Permanent Memorials at Roadside Accident Spots

Leaving flowers may be a fairly new thing here , but it isn't in other cultures. Traditions change and develop. I see no problem at all in people demonstrating their feelings of loss by leaving floral or other tributes. We have a new one not far from where I live, which I noticed this morning. It reminded me that not many days ago, a motor cyclist was killed at that Junction. I hope that leaving floral tributes to commemorate this helps his family with their grief.

Flowers laid at an accident site mean lot to the bereaved, they are not permanent .

Leaving flowers at spots where people have died is a fairly new concept. I may be wrong but I think it seemed to escalate after Diana died and thousands of bouquets and flowers appeared at Buckingham Palace?

I don't agree or disagree with it but it does make me 'look' when am driving, wondering who has died and what circumstances, therefore taking MY attention off the road for a second or two.

Sometimes people just jump on a bandwagon and it's not necessarily because they feel it's the correct thing to do but I am of the opinion of what makes you feel better..... so long as it is not infringing on safety issues.

There was one for a long time on a very busy main route out of London eventually the police told the family that it was distracting drivers and had led to further accidents and they did eventually stop laying flowers and other things there.

What a judgemental lot of posts. Try not to be so unkind as you have not walked in their shoes.

Its a long standing tradition in Ireland, as it is in Greece. Ive always associated it with the strong religious faiths in those countries and have no negative feelings about it.

So far as the growing tradition of road side memorials in the UK, I wonder if its partly because we're an increasingly secular society. It's more common for there to be a cremation after which, some families scatter the ashes of their loved ones. Others have them placed in their local Church graveyard, which means there is a place to 'visit' your loved one, leave flowers, take care off the graveside and so on.

I can't say I have noticed any permanent roadside memorials, but like you lemon I dislike the bunches of flowers, usually in plastic, left to wither and die at the side of the road. To me, the fact that the flowers are dead and withered, and the teddies are soggy and faded just looks as if nobody cares enough to tidy them up. Not the case I know, and I am not being judgemental, but I find them sad.

There is another memorial quite close to the one I mentioned upthread, but it was commissioned by the small nearby community that the people came from. It is three lifesize laser cut steel figures; one of a man who was well known in his community for helping people, one of a young soldier who was killed in Afghanistan, and one of a well known boxer. They are placed at the side of the Transpennine Trail at a point where people often stop to sit and have a breather, and are not intrusive. The only floral tribute I have ever seen are a couple of poppies which are placed each year on the soldier’s figure. I try not to be judgemental about these things, but for some reason, one embarrasses me, and the other doesn’t.

I like the crocus idea Jane10 that was a lovely thing to do.
I do dislike the sprays tied to fences or lampposts which are just left to rot, same with the horrible plastic flowers left at the site. I really don't see how that honours a memory.

Not long ago, a cyclist was killed and a 'ghost bocycle' (i.e.epainted entirely white) was left at the spot.

Yes, GrannyG. I’ve seen those in France. A whole line of them at the place I am thinking of. Very macabre as you said but I suppose it could shock drivers into slowing down.

In France (or it could have been Germany) we noticed black one dimensional figures of varying sizes roadside where people had died. Very macabre and distracting.

There is one of these memorials on a road I sometimes take into town. Two people were killed in separate accidents some 12/15 years ago but I don't know who is commemorated there.

The whole area has been turned into a business park and the memorial seemed to shift about a bit. The park is finished now and the memorial has acquired a granite cross as well as rose bushes and fresh flowers. It does seem a bit odd by the side of a busy road with no pavement.

I wonder if such things have become more common because religion & burial play less of a part in people lives now? Things like this and 'death benches' are used in place of graves and church.

I find roadside tributes distracting, too, when driving, which is surely the opposite of a good thing.

My family know I don't want roadside flowers if I die in a crash but I like useful memorials, benches, trees etc. and if they have a discreet plaque showing who is being remembered that is fine by me.

Have only seen flowers ( usually wilted) left in plastic wrapping on roadsite ‘memorials’.
I think it’s unsightly and a bit macabre tbh.

Sorry - I have re-read the post that I was responding to, and have realized that the memorial in question is probably not at the roadside.

My birthday is Christmas Day and I would be horrified to think that my family are visiting my grave on this day to place flowers when they should be having fun which is why I will be cremated. People like to remember their loved ones in different ways and I think it's important to respect that.

A memorial in stone at a site where someone came off the road because they were going too fast? It sounds downright dangerous to me, because the next person to come off in the same place for the same reason (though not necessarily going as fast) could crash into it and lose their life purely because of it. I have already heard some driving groups saying that the ridiculous number of road signs in some places poses a similar hazard!

Years ago a young man crashed his car into a tree near us. Sadly he died. Someone, possibly his mother, must have planted hundreds of crocus bulbs in the ground round the tree. They flower every spring. That always reminds me of the young man who we knew peripherally. It seems a nice thing to do. I don't suppose younger people even wonder why this carpet of flowers blooms in a small area though. But we do.

Gosh - I've even found something about that Boy's Grave. It's called the "Gypsy Boy's grave" here. Brings back childhood memories!

www.thegranthams.co.uk/paul/graves/gypsyboy.html

On the road between Bury and Newmarket there was always the "Shepherd Boy's Grave" - it had been there for ever - maybe even 100 years. Fresh flowers always appeared magically on it every week. This was before the present day custom arose as described in the OP.

Perhaps, though, there should be an official limit for such memorials - and I would also suggest that they shouldn't be in stone - surely the person who was killed there has a grave or urn somewhere as well?

We don’t have them in Mid Wales, we are in a National Park and so many restrictions.

I wouldn't mind a bench overlooking the sea or a beauty spot - but not a memorial beside a busy road; that is neither useful or beautiful to paraphrase William Morris

I agree, and on a similar note have instructed my family not to put a bench with my name on a plaque when I die.