Monday, August 28, 2006

Think!

On our recent road trip we saw something interesting in South Dakota. At the location of every traffic fatality they erect a sign to mark the spot. On one side the sign says 'X Marks the Spot - THINK' and on the other it says 'Why Die?'.


Once we knew what these signs were for it was something that really got our attention. It is amazing how many of these there are scattered along the roads. Some places have many signs - either for multiple crashes, or for cases where many people died in a single crash. There is always one sign for each death. About half of the deaths involve alcohol.

It seems that this would be a good practice for roads everywhere. When you can see such a clear indication of just how many people die on the roads it might help folks to actually THINK and try a bit harder to drive safely.

1 comment:

wstachour said...

An excellent idea. I think that somehow traffic fatalities are simply accepted by people as normal and tolerable, though the alcohol-related ones especially seem a total waste to me. Maybe this sign business puts some reality into people's driving practices.