Roadside Death Shrines
 

They started cropping up in CA AFAIK about ten years ago. I never cared for them much - I suppose if they help the deceased's family... But I would not create one.

For the first time ever I pulled over today to see one down the street from my office. Two boys (19 and17) died in a single car (CRX) crash at 5:30 pm. They think alcohol and drugs may have been involved. A nice, wide, four lane dry street.

I didn't much care for the shrine... YMMV.

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Requiescat in pace

Strange. We sure do have a love for nostalgia for our dead.

Their Shrine pretty much states they really knew how to PARTY.

Classy.

Tough to find a more substantial pole to hit. Very sad.

I think the booze containers are in very poor taste, given the cause of the crash. There was a horrific crash in Phoenix almost two years ago, in which four motorcyclists were pinned under a truck that didn't stop for a red light they were waiting at. They were crushed and burned. The Walgreen's next to that intersection became a huge shrine for them. I think there's something permanent there now.

Another example of how diverse our society really is. I usually get that check whenever I visit the local Wal-Mart......

I agree I wouldn't express my remembrance that way but to each their own I guess...

Nice pics, BTW! SmileWavy

I think those shrines and the corny " in loving memory of" letters stuck to the rear window of cars are rediculous. Just like everything else in this country the next guy has to prove he misses the deceased loved one more than you miss yours. Next thing you know the streets are littered with stuffed animals and soggy pictures. Why don't they put the shrine in their livingroom, I don't know them.

Probably because they didn't die in the living room.

Isn't it litter?

A good bottle deposit/refund system would clean that right up...

It's ghoulish. Their relatives should celebrate their life, not their death. I see shrines everywhere on my many drives in the SE. The bizarre one is Alligator Alley. The number of crosses on that ruler straight road is truly strange.

Ian

We've had quite a few teens destroy their lives on the road I live off of, the last chrash site they hung the only recognizable part of them left, the driver's shoes. I think its fitting, there are other kids who are going to drive by that, and maybe not try to street race side by side there again, unlike the last few to die.

Wow, truly bizarre. I've seen them but never seen/noticed the alcohol and pill bottles. I wonder if that's supposed to be some sort of "message" to the folks that see it. Sort of like when the cops display wrecks with signs that say "don't drink and drive".

I don't mind it when it's a simple cross but it's not really my thing. I'm also not a cemetery person either. I don't need a place to visit or a visual reminder like that. I understand that when things are "fresh" that there will be more stuff for the folks that are grieving.

The rememberance things on cars is a bit weird to me. Around here it seems to mostly be within the Hispanic community. I don't think I've seen one that had a name that wasn't Hispanic.

That's a great thought, but it seems highly unlikely.

Those were "medical" pot containers.

And it was clear to me that they were partying there...

I know I've thought twice about getting crazy when I ride 89A from Jerome to Wickenburg, AZ and at the beginning of the real mountain twisties, there's a motorcycle helmet on top of a cross on the side of the road.

A Low Rent Operation all the way around!

I don't mind the crosses and what not, just please don't strap them to my signpoles, or spray paint on my sign poles. I will paint over it.

Now the alcohol containers, that pisses me off.

A classmate and childhood friend of mine died of alcohol poisioning in 2010. Come the anniversary of his death this year, a bunch of idiots, the same idiots that let him pass out and die, went and got drunk and surrounded his headstone with beer cans and liquor bottles. It really pissed me off.

There's a guy in Illinoiis that goes out and puts up a white cross at crash sites whether the family wants one or not. If it were on my property I would get rid of it. Sorry for the loss but that's what a grave stone in a cemetery is for. They don't have the right to infringe on the public or pressure businesses and land owners (or state/city/country ROW) to accommodate them. They want to put flowers out now and then, fine. Make a permanent memorial on public or private property....not acceptable.