CROSSROADS
ROAD CROSSES
25 PEOPLE WERE KILLED IN
TRAFFIC ACCIDENTS IN 2008 IN PINELLAS COUNTY.
Roadside memorials, which often consist at first of just a
few flowers or wreaths, are sometimes followed by a more permanent
marker such as a Cross or a plaque. These are occasionally made
more personal,with names and
mementos.
The sites are there to mark the place
where the person died and to warn others not to let it happen to
them. It started as a Catholic tradition, but it's so diffused now
-- it's no longer just a Catholic
practice.
It becomes a kind of a portal where people
can go and speak to the dead person. They come and they leave
things for the person.
The practice of making descansos
came to the New World with the Spaniards. Also known as
crucitas or memorias, descanso means
"resting". The practice comes from the tradition of placing stones
where pallbearers rested between the church and the cemetery. Later
the stones were replaced with crosses.
The modern interpretation commemorates
those who have died in traffic accidents.
In the 1940’s the Arizona State
Highway Patrol began using white crosses to mark the site of fatal
car accidents. This practice was continued by families of
road-crash victims after it had been abandoned by the
police.
Some states have programs regulating
Roadside Memorials. In Florida, the Department of Transportation
maintains signs, which are placed as close as possible to the site
where a traffic fatality occurred. They're installed at the request
of relatives or friends of someone who died in a
crash.
TO FIND THIS CACHE, GO TO STEPHANIE'S MARKER. ON THE BACK
FIND THE MONTH THE SIGN WAS MADE. MULTIPLY THE NUMBER OF THE MONTH
BY 3 AND SUBTRACT THAT FROM THE LONGITUDE GIVEN AT THE TOP OF THE
PAGE.. SUBTRACT 5 FROM THE LATITUDE AT THE TOP OF THE PAGE AND YOU
ARE GOOD TO GO.