Roadside memorials - safety warnings or hazards?

I was reading the other day about the decision of Queensland Motorways, the private company that operates some of the most important highways in the state, to remove roadside crash memorials from the Gateway and Logan motorways.

Although Qld Motorways stated that they understand that is a difficult and sensitive issue and that they tried to contact families that are related to the memorials, they remained firm to their decision not to allow or tolerate such memorials from now on.

Roadside memorial for a victim of the Pacific Highway. Photo: Dallas Kilponen DAK

The main reason behind the decision as quoted by Qld Motorways was road safety:
"Parking and walking along the motorway to maintain, establish or visit a memorial is an extremely unsafe activity, particularly with traffic moving at speeds of 100km/h" and "Roadside memorials present a visual destruction to drivers and create the potential for physical objects to harm road users by shifting onto the road surface." 

That article reminded me of all the roadside memorials in Greece, one of the countries that unfortunately has a high number of road crashes and road fatalities. In Greece most roadside crash memorials are like small churches while here in Queensland are usually just crosses or even a bunch of flowers taped to a post, a guard rail or a tree. Members of the family of the person or the people that were killed at the road crash maintain the memorial and in the case of miniature churches in Greece this is something that happens frequently as they have a small oil lamp that they keep lit.

Source:  Miniature churches in Greece

In other countries they erect different type of monuments and in some occasions they install a road safety warning sign. In a  bicycle specific practice widely known as "ghost bikes" people install white bicycles at the crash site.

Source: Roadside memorial blog

Source: Wikipedia

In Australia there was a big rise in roadside memorials since the 1990's. There is even a dedicated site that lists most of the Australian roadside memorials but whithout  much information for Qld.

This is yet another traffic issue that is controversial. According to the families that erect and maintain those memorials, they do more to combat the road toll than expensive government campaigns or flashing billboards. "They make everyone out on the roads think and slow down, because they represent a real loss. It makes more of an impact".

And this actually has merit and that is why erecting roadside memorials is not always illegal. Some of the US states like Colorado, Massachusetts, and Wisconsin ban such memorials. Different US states and world countries have different regulations regarding the memorials.In Queenland, Transport and Main Roads has a policy that regulates roadside memorials. According to it roadside memorials should be contained within the following dimensions:

    height 750mm
    width 500mm
    depth 400mm (below ground level).

In the interest of the safety of other road users and the safety of persons installing memorials, there are a number of locations where the placement of memorials is restricted. Examples of locations where memorials are not permitted include:

    motorways and freeways
    traffic islands
    medians
    roundabouts
    where they may interfere with any traffic control devices.

I hope sooner than later vehicle technology advances, driver education and investment in road infrastructure will make roadside memorials obsolete and part of human history. Until that day, families taking care of the memorials need to be cautius so there is no need to duplicate them.  Regardless of state or private company regulations, roadside memorials will be there to remind us that driving a car, a bike or any short of vehicle comes with risks and dangers.