# Roadside grave markers - Legal status **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 29, 2017, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/roadside-grave-markers-legal-status/795049 "2017-08-29T19:35:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2017, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/roadside-grave-markers-legal-status/795049/41 "2017-08-31T20:25:57Z")
If so, then each death will take up twice as much space as they used to. :eek: Which would become a problem if it became fashionable enough. Older more densely populated areas of the country already have a problem with filling or full graveyards. Adding in site-of-death shrines will really cramp the older areas. Hey, that gives me an idea. How about we do away with cemeteries and simply always dispose of the body at the site of death? Dig a small hole in the grass, cut a hunk out of the sidewalk, whatever it takes. Bury the body, or the recoverable pieces or the cremains as the case may be. Or just leave the body laying there for the vermin and vandals to cart off piecemeal? Great idea, huh? Now \*that \*would be a memorable memorial. If you want the public to remember, give 'em something noteworthy with a big emotional value. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2017, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/roadside-grave-markers-legal-status/795049/42 "2017-08-31T20:31:36Z")
> [@Grumbacher\_Red](#): > > It makes wonder if sentiment in our society is shifting from actual burial sites to death sites. I think it’s like this: Family and/or friends are sad, and they want everyone to know it. Simply having a marker at a cemetery isn’t enough. By erecting makeshift memorials, they _force_ people to notice. It doesn’t matter that people like me are like, ‘Good grief. Someone I don’t know and have never heard of snuffed it there.’ They point is that people notice, and Those For Whom Life Continues, But Whose LIVES Have Ended can believe that those tens or hundreds or thousands of people who see the memorial every day are sending them prayers (but not cookies). ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2017, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/roadside-grave-markers-legal-status/795049/43 "2017-08-31T20:46:58Z")
Until you get the Slim Jim house where there’s a death memorial in the closet and it is written into the sales contract to keep it and allow access. 😛 (You’ve seen the commercial? House way over budget so husband signals real estate guy who opens closet and says ‘interesting note, this is where they found the body!’) ---
**Author:** ![Channing\_Idaho\_Banks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/channing_idaho_banks/32/250_2.png) [@Channing\_Idaho\_Banks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Channing_Idaho_Banks)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2017, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/roadside-grave-markers-legal-status/795049/44 "2017-08-31T21:35:18Z")
How else am I supposed to know which turns to slow down? ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2017, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/roadside-grave-markers-legal-status/795049/45 "2017-08-31T21:35:53Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > I think it’s like this: Family and/or friends are sad, and they want everyone to know it. Simply having a marker at a cemetery isn’t enough. By erecting makeshift memorials, they _force_ people to notice. It doesn’t matter that people like me are like, ‘Good grief. Someone I don’t know and have never heard of snuffed it there.’ They point is that people notice, and Those For Whom Life Continues, But Whose LIVES Have Ended can believe that those tens or hundreds or thousands of people who see the memorial every day are sending them prayers (but not cookies). Good thought. Per the website I cited earlier, roadside memorials have existed for centuries. And seem to have been a bigger thing in Latin countries than elsewhere. So the custom probably first entered the US with the increasing Latino population but it’s now gathering speed as a generic US cultural expectation at least in some social circles. I’m wondering how social media plays into this? IMO one of the defining characteristics of people who are big on social media is they come to feel that stuff in their life isn’t really real to them until it’s shared and, ideally, commented on by others. Increasingly it seems, your life \*is \*your wall or your timeline or whatever they call it. As applied to roadside memorials, I wonder how much people’s unconscious thought process is being conditioned to believe it isn’t real grief until it’s public grief? Which they’re driven to publish to the public as many ways as they know how? Which means both TwitFace and roadside crosses & teddybears? ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2017, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/roadside-grave-markers-legal-status/795049/46 "2017-09-01T00:40:43Z")
Meanwhile in New Mexico: > [@2011 New Mexico Statutes Chapter 30: Criminal Offenses](#): > > Article 15, Section 30-15-7: Desecration of roadside memorials; penalty. > > A. A person shall not knowingly or willfully deface or destroy, in whole or in part, a descanso, also known as a memorial, placed alongside a public road right of way to memorialize the death of one or more persons. > > B. A person who violates the provisions of Subsection A of this section is: > > (1) for a first offense, guilty of a petty misdemeanor and upon conviction shall be sentenced pursuant to the provisions of Section 31-19-1 NMSA 1978; and > > (2) for a second and subsequent offense, guilty of a misdemeanor and upon conviction shall be sentenced pursuant to the provisions of Section 31-19-1 NMSA 1978. > > C. The provisions of this section shall not apply to law enforcement officials or other employees of the state or a political subdivision of the state who in the course of the lawful discharge of their duties move or remove a descanso that obstructs or damages any public road in this state or to an owner of private property upon which a descanso is located. In NM that is more a part of cultural heritage. But it does mean OP would be in trouble for going vigilante on the memorials. Here in PR after the initial aftermath it usually takes the form of a simple cross or sconce of Our Lady, and it’s sort of fading away of late anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctor_jackson/32/32_2.png) [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2017, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/roadside-grave-markers-legal-status/795049/47 "2017-09-01T13:42:18Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > They should replace the homemade memorials with arrow-shaped signs pointing at the location, that say ‘DEATH SPOT’ Costa Rica paints a [yellow heart](http://insidecostarica.com/archives/2007/january/07-01-06.htm)on the highway at the spot of a fatal pedestrian accident. There are[lots](http://karinfajardo.com/Blog/8BF7D737-E235-4389-BCA7-0E63FA83F176.html)of yellow hearts on roads in Costa Rica. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2017, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/roadside-grave-markers-legal-status/795049/48 "2017-09-01T14:49:39Z")
> [@Doctor\_Jackson](#): > > Costa Rica paints a [yellow heart](http://insidecostarica.com/archives/2007/january/07-01-06.htm)on the highway at the spot of a fatal pedestrian accident. There are[lots](http://karinfajardo.com/Blog/8BF7D737-E235-4389-BCA7-0E63FA83F176.html)of yellow hearts on roads in Costa Rica. I was thinking of something like [this](http://www.retroplanet.com/mm5/graphics/00000006/77810_main.jpg), with DEATH SPOT painted in the area between the lights. ---
**Author:** ![Grumbacher\_Red](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/85e7bf/32.png) [@Grumbacher\_Red](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grumbacher_Red)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2017, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/roadside-grave-markers-legal-status/795049/49 "2017-09-01T16:26:09Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > I think it’s like this: Family and/or friends are sad, and they want everyone to know it. Simply having a marker at a cemetery isn’t enough. By erecting makeshift memorials, they _force_ people to notice. It doesn’t matter that people like me are like, ‘Good grief. Someone I don’t know and have never heard of snuffed it there.’ They point is that people notice, and Those For Whom Life Continues, But Whose LIVES Have Ended can believe that those tens or hundreds or thousands of people who see the memorial every day are sending them prayers (but not cookies). Brilliant analysis. Seems as if it is an inevitable part of our Look At Me, Nothing-Is-Real Unitl I Post It society. Things just can’t be internal anymore, everyone has to see it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/roadside-grave-markers-legal-status/795049.md?page=2)