White crosses on the side of the road

[ZeroIndex]

Damn - I thought you were a fellow Johnny Cash fan...

haha, Johnny Cash is the man... did you hear the Nine Inch Nails cover he did of 'Hurt'?

[Ixion]

..How about we also put signs up where people have had serious accidents that did not result in death? "Johnny crashed his WRX here, and ended up in hospital for six months, rehab for years for his brain injury, doesn't recognise his family and will forever be dependant on third parties for the next 50 years until he dies of natural causes." Is that a valid reason for a sign? I mean, your son's brain, personality and executive functioning died at that spot - should that be noted too?

Good idea. I think in the USA, some State or other used to deliberately leave car wrecks (ie the smashed up cars) by the roadside, as a similar reminder.

Anything that gets people to think about what they're doing,and if needed , slow down, has got to be good.

[ZeroIndex]

Good idea. I think in the USA, some State or other used to deliberately leave car wrecks (ie the smashed up cars) by the roadside, as a similar reminder.

Anything that gets people to think about what they're doing,and if needed , slow down, has got to be good.

nah, it's for people who need free spare parts for their POS cage

[Lou Girardin]

I'm with Hitcher here. They're like a bloody scoreboard at times. Then you have flowers, lei's and bloody twirly things all over them as well.
I don't give a damn that dazza died right there and took three of his mates with him.
What's next? Are they going to bury people at the side of the road?

[RantyDave]

"Johnny crashed his WRX here, and ended up in hospital for six months, rehab for years for his brain injury, doesn't recognise his family and will forever be dependant on third parties for the next 50 years until he dies of natural causes." Is that a valid reason for a sign?

Yes, yes it is. The countryside should be littered with pictures of Charles Darwin looking thoroughly irritated.

Dave

[Sniper]

haha, in south africa... if they did crosses where people died, the highway would have *WHITE-PICKET-FENCES* HAHA, so cruel and harsh...

Bwhahahaha, imagine standing near any taxi rank.

Although, they would dissapear as fast as they appear, people need firewood and roofs for the lokasies!

[Beemer]

I actually thought of doing a book on the white crosses at one point, telling the stories behind not only the deaths but the lives of those behind them. But I never did - not an easy task.

I have two responses when I see them - if I have attended the accident (I was a newspaper photographer for a while) or written about the death, I tend to have a quiet think about the circumstances of the crash and what could have been done to avoid it, and I think about the people who died. However, if I see them in a place where I cannot understand how the hell someone could die there (especially if you know it was a one-car accident in the middle of the day in good driving conditions), I often get a bit distracted, thinking "how the hell could you kill yourself HERE?" And therein lies the problem.

While it is nice to remember loved ones, I don't believe that where they died is the place to do it, I feel where they LIVED is more appropriate. Visit the places where they had fun, enjoyed themselves or spent a major part of their lives. I would feel dreadful visiting the side of the road if a loved one of mine had died there. I would rather visit the beach or a park or somewhere I had happy memories of them. I don't want to visit the hospice where my father died - it holds nothing but bad memories for me. I think of him when I pick up a Reader's Digest (we had battles over the "it pays to enrich your word power") or I see horses (he started his working life as a shepherd). I don't visit cemeteries for the same reason - I believe when you're dead, you're dead - and the place you died is irrelevant unless it holds some special significance - like Erebus, Gallipoli, etc.

I saw a decorated cross (heaps of flowers, etc) on a farm fence today and I actually thought of the people who had to live there. It's bad enough to know someone died outside your home, but to be constantly reminded of it by a tribute like this must be horrible. A young girl was killed in a car accident near Manakau many years ago and I fully expected a white cross to appear on the power pole her car was wrapped around after colliding with a truck. Instead, her parents approached the business it happened outside and there is a rose climbing up the power pole. I still think of her when I see it, but it's a more private tribute. I think that is the main reason I wouldn't want a cross erected in memory of anyone I lost in an accident - I don't want others to be reminded of my grief or to even be aware of it unless I tell them.

[erik]

Crosses don't bug me. I'm not religious and don't recognise any religious symbolism in them. They just serve as a sad reminder of what can happen.

[Biff]

Do what they do in they UK - allow them for a fixed period of time after the tragic event, then take them down or they'll get removed for you. The arguement up there is that within 10+ years the carriageways could be littered with tend of thousands of these things, if you simply allow anyone to stick one up wherever they like and that they're distracting.

IMO..
Mildly distracting? Yup.
Reminds me we're all mortal? Yup.
Do what the poms do? Yup.


Imagine this 'craze' began about two thousand or even two hundred years ago, and nobody had nipped this thing in the bud. Farq.

[N4CR]

I want an inverted one. HAIL SATAN!!! That will get some attention for sure!

[TonyB]

Personally I can see why people want to put up crosses. But I think they are an unnessesary distraction which may actually contibute to accidents rather than prevent them.

If a driver/ rider rounds a tricky bend feeling like they are going too fast and then sees a row of white crosses it's not going to help their state of mind at all. Infact it may cause panic and lead to them fixing their vision on the crosses, which as we now is about where they will end up.

[Jackrat]

[QUOTE=Motu]

Damn - I thought you were a fellow Johnny Cash fan...
QUOTE]

'Course I am,but couldn't be bothered putting in a verse from Man in Black...I figured those who know the song would run it through their head - thanks for the effort.I'd love to go to the movie,but my wife hates people who don't sing in tune,,,she doesn't see the irony.

Go by yourself,well worth it.
Or you could just wait til I get the DVD.

An white crosses,only time I think about them is when somebody else mentions them.
Suppose I could put one up for my Bro'.
Wouldn't bring him back but..

[FROSTY:Me]

By an Irish band that used to play in Auckland.
The song is actually called white crosses.

The words go something like
white crosses by the roadside -each and every one --somebodys daughter ,somebodys son. You can shove ya fucken booze bus and ya stupid TV ads --But white crosses by the roadside and I ease up on the gas.
White crosses by the roadside mean weget home alive.

Ive fucked up the words but hopefully not the meaning.

[terbang]

Have no problem with them being there and find them a very effective reminder. They don't distract me any more than any of the other propoganda that various authorities stick up on the road side (Like the JAFFA ones on SH 2) to try and shock us into staying alive.

[Macktheknife]

By an Irish band that used to play in Auckland.
The song is actually called white crosses.

The words go something like
white crosses by the roadside -each and every one --somebodys daughter ,somebodys son. You can shove ya fucken booze bus and ya stupid TV ads --But white crosses by the roadside and I ease up on the gas.
White crosses by the roadside mean we get home alive.

.

I've heard that song, its great!
I personally have no problem with them, in fact I think that many people who otherwise would be serious dumbasses are provoked into slowing down when reminded.
I kind of agree with the whole idea but also see the value of removing them after a set period of time. This also lets you know if there is still a bunch of them there after the set time is over then maybe there is a problem with this corner!