When people leave crosses, flowers at the scene of a fatal accident

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Very common in England. Most people here were baptised Anglican but don’t practice religion.

I think it’s common for people to use a cross to mark a place of death or symbolize remembrance and they don’t even necessarily think about the specific religious meaning of what the cross means, like a habitual carry over of memorials for buried Christians.
 
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There are a few of those around here. People’s opinions vary; I think they’re a little cheesy. I’ve told my wife that if I die in an automobile accident, and she puts up one of those memorials, I’m going to come back and haunt her.

D
 
In one instance here a pedestrian woman was killed by a hit-and-run driver late at night. Her make-shift memorial was maintained at the spot where she died not only to honor her memory, but also to bring attention to that dangerous intersection with inadequate street lighting, and in the hope that some witness might come forward and report what they saw to bring that driver who left the scene to justice.
 
For me it brings to mind an inscription I saw on an old catholic grave ,last November,and which I would hope to have on mine , “Or your charity please pray for the soul of…”
I kind of think it is allowing us to be charitable,giving us the opportunity to pray even if that may have not been the aim of having a little cross and bunch of flowers by the roadside.
 
They are very common here and seem to have no particular tie to any one religion. Sometimes they have a cross, sometimes not. Sometimes symbols of other faiths, sometimes purely secular. Some elaborate, some simple.

They do serve as a reminder to drive safely and that many people die in traffic accidents. There are a number that have been maintained for many years. Some only last a few months
 
It is a human thing. Making a shrine to honor and remember a loved one is simply an act of love.
 
In my neighborhood it is common for teen and early 20 year old drivers to try to “scare” pedestrians on sidewalks by pretending to try to hit them with their cars. One time they hit an elderly women in a wheelchair. Her family put up a cross to remind others that such a game could hurt or kill someone.
A tragedy that could have been avoided.
 
Yes, I’ve seen that as well - it’s to help people remember to watch out because there are real people’s lives at risk.
 
It is most certainly not a Hispanic thing; that is a regional generalization. Seems like they’re seen around the world and as others have said many may exist in lieu of traditional grave sites. I knew of one that was around for about 10 years or more until the family decided to have it removed.
 
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In Lithuania this was something that was done. During the Soviet period the government tried to crack down on the crosses in order to promote atheism.
 
I am always touched by the “Ghost Bikes” in some large cities: (Please Note: This uploaded content is no longer available.)
 
It’s a memorial. Secular, religious – who cares? You don’t have to be religious to place a few flowers.
 
If there’s an appropriate place and one so wishes, set up a memorial. If not, don’t.

A young man in my otherwise low-crime neighborhood was shot while walking down the street. There’s a memorial at the site of the murder. Occasionally we’ve replenished it with fresh flowers and say a prayer. I see it as following our Church’s command to “bury the dead,” something only literally done by undertakers these days.
 
There doesn’t have to be any religious meaning at all to the crosses. In Montana, there are a couple thousand of white crosses that the American Legion puts up along highways near the places where someone died on the road.
 
They’re quite common in my state. The state dept of transportation’s policy is to leave them alone unless they pose a road hazard. Some of them get pretty junky because people put stuff there that disintegrates in the weather.
 
Odilon said:
All this is getting out of hand if you ask me. People die all the time in hospital rooms, yet I have not seen any of them turned into a shrine to the deceased.
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Do you know how many people die in hospitals? They’d have to keep adding more rooms because all the shrines would make it impossible to work.
 
I’ll add this -
There is a large rock / boulder - in front of this High School -
kids spray paint the person’s name on it - if they die -
or have passed away - as a soldier - after they graduated -
it only stays on the rock for a certain length of time too -
I hung out with this young dude - 19-20 years old - who passed away -
They had his name on the rock for way beyond the normal time -
It made me smile - knowing he was so thought of.
 
Some hospitals are religious in nature, some hospitals have chapels. There is no reason to be redundant I suppose.
 
I would imagine many of those roadside shrines, the people may have actually died at the hospital.
 
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