If you died in a car crash--whould you want a memorial sign at the crash site?

A couple years back you'd see big old elaborate memorials along the side of the road where people had died in a car crash. The state (Florida) decided that it was a bit to much and compromised by putting little signs that marked the spot.



I thought it was a pretty good compromise....but damn--- I see them everywhere and now I think they're kind of creepy.

I've instructed my family that if I were to die in a car accident--- don't put one of those dang signs at the spot my soul left my body.

It seems creepy to me, but what would I care if I'm dead? So I guess I would say they should do it if it makes them feel better.

... candles, cards, flowers etc ... at the sites of car crashes, murders!, are more than morbid.

I can't quite put my finger on why I dislike them so much.

Blame it all on Princess Diana.

to be perceived as caring. Do they do it to impress other people or because they really car so deeply? I've never felt an urge to do something like that so I'm not a good judge of other's motives for doing so.

spectacle out of something that perhaps should be more private, or if it's just some of food for "emotion vampires" to eat up, or what.

I do not like to see these road side memorials. What am I supposed to do or say when I see one of these mini grave sites? I live in Florida. These mini-memorials are everywhere. I can understand the grief of the family ... but what do they want me to do? Better we all work to improve unsafe roads. Dont drink, hang up and and drive!

my 72 virgins (not for long!).

Fuck it, I'm dead. The rest of you should be grateful to be alive, and nto worry about roadside markers. Plus, I'm a sexy corpse. Rowrrrrrrrr!

If I died in a crash, I wouldn't want my family to remember the spot where I died, but how I lived my life.

Unfortunately they are everywhere here,too. I asked him if they may make him slow down and I think he said something like, what sign?

There is one that is off the road a little, tiny, bit in a swamp and the kids in the car drowned.

It has opened up some conversations that I am grateful for, but it is a little creepy.

And no, to answer your question. I don't want one if I die in a crash.

:)

Would that be a size zero supermodel, or a post industry regulated size 6 supermodel?

People die all over the place. Are we going to erect memorials everywhere?
Two people have keeled over in my sister's office - heart attacks.
Next to my friend's table in a restaurant, a man died during dinner.

We have cemeteries and mausoleums - that is where memorials are appropriate.

In fact, I'd haunt the highway department until a sign was in place.

Good thing I don't believe in ghosts, isn't it? ;-)

:nuke:

but, when I see them I do take them as a warning of a dangerous stretch of road.

1) It's a distraction for the living motorists who ought to keep their eyeballs focused on the road.
2) These particular signs could imply that I lost my life by not driving safely. It happens all the time that someone who is driving safely dies through no fault of their own or others.
3) It's freakin' tacky and creepy.

What's the point of memorializing someone who died in an intersection by making the intersection even less safe?

and died, the newspaper said he was "Doing some sort of stunt", if they put one of those memorials up for him it would probably be difficult to park in the garage.

My friend's sister-in-law's father had a heart attack mowing their front lawn. See where I am going..
Yeah, there is a cross on their front lawn right where it happened.

I don't know why I find that so funny but I do. It could be on a Seinfeld episode.

In fact, just cremate me and remember the good times. No funerals, etc.

They're everywhere here in the Phoenix area. The memorials should be in the family members homes. I don't need to see flowers and crosses and pictures and stuffed animals wherever someone died. It's too much.

I hate those things.

....I think they are tacky and I'm sick of seeing them everywhere.

Cheers

my ashes mixed with those of my dogs and flung in a woods.

put up dangerous curve signs...stop signs or lights at an intersection........speed limit signs........but no more crosses.......does anyone realize how many of these are on UsS 19 in Fl?.........They are all over this stretch of highway.........and yes ...they are a distraction

And those "in memorial" stickers on cars are rather strange as well. A depreciating asset in memorial of a dead person?? I don't get it.

... then WALKS home. :toast:

In fifty years, there won't be anything along the roadsides but those tacky things. they're like tacky billboards

I see them everywhere, and all it tells ME is that Atlanta drivers are just plain BAD DRIVERS! Ifthe accident wasn't MY FAULT, then sue the perp and get some $$ for yourself. I'm DEAD! Not much going to make any difference now, huh?

Muslims or people in other religions must not get in car accidents and die cuz all he ever sees are crosses by the road.
:rofl:

I speed up when I see'm so I can get away from them...

Especially when baby items and balloons and such are placed around them. I do feel for the family member who is so full of grief to want to display those things.

