Roadside tributes c/d

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/4806870.stm

― Ned T.RIfle II (Ned T.Rifle II), Wednesday, 15 March 2006 12:46 (twenty years ago)

"It's most important as a reminder to road users in general that these are locations where death can occur."

That guy said it.

― NickB (NickB), Wednesday, 15 March 2006 12:50 (twenty years ago)

Couldn't that be the case almost anywhere though? I just wonder what would happen if we had 'tributes' everywhere there was an accident?

I saw one once in the Peak District for a motorcyclist and it was huge, covered about 20 or 30 feet and a substantial piece of wall. It was totally distracting and had people slowing up to look at it i.e. not slowing up in a good way.

― Ned T.RIfle II (Ned T.Rifle II), Wednesday, 15 March 2006 13:10 (twenty years ago)

Is it France where the government have put up black cut-outs in a range of shapes (men, women, boys, girls) along bits of road where people have died? One figure for each death, kind of thing.

I think that would be more effective as a means of slowing people down.

― Hello Sunshine (Hello Sunshine), Wednesday, 15 March 2006 13:27 (twenty years ago)

Did people do this before Di died? I can't remember.

If I was killed in a traffic accident or stabbed to death in the street I wouldn't want one of these little shrines appearing.

― Onimo (GerryNemo), Wednesday, 15 March 2006 15:34 (twenty years ago)

I grew up in a pretty rural part of the East Coast and stuff like this was ALL over the place. Mostly for people who had died in car accidents, some unfortunate ones for those who had been run down, and then some for pets, etc.

I think it really goes to who owns a person's memory. If its the person's loved ones, and they've decided that yes, a roadside marker would be best, than so be it. I was watching "Riding Giants" the other day, and there is a memorial marker right near Half Moon Bay commemorating Mark Fu, a surfer who died there. That seemed appropriate.

What is NOT right, in my mind, are the fading, maudlin memorial markers that look like crosses between voodoo markers and florist refuse. Is that REALLY how you want to be remembered?

― Big Loud Mountain Ape (Big Loud Mountain Ape), Wednesday, 15 March 2006 15:39 (twenty years ago)

This is the report on the four dead cyclists mentioned in the above article.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,1682006,00.html

Must be really fucking hard for what's left of that one kid's family. If some sort of memorial helps them get through it, so be it.

― NickB (NickB), Wednesday, 15 March 2006 15:44 (twenty years ago)

Did people do this before Di died? I can't remember.

this is has been going on in america for several decades, hasn't it?

― kingfish da notorious teletabby (kingfish 2.0), Wednesday, 15 March 2006 15:46 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, Nick. OTM. Theres a family whose daughter was one year behind me in school who died shortly before she graduated - the stretch of road where she died was "adopted" in memory of her. I like to think it helps her folks, who are pretty good people.

― Big Loud Mountain Ape (Big Loud Mountain Ape), Wednesday, 15 March 2006 15:51 (twenty years ago)

this is has been going on in america for several decades, hasn't it?

I think it's a fairly recent, and certainly growing, thing in the UK. Either that or I wasn't very observant for 25 years or so.

We get Celtic scarves tied round lampposts outside city centre pubs after fatal stabbings. That doesn't seem like a fitting tribute to anyone.

― Onimo (GerryNemo), Wednesday, 15 March 2006 16:00 (twenty years ago)

In Austria, this has been done for centuries.

― Colin Meeder (Mert), Wednesday, 15 March 2006 16:04 (twenty years ago)

this always makes me think of gypsies, who are keen on this kind of thing. or marc bolan (which isn't far from here actually, over near markelby's iirc)

― koogs (koogs), Wednesday, 15 March 2006 16:07 (twenty years ago)

god that crash story upthread is horrific.

― The Man Without Shadow (Enrique), Wednesday, 15 March 2006 16:08 (twenty years ago)

http://www.lightdrawing.com/images/travel/france/large/Tom-Simpson.jpg

Tom Simpson's memorial on Mont Ventoux

― NickB (NickB), Wednesday, 15 March 2006 16:09 (twenty years ago)

i can remember driving through the valleys in Wales circa 1990 and on the roads snaking in and out of each valley almost every corner had names painted into the hillside. these werent grafitti but RIP reminders, and lot of them were very weathered. later on we went to a farflung pub which had a lock in until god knows when (we left at 2am) with plenty of people driving up, having a few & then driving off again (including 2 coppers!)

― zappi (joni), Wednesday, 15 March 2006 16:18 (twenty years ago)

What amazed me, driving through Nevada, Arizona and similar was how, on barren, empty stretches of road there'd still be crosses every few hundred yards. These couldn't have been driving accidents, could they? I put it down to outlaws and injuns.

― Markelby (Mark C), Wednesday, 15 March 2006 17:11 (twenty years ago)

Re: whether it helps the family get through it, I get the feeling, a lot of times, that these tributes aren't from the family, but from other people doing it because they think it's the thing to do. I have no factual basis for this theory, but I hate the whole mawkish public displays of grief that have happened post-Diana, especially when it's emotive things like the death of a child.

Since we were talking on the other thread about the Dunblane massacre, I don't remember there being public books of condolence, laying of wreaths etc throughout the country following that. Perhaps I also was extremely unobservant, but I'm pretty sure that it was the death of Diana that changed this country's attitudes to public displays of grief.

― ailsa (ailsa), Wednesday, 15 March 2006 19:55 (twenty years ago)

This is everywhere in America, yeah. I saw like a billion on the 30mile stretch of road between Bozeman, MT and Big Sky, MT (up in the mountains).