Roadside memorial bouquets

JO8

You know what ,, you can be inspired at times .

X

here in Montana , the State puts up crosses , where there has been a fatality .

Probably to remind people to very careful on certain bends .

I think it is an excellent idea .

In some parts of France they erect black cut-out figures at the side of the road - half size if a child has died. Very chilling.

Gorki I used to live near a nasty innocent looking bend which attracted several really bad accidents and fatalities and constant minor ones. Lighting wasn't the problem or visability, but what stopped the accidents was when white lines where painted down the middle of the road.

I think Montana's crosses are an excellent idea, but the black cut out figures sound a bit ghoulish and surely upsetting for the relatives.

I have noticed that just lately more of these roadside flowers have been uncovered from their wrappings. Can it be the power of Gransnet?

They really are shocking, but I suppose that is the point of them. They also put up the statistics of road accidents, serious injuries and deaths.

We have white lines and cats' eyes but still drivers overtake recklessly . We have the odd deer springing out too and sometimes foxes dashing across . I think statistics are a good idea. I was at a train station yesterday (not a busy one)and it was announced how many people had been injured in the past year . Quite sobering !

I hate these memorials for all sorts of reasons. Here in MK there are lots of 'shrines' dotted along the roadside, not just those piles of flowers that follow a fatality but proper memorials that are left to look sad and miserable years after the event. I can think of at least eight in a very small part of the town. But try and remove them and there's all manner of outcry. I don't understand the need myself - there is usually a funeral followed by a burial or cremation or a scattering or whatever so why the need to create these road-side affairs? Frankly, I find them distracting and feel they are just as likely to cause another accident than to be a useful, lasting reminder of a lost loved one. And before anyone says 'imagine yourself in their shoes' I have been in those shoes and have put a headstone in a cemetery where I lay my flowers.

Placing flowers or football shirts at an accident black spot is just madness. What if you caused another accident while parked or walking there? Or if the football shirt flapped onto someone's windscreen in the high winds at that spot. Please keep memorials to safer places. And please, take the cellophane off.

greatnan can you please direct me to the proof of your statement about memorials increasing the incidences of serious injury and death please?

Think she meant they actually put up the figures so people see how many accidents have happened on that road. I've seen that on the A6 in Northumberland [a road that has a lot of dangerous overtaking on it].

Aka - where on earth have I said that? I merely said that in France they sometimes put a sign showing the statistics at the side of the road.

Ambiguous wording, that's all.

I am afraid that is completely wrong. There is nothing in my post to suggest that giving the statistics has any influence on accidents.
For goodness sake, I know some of you like to have a go at me for things I have said, but your really must stop twisting my posts to suit your own ends.
Perhaps you could explain to me how my wording was ambiguous. Did anybody but Aka and Ana find it ambiguous?
I presume Aka stands for Also Known As.......hm...

If you look at my post immediately after yours Greatnan you will see I understood you perfectly. The confusion obviously lies in "put up" but it did not occur to me that you might mean increase.

Thank you, Gorki. I thought it would be quite obvious that by 'They put up' I meant the French authorities post the statistics. Still, when people want to find fault, they will, however far-fetched.

Oh, for goodness sake! I was merely pointing out how Aka could have made the assumption she did - not 'finding fault' at all. But believe what you like, Greatnan.

It was perfectly clear Greatnan. To anyone who reads carefully.

In some Spanish cities there is a painted message at the kerbside of busy roads saying how many deaths and serious injuries were caused by pedestrians ignoring the green light giving permission to cross. It really brings home the number of accidents caused by risk taking.

With you Greatnan.
(It wouldn't make sense that cut out shapes could raise statistics since statistics are merely a record of the actual events.)

Some posters have written about how seeing flowers, etc, alert them to the fact that an accident has happened at that spot so it tends to make for more careful driving. In France they have black life-size silhouettes (sometimes several) by the roadside where fatal accidents have occurred. I think they are a good idea because they deliver a powerful message without being distracting.

Message deleted by Gransnet for breaking our Talk Guidelines. Replies may also be deleted.

Thank you, Caz, your post is much appreciated.

It was clear to me!
(And I'm generally regarded as a bit dim!)

You're not the only one to notice Cazcandoit. Well said!

I couldn't understand that particular post yesterday (Greatnan's) but I understand now it's been explained.

This morning. Not yesterday!