Call to Scrap all Montana Traffic Fatality Markers

As I blogged earlier, when traveling in Montana, you can see these little white metal crosses along the roadsides at the site where there has been a traffic fatality.

These so called roadside markers have been placed by the Montana American Legion since 1953 who explicitly state that they are NOT meant to be memorials, but that they are "safety" markers that call attention to a dangerous road condition.

Who are they trying to kid?

A white cross is universally recognized as a Christian symbol used as a memorial for the dead and it's no coincidence that they are treated as such by the public. The Legion knew this from the start but dishonestly represents them as a safety markers in order to dissipate reaction from political interests that may object. In a state that is 82% white christian, it doesn't take much to quash any dissent. Once you erect a "memorial" regardless of where it is, it can be very difficult to remove due to perceived sacrilege to the person it is attached to.

Roads used to be dangerous in places, but nearly all roadways now conform to strict safety standards that have been thoroughly researched. If there is any potential danger on a stretch of road, there are always big yellow signs that alert drivers of the problem. Is a little white cross really more effective than a big reflective sign that has a symbol and a warning like "Slippery when wet"? Road safety is effectively addressed by the Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) which was created in the United States by NHTSA (the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) to provide an overall measure of highway safety, to help suggest solutions, and to help provide an objective basis to evaluate the effectiveness of motor vehicle safety standards and highway safety programs. These little crosses may sound like a "good idea" to some people but probably only from an emotional point of view. There is no data that suggests that they are effective in any way as a safety device. The reasoning put forth for placing them was completely arbitrary. Safety engineering is supported by statistics and not from perceived good intentions.

3. According to the NHTSA most highway accidents are not due to dangerous roads but to driver impairment. How is a little white cross supposed to keep people from drinking too much, texting while driving or getting better sleep?

4. Highways are for driving and doing so safely. Memorials to the dead belong in cemeteries - and if the victims families consider it so important to proclaim to the public where Uncle Joe drifted of the road perhaps they can petition the state so that they can be permitted to bury his body along the roadside where he died so that the safely message is even more meaningful.

As a safety device, these crosses are ill conceived and at the very least obsolete, but as an territorial marker they may be effective. The reality here is that the Montana American Legion has been exploiting the deaths of accident victims and their families in order to proselytize for the cause of Christian Dominionism whose aim has always been to preserve the state of Montana as a racial and religious enclave. The only thing these little "markers" accomplish is to signal to travelers: "All you colored folk, Atheists, Mexicans and Muslims can just keep on drivin". The only way you could make their message any clearer is if you set them all on fire - like the KKK likes to do.

These objects of propaganda should be made illegal, removed and scrapped.