Roadside memorial

A roadside memorial, also referred to as a descanso, is a marker that usually commemorates a site where a person died suddenly and unexpectedly, away from home.

A common type of memorial is simply a bunch of flowers, real or plastic, taped to street furniture or a tree trunk.

The ghost bike phenomenon, where an old bicycle is painted white and locked up at an accident site, serves the same purpose in relation to cycling casualties.

[6] While car-crash victims are rarely so well known, something of the same sort of impulse to make a public display of emotion at the site of a tragedy may be partly responsible for the growing popularity of roadside memorials.

There are also usually fresh flowers regularly placed by the cross if the relatives of the person who died live close enough to look after the memorial.

Sometimes Ukrainian roadside memorials can be more elaborate, including a small granite or marble gravestone and/or a picture of the loved one.

This debate has been sparked by accounts of dangerous actions, such as when an adult crosses a main road with a child to place a tribute.

[9] The spread of spontaneous roadside memorials to mark the site of fatal traffic accidents in the United States is a relatively new phenomenon.

A typical memorial includes a cross (usually wooden), flowers, hand-painted signs, and, in the case of a child's death, stuffed animals.

The modern practice of roadside shrines commemorate the last place a person was alive before receiving fatal injuries, even if they should actually die in a hospital after the crash.

[10] In the southwestern United States, they are also common at historic parajes on old long distance trails, going back to the roots of the tradition, and also marked the graves of people who died while traveling.

[citation needed] In the state of Delaware, roadside memorials are illegal per the Clear Zone Act for safety reasons.

[13][14] Using a Christian cross as a memorial along a public highway can be seen as an illegal endorsement of religion and has been challenged in a growing number of lawsuits by secular groups concerned about the separation of church and state.