Lots of plastic flowers and lurid Hispanic holy candles. " A flesh colored Christ who glows in the dark..."

I'm actually laughing out loud!!!!!!!!

and ended up in the right place; somewhere along the way.

...

over a long, and definitely less traveled road, he pointed out to me three crosses and the cheesy plastic flowers stuck in the ground next to them. Then he told me how he used to drink a lot, and rolled his truck killing his wife and two daughters. He seemed to appreciate the markers, even though the wreck had happened many years prior.

I'd be dead. Don't think it would matter much to me.

and that care about you may think differently.

I think about my brother who is going to die soon from a brain tumor. He wants his ashes spread on top of what he thinks is the most beautiful mountain that he has hiked over the years. And, he wants people to pick up the goddamn trash on the side of the road.

Maybe some are right. A lasting, public memorial is "tacky". I'm not thinking that way, yet.

an ugly eyesore.

I would hate it if they had to go to all kinds of painful machinations to do it though.

Let the people put up their shrines. It doesn't hurt me one bit. If it makes the family feel better, let them build shrines. It's not up to me and I don't see a big safety issue.

You slow down and look to see what it's about...you're taking your attention from DRIVING...and there's a chance you might just add to the party.

Plant a tree or a hardy perennial shrub or something, if it won't cause traffic problems and you absolutely MUST memorialize the spot where I bought the farm...
much more attractive, useful and not invasive like a "So-and-so died here" marker would be.

In December of 2005, we were moving ito our apartment. On the corner, a police car was chasing a stolen car a top speeds. The stolen car hit a father and his three year old son, running them straight into a metal fence around someone's front yard. The child died on the scene. The father was taken to the hospital and he survived.

All month long, family and friends of the parents were on the corner with candles, balloons, toys, cards, etc. leaving them on the corner and on the fence post. They made a poster and attached it to the fence. This past December, a year later, there was another memorial, along with a poster attached to the fence, although this time, it lasted three weeks, not the full month.

It seems to me that they are torturing themselves, although they have all the sympathy in the world from me. I also feel for the homeowners, as this is going on right outside their window every night for weeks.

We've lost family members too young. We've had parents bury their child. It is almost unbearable, but you have to push forward in life.




On a side note, the police were actually from the next town over and have gotten into a lot of trouble of chasing the stolen car into our town. They did not let our police know they were there. A=There aren't a lot of roads leading out of town in the direction the stolen car was heading. It would have been much wiser to have blocked off a few streets to get the girl who stole the car. If it were my car that had been stolen and I found out someone died in pursuit, I would be furious. It's just a car- a material possession. I believe the family is suing them.

every day. I don't need a sign to remember where it happened.

and it's been 36 years now.

a question about global warming?

but I guess I'm in the minority around here.

My old Dad says every time he gets to a certain point on a back road he travels, he sees a little shrine and it reminds him to always take it easy on that curve. He would not be so responsive to an ordinary traffic sign, he says.

We in this culture often erase all signs of death and treat it as something remote. This little folk custom of roadside shrines is a reminder of the dangers we face everyday in vehicles, an esp important message for young people and new drivers IMO. You couldn't say this in any more effective way, especially to people who respond better to concrete symbols and images than to abstractions.

There is so much advertizing on the highway that's tacky. I don't mind something that seems real and local. At least the family who has lost a member to car accident can feel that they are making an attempt to help others. That's the justification for it.

in the Southwest)

But no, I don't want anyone who doesn't know me personally commemorating my death. Yeck.

if there were a memorial in every spot on Earth where someone died in the past, there wouldn't be room for anything else. My opinion is that it's morbid to have these things around everywhere. Leave the memorials in the cemetery and the rest of the world to the living.

road where a loved one perished. I think that means that they regularly pick up trash for that portion, in return the city erected a sign that says "Drive Safely" and lists a name, but looks exactly like the other adopted highway signs. (Blue sign, on a standard pole and about 6 feet above.) The one I see is about a mile up on the same road that two high school students were killed on walking home from school (Federal Blvd in case you care). That location seems overburdened with stuffed animals, cards, flowers, etc. But the sign up the road seems more "pleasant" <--- not the word I was seeking. sorry.

The surrounding area should include a picnic table, and a playground for all the little children who will be visiting Contrary1's Memorial Park. There should also be a souvenir shop where my fans can purchase priceless little odds and ends that the hubby would otherwise throw in the dumpster. The proceeds will be used to maintain the eternal torch, and provide fresh flowers on a daily basis.

I am so worth remembering. It's the least they can do.