Fatal car wreck shrines...

[CosmicCowboy]

I have one about a block from my house...The girlfriend was driving and they were both faced drunk...he was leaning out the passenger window puking...in the classic drunk driver reflex she looked right/veered right and knocked the top of his head off on a telephone pole...

Is it just me or are these roadside shrines a little weird? This one changes every couple of weeks and also has "holiday" themes...Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Valentines Day, Easter, etc. We are talking about elaborate stuff...long stem roses, other fresh flowers, stuffed animals, professionally done wreaths, etc...

In a similar situation would YOU maintain a shrine?

[Mixability]

In a similar situation would YOU maintain a shrine?

Nope, thats what their grave is for.

If it's a dangerous intersection, don't just remind people that you lost someone there, DO something about it. Contact the people who would be able to put up a traffic light or change the speed limit, don't just put a few flowers up.

I have seen(don't remember where), multiple shrines in the same block, almost in the same exact spot, all for different people. Weird.... you'd think people would stop and think, hmmmm maybe I should slow down around this curve, since there IS already someone who died here................BAM!

[CosmicCowboy]

Weird.... you'd think people would stop and think, hmmmm maybe I should slow down around this curve, since there IS already someone who died here................BAM!

no ! There is a giant oak tree on the outside of a hard curve on the farm road going to our ranch. It has probably averaged one fatal crash a year for the last 40 years and has shrines all over it...but inevitably another one gets drunk, drives too fast, and misses the curve and goes from 70 to 0 wrapped around that bad boy...

[Mixability]

no ! There is a giant oak tree on the outside of a hard curve on the farm road going to our ranch. It has probably averaged one fatal crash a year for the last 40 years and has shrines all over it...but inevitably another one gets drunk, drives too fast, and misses the curve and goes from 70 to 0 wrapped around that bad boy...

and then the parents sue the tree........

[ObiwanGinobili]

yeah, i think thats weird.
i can understand activism in the memory of someone's death (DWI awareness, fight for better signage or road engineering etc)... but the shrines don't do that.

if anything in my mind they are a distraction at an allready dangerous section of road!

also - esp. when they keep up the shrine thru several seasons, maybe years... obviously they are having a jard time letting go of thier loved one and moving on. unhealthy imho.

[CharlieMac]

I wouldn't do it, but I can understand families that do. But then again, my teenage son hasn't wrapped his car around a telephone post and had to have the jaws of life remove his crushed body from a car, so maybe I would.

[Mixability]

I wouldn't do it, but I can understand families that do. But then again, my teenage son hasn't wrapped his car around a telephone post and had to have the jaws of life remove his crushed body from a car, so maybe I would.

yeah, me neither, but what use is a shrine? if they want to warn people about the intersection and not cause ANOTHER wreck at that same spot, they should be an activist and keep the flowers for the grave.

[Jimcs50]

None of know what we would do, if our loved one got killed in a car wreck I wiill hold judgement on this matter.

That is horrible though.

[Mixability]

None of know what we would do, if our loved one got killed in a car wreck I wiill hold judgement on this matter.

That is horrible though.

Well, i definitely know i wouldn't make a shrine.

[Jimcs50]

Well, i definitely know i wouldn't make a shrine.

I am glad that you know exactly how you would feel. Good for you.

[ObiwanGinobili]

well i can also say for sure I wouldn't make a shrine. mostly because of my religious beliefs.

[Mixability]

I am glad that you know exactly how you would feel. Good for you.

Thats not how i would feel.

So are you saying that i wouldn't be a good enough "mourner" if i didn't put up a shrine?

Should I have put up a shrine in my late Grandfathers hospital bed? Or was the donation I made in his name to the American Cancer society a better idea?

[CosmicCowboy]

I am glad that you know exactly how you would feel. Good for you.

Actually Jim, I am quite confident that I wouldn't make a telephone pole on the side of a road the place where I chose to remember a loved one.

[ShoogarBear]

On the main road near Big Sky, Montana, they put a little white cross at the site of a fatality. We must have seen at least 40-50 of them on the way from the airport. I don't know how many of them went up during the 1995-1999 period when there was essentially no state speed limit.

[JoeChalupa]

I wouldn't do it, but I can understand families that do. But then again, my teenage son hasn't wrapped his car around a telephone post and had to have the jaws of life remove his crushed body from a car, so maybe I would.

I concur.

[Jimcs50]

Thats not how i would feel.

So are you saying that i wouldn't be a good enough "mourner" if i didn't put up a shrine?

Should I have put up a shrine in my late Grandfathers hospital bed? Or was the donation I made in his name to the American Cancer society a better idea?

I am just saying, that unless you lost a child, you do not really know what you would do.

[ploto]

I agree with the person who stated that it can create a distraction where an already dangerous stretch of road is. I would hate to think that my memorial helped to contribute to another death. I would much rather see a reflector there.

[AlamoSpursFan]

I think it's stupid as . If the spot one's spirit leaves the planet needs to be memorialized, hospitals and old folks' homes wouldn't be able to function because of all the croaking that goes on there. They make freaking cemetaries for such tributes.

[Mixability]

I am just saying, that unless you lost a child, you do not really know what you would do.

Well, I'm just saying, regardless of having lost someone on a road or whatever, I WOULD NOT put up a shrine. The day I put up a shrine will be the day you give someone money over the internet again.

[Ed Helicopter Jones]

I think it's how people deal with the shock of losing someone they love in some tragic event.

I knew of 3 teenage kids whose car was t-boned and all 3 were killed in an intersection. The 3 kids were honor students, there was no alcohol in their systems. The guy who killed them was a 45 year old who'd been arrested 6 times for DUI or DWI previously. He walked away from the accident.

Anyway, these parents still put up an annual memorial at that intersection, and this accident happened 18 years ago.

A few years ago I might of said I'd never put a 'shrine' at the accident site of a lost loved one, but now that I'm older and wiser and have a family of my own I think I understand better how painful it would be to lose someone you hold so dear. I can't judge anyone who chooses to memorialize their lost family members or friends in this fashion.

[A-Train]

Hmmm...everyone deals with grief in their own way and those memorials serve as a reminder to pay attention on the road. Every day I see someone who could use such a reminder.