In the 45 miles I travel to Cape Cod every weekend, there are seven roadside grave markers/crosses. I assume they were placed by private individuals to “honor” their loved one. I consider them an eyesore. If you want to honor your favorite relative, put your shrine on your dining room table and worship it every night. You don’t honor my father who died in a plane crash, why should I honor your father who died on the highway? While I sympathize over all deaths, why do you need to display it to the world.
In one case, I the entire name was on the cross. So I looked him up. He was the at-fault driver in the car accident. The police report had him going 85 MPH with a blood alcohol level of .07. It was barely below the legal limit, but it probably affected his judgement. So I’m expected to pay homage to this doofus who put someone else in the hospital for 17 days.
So, what are the legal status of these shrines? If I ever go down this highway at 4am (when it’s not so busy), I’d like to throw these markers in my trunk and take them to the dump.
Is there any reason you felt the need to preface an apt and potentially interesting IMHO thread question with such a heavy dose of self-righteous obnoxiousness?
California: I’m not aware of any law about it, but I know TPTB strongly discourage them. I think I read somewhere that any that are found on public property by a roadside are most liable to be taken down.
TPTB however have no authority over such memorials that are placed on private property alongside the road. These are so common, I doubt that the people placing them have bothered to seek permission from the property owners (who, I suspect, most often wouldn’t care). Nevertheless, they are strongly discouraged. I think the rationale is that they are distracting.
Here’s the ultimate ‘roadside’ memorial. Except it’s on a section line and it’s on private property. The farmer seems to be cool with it though as long as people don’t mess up his crops.
Very generally speaking, they are not liked by most jurisdictions, but are tolerated, as long as they are maintained, unless their location presents a danger for motorists. (e.g. obstructing road signs) The link provided by Kimballkid suggests that in South Dakota at least, a public or quasi-public provides or arranges for roadside memorials, which is unusual.
The “distraction” rationale is often advanced but is almost always BS - if its “distracting”, then surely so is any roadside advertising?
The person erecting the memorial has no right to erect a such a marker, nor an expectation that it is anything but temporary. They are usually erected on public property.
I doubt most jurisdictions have a specific law against third parties removing crosses.
Even so, I believe any local authority will take a dim view of the OP removing roadside memorials purely for offending his sensibilities and I would expect him to be charged with one of the regular catchall chickenshit charges such as “disturbing the peace” at the very least.
I don’t understand why anyone would want to memorialize the place where a loved one met a tragic end. If someone crashed into the ditch in front of my house and died, I wouldn’t permit anyone to put up any kind of memorial. I can sympathize, but that wouldn’t make my ditch a sacred place.
I know we all mourn in our own ways, but you don’t need to force it on the world to validate your grief.
Just saw a post in a hiking group about such monuments. The OP there was outraged about the memorial stone that was along a hiking trail. Though the replies were basically, I can’t get behind your outrage, I am tone on this.
And to that I say that there is a certain amount of individual humanity that needs to exist for us to function. And to the dislike of many it is above law, because it is human and those who enforce law are human.
This is the sign (or memorial, if you prefer) that is officially allowed in South Dakota. Any make shift crosses, flowers, toys, etc are frowned on but, as said in my link above, they won’t prosecute anyone for it and even allow people to contact the Department of Transportation to retrieve the articles once they have been removed. Some times those ‘Think’ signs end up in some weird places.
People have been hit by cars and killed putting up such memorials. Over time I expect state laws to become more stringent. There’s one near me on someone’s lawn, it’s a side street, it’s a good reminder, the speed limit is 20 mph on this street but a young man was hit and killed by a speeder. On a highway I don’t know if there’s much point to it though.
In NE Oregon the highway dept will leave it for awhile, but then they remove it and an ad goes in the paper letting people know their memorials have been taken down and where they can pick them up. Most of them are garbage by then so they’re tossed after about a month. Waste of taxpayer money to have road crews dealing with that crap. Why don’t these people donate to a charity in the loved ones name instead of putting up an eyesore? It’s just bad theater, another way to showboat.
Memorials stay up for a few weeks here. Eventually the stuffed toys and flowers fade. The road crews discard them.
I don’t think they would remove maintained memorials. If someone is keeping fresh flowers and discarding the faded items. That doesn’t happen too often. Most memorials get created spontaneously by grieving people. They aren’t intended to stay for long.
This falls in the same category as the window clings people use as a memorial. I don’t care about your “In loving memory of Bob. 1/1/1963 to 12/31/1997”. Sorry he is gone, but you just created a blind spot/distraction on your rear window.
There’s nothing rational about dealing with the death of a loved one.
You get through it the best that you can. Try to remember to thank people for their concern and put up a strong front. While you’re actually screaming on the inside.
I don’t object to anyone expressing their shock and grief with a memorial at an accident scene.
In mid-may I posted a thread about a fatal hit-and-run near my home. The driver was arrested quickly. In this article, you can see the memorial that the victim’s friends and/or family placed at his Dying Place. It has grown since then. There is now a small ‘deck’, railings, a chair, and more ‘stuff’. (I’ve never stopped to take inventory. This is just what I see as I drive by.)
So this Memorial to a Loser (long arrest record), who was croaked by another loser (he had a record, too) has been standing for three and a half months as I post this. Every time I drive by, I wonder how long it will remain. Maybe after the snows…
But three and a half months is nothing. There’s a memorial to a guy (‘Jeffrey Schneider’, I think) who died decades ago. The white cross with his name on it is well maintained by, based on the one time I saw someone going over there, and elderly woman. I moved up here at the end of 2003. The cross was there then, and no doubt was there a long time before. It’s not going until the elderly woman does.
I think they’re maudlin, but they don’t bother me unless they’re a menace to public health. If it brings a little comfort to the bereaved, who’s hurt by it?