Loved ones remembered by roadside memorials
On Corlett Avenue in Witpoortjie one can count five roadside memorials within a kilometre stretch of road.
Controversy surrounding memorials being put up along roads has entered a new chapter.
A Roodepoort resident recently called a talk radio station questioning if roadside memorials provide motorists with a constant reminder of the consequences of reckless driving or distract motorists and sometimes result in more accidents at the same spots. The matter was left unresolved as callers had different views on the matter.
With 14 000 (2013) people killed on South African roads every year, more by-ways and highways have roadside memorials springing up every day.
These memorials in the form of flowers, small crosses, photos and in some cases small tombstones usually are placed at the roadside near the spot where a loved one had died. On Corlett Avenue in Witpoortjie one can count five such memorials within a kilometre stretch of road. But do they serve a purpose?
Last year Mbali Gumbi lost her father in a car accident. Gumbi brings up the importance in some cultures of fetching a deceased person’s soul at the spot where that person died as it is believed it will lingers around if such rituals are not performed. She says it is not necessarily important for loved ones to erect a cross and place wreaths, but often you find family members or friends who would want to do it.
“I think it is not a distraction at all but makes motorists perfect their driving,” Gumbi says.
On Golf Club Terrace in Florida there is a touching memorial for Theodore Scheepers. One can not help but feel the pain his loved ones are suffering. His date of birth on the memorial shows he died at a young age.
Florida resident Sissy Gumede says, “Instead of being a deterrent, memorials actually distract motorists. Why grief publicly? Or is it just a survival mechanism?”
“We do not object when family and friends of a loved one erect roadside memorials as long as they are not obstructing motorists’ view and contravene by-laws,” says JMPD spokesperson Wayne Minnaar.
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