous actions, such as an adult crossing a main road with a child to place a tribute.

Some jurisdictions already enforce local regulations, and police officials and local councillors have suggested that uniform rules be introduced across the country. For example, according to the BBC, in Merthyr Tydfil, memorials will only be allowed where it is deemed safe and appropriate, and they will be removed after three months. ^[1]

In the United States, the legal situation varies from state to state. In California, residents must pay a state fee of $1,000. The states of Colorado, Massachusetts, and Wisconsin ban such memorials. Other states impose specific requirements.^[2][3]

In the Birmingham, Alabama area, roadside memorials have been removed from Interstate highways^[4].

[edit] See also

Ghost bike memorials for cycling accidents

[edit] External links

• Information and Photos of Roadside Memorials in the United States
• United States National Registry of Highway and Roadside Memorials
• Australian National Registry of Highway and Roadside Memorials
• Australian Broadcasting Commission transcript of White lines, White Crosses, broadcast 7 December 2003
• Further information and pictures accompanying the story White Lines, White Crosses
• Photos and information about roadside memorials throughout Florida. Includes links to every state memorial marker programs.
• Pictorial of Roadside Memorials throughout So. Florida
• Roadside Memorials of South Texas
• Roadside Memorials of France

*compilation of photographs of roadside memorials to murder victims in Washington DC

• WashingtonPost article on roadside memorials in Washington DC

[edit] References