Xebedee

Well, its a very American thing to publicly display like that isn't it? Personally, I find them a bit embarrassing to look at - like you are encroaching on someone else's private grief. But then, they've obviously chosen to make it public.
Strange, really.

On a lighter note, I'd certainly support bringing back the use of gibbets at interstate exits, 4 way stops, outside old people's homes and at drive-thru's.

paranoidandroid

They do it back in the UK too, don't they?

SultanOfSwing

Yeah - usually on back roads but I remember on the stretch of the A2 in Eden, just by the power station where it goes from a 30 to a 60 limit there was a reasonably large display of flowers where some wee girl was killed by a car (if memory doesn't deal me a dog turd, that is).

What I find weird is the ones that drive around with a big memorial on their car window. I remember talking to my soon-to-be brother-in-law about those on my first visit out here and we both found them rather distasteful ...

Leslie

Don't be ridiculous

SultanOfSwing

That's interesting, I had no idea the accident actually took place there

Leslie

The flowers went all the way from there to a tunnel in France.

It was a huge mess.

SultanOfSwing

I can imagine

The flowers placed to commemorate all the accidents caused by those flowers stretched all the way to Norway. Eventually there'll be so many flowers the whole of Europe will soon look like a half-time float ...

Xebedee

No, they stopped using them 200 years ago.

Egg and Cress

Seems to me I heard there's to be legislation soon against such memorials - at least here in Tennessee. Claims have been made about the danger of distraction (as you pointed out). I never could figure out why anyone would want to continually pour salt on the wounds, so to speak, by reminding themselves of the very spot of one's gruesome death. On the other hand, it goes against my own grain to act as though nothing happened on that spot when someone actually "gave up the ghost" there. Can you tell I have some ambivalence on the subject? (Actually, I'm a split personality - and that's her talking.)

redglade

I don't mind the roadside memorials - if nothing else, they serve as a warning to some of the idiots driving out there. In fact perhaps they should be made bigger to advertise the cause of the accident: drunk driver, speeding, yakking on the cell phone, etc.

paranoidandroid

Silly me.

paranoidandroid

Hey, why not just show a gruesome billboard digital picture of the accident victim as they lay bleeding to death on the road, or the firebrigade cutting them out of the mangled wreckage?
The distraction of lawyer advertising billboards, showing people texting while they drive, seems to be enough to cause more accidents. Maybe we should just go back to making road signage, be road signage?

paranoidandroid

They could build a road out of the flowers.. a literal road to heaven.

HarryTheSpider

Peeve - web browsers that don't properly remember the last post on a thread that I had visited... Or is that the web site that's at fault?

redglade

Um, yes, that would be gross and distracting ...but advertising billboard type signs always are IMO. Too high up and an eyesore to boot. I wasn't being serious so I can't believe I'm arguing this...but digital information signs used on motorways for amber alerts, evacuation info etc can be read while driving without causing a problem.