Roadside memorial

Roadside memorial, Virginia, United States

A roadside memorial is a marker that usually commemorates a site where a person died suddenly and unexpectedly, away from home. Unlike a grave site headstone, which marks where a body is laid, the memorial marks the last place on earth where a person was alive - although in the past travelers were of necessity often buried where they fell.

Usually the memorial is created and maintained by family members or friends of the person who died. A common type of memorial is simply a bunch of flowers, real or plastic, taped to street furniture or a tree trunk. A handwritten message, personal mementos etc. may be included. More sophisticated memorials may be a memorial cross or a plaque with an inscription, decorated with flowers or wreaths.

History

Roadside memorials have been placed for centuries.

The origin of roadside crosses in the United States has its roots with the early Hispanic settlers of the Southwestern United States, and are common in areas with large Hispanic populations. Formerly, in funerary processions where a group would proceed from a church to a graveyard carrying a coffin, the bearers would take a rest, or descanso in Spanish, and wherever they set the coffin down, a cross would be placed there in memory of the event. The modern practice of roadside shrines commemorate the last place a person was alive before receiving fatal injuries in a car crash, even if he should actually die in a hospital after the crash.^[1]

In the southwestern United States, they are also common at historic parajes on old long distance trails, going back to the roots of the tradition, and also marked the graves of people who died while traveling.^{[citation needed]} A descanso memorial may be decorated especially for the holidays, and for significant anniversaries in the person's life. A descanso memorial for a child may be decorated with special toys, even toy vignettes of family life, and votive candles may be placed there on special nights.

The number of memorials erected in Australia since 1990 has increased considerably. In 2003, it was estimated that one in five road deaths were memorialized at the site of the crash.^[2]

In New Mexico, Department of Transportation crews undertaking new construction are not required to protect them, but usually either avoid altering them, or otherwise place them as close to where they originally were as possible once construction has been completed as a courtesy.^[1]

Memorials as message

Apart from their personal significance, these memorials serve as a warning to other road users, as a general reminder of the dangers of driving, and by extension to encourage safer driving. 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 ghost bike phenomenon, where an old bicycle is painted white and locked up at an accident site, serves the same purpose in relation to cycling casualties.

Controversy

Historically, roadside memorials were personal memorials, but there is a modern trend toward public memorials of increasingly large size.

The phenomenon of roadside memorials may 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 Pont de l'Alma road tunnel in Paris, the site of her death, and at Kensington Palace, her home in London. 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.

Roadside memorial to fallen police officer in Gervais, Oregon.

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.^[3]

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.^[4][5] In Birmingham, Alabama, roadside memorials have been removed from Interstate highways.^[6]

See also

• Eleanor cross
• Parting stone
• Cairn

References

1. ^ ^{a b} "I25 crews protect roadside memorial". Krqe.com. 2009-03-03. http://www.krqe.com/dpp/news/environment/environment_krqe_albuquerque_125_crews_protect_roadside_memorial_200903032140. Retrieved 2009-08-29. 
2. ^ Motha, Joe, ed. (2003), Road Safety in Australia: a Publication Commemorating World Health Day 2004, Australian Transport Safety Bureau, p. 290, http://www.infrastructure.gov.au/roads/safety/publications/2004/pdf/Safety_Aust.pdf, retrieved 21 December 2009 
3. ^ "'Dangerous' road tributes concern". BBC News. 15 March 2006. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/4806870.stm. Retrieved 22 May 2010. 
4. ^ Commercial Appeal : Memphis News, Business, Homes, Jobs, Cars, & Information^{[dead link]}
5. ^ "(see state by state requirements)". Descansos.org. 2004-09-08. http://www.descansos.org/links.shtml#STATE_APPLICATIONS_AND_GUIDELINES__. Retrieved 2011-11-13. 
6. ^ Roadside Memorials Being Removed on Birmingham Interstates - AOL Autos

External links

• http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/flowers-of-loss-the-roadside-tributes-that-provide-a-haunting-reminder-of-our-own-mortality-1488474.html
• Definition of "descanso" from Doubletongued.org
• 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
• WashingtonPost article on roadside memorials in Washington DC
• Zarrilli, Tom. "Crosses, Flowers, and Asphalt: Roadside Memorials in the U.S. South," Southern Spaces 19 August 2009. http://southernspaces.org/2009/crosses-flowers-and-asphalt-roadside-memorials-us-south