Roadside memorials face restrictions

FORT WAYNE -- An Indiana lawmaker is joining state transportation officials in pushing for restrictions on roadside memorials that mark the sites of fatal traffic accidents.\nRep. Duane Cheney, D-Portage, is sponsoring a bill that would remove the personal monuments -- such as white crosses, photographs and flowers -- and replace them with uniform signs commemorating the crash victims.\nCheney and Indiana Department of Transportation officials believe the change is needed because the memorials are growing in number and in scope.\nSeveral found recently in Steuben County by transportation officials even had statues, a small picket fence, solar lights and garden stones.\n"They have gotten big and unwieldy," Cheney said. "It is a traffic safety issue to be on the side of the road setting them up."\nINDOT spokesman Roger Manning said most of the memorials are placed illegally in the right of way and pose a safety threat both to motorists and the people erecting the memorials.\nStill, he said the agency realizes that the monuments are an emotional issue. \n"It's a difficult situation for us. Unofficially we have always viewed these illegal encroachments as part of the grieving process that some people feel compelled to put up," Manning said.\nCheney said the answer is to make the memorials uniform and less distracting to drivers. His legislation requires that all old memorials along state roads be removed and replaced with a sign of INDOT's choosing.\nThe same sign also will be placed at the site of any new traffic fatalities. Cheney's bill would allow families to request that the sign not be erected if they so choose.\nHouse Bill 1110 passed an initial test last week and could be voted on by the full House on Monday. Rep. Marlin Stutzman, R-Howe, voted against the bill in committee, saying he is torn by the issue.\nStutzman noted that some of the memorials have gotten out of hand, but he supports the general practice and isn't sure the legislation is needed.\n"It's helpful for families and is a reminder to me as I drive by to be careful," he said.\nSusan Matteson, widow of Fort Wayne police officer Brad Matteson, said she might not have survived emotionally without the crosses and flowers that have adorned the intersection where Matteson died in 2000.\n"I drive by there every day, and there's an emotional tie to that place," she said. "When you go by and there's nothing there, it breaks your heart."\nManning said the wording of the proposed uniform signs hasn't been decided but could say something like, "Indiana remembers victims of traffic accidents. Please drive safely."\nHe said the markers would not be permanent, though, possibly staying up for about a year after the death. INDOT has not discussed personalizing them with a name or a picture as some other states have done.\nMatteson said that if the state memorials are removed after a year, she would replace it with a cross of her own.\n"A year means nothing. Everything is not OK just because a year went by," she said. "It may not mean anything to them, but it sure means something to us"