A roadside memorial in Utah is reminding drivers to slow down and look out for cyclists and pedestrians. In Murray, Utah, in an area where people are reportedly speeding on a regular basis, there is now a memorial that includes a damaged bicycle, a photo of a child, prayer candles, and flowers. The memorial, however, is technically "fake" and was placed there to remind people to slow down so a real memorial is never needed.
For the resident who put the memorial up, the issue seemed urgent enough. "I don't want to wait till I'm putting out a picture of a kid that I know," David Smith, a resident who put the memorial up, told Fox 13.
"We went ahead and put this out there to try and slow people down a little bit," he continued when speaking to Fox 13.
David described the memorial as being an "art piece" or installation, or perhaps, "a shrine, which is fake."
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David said he hopes the "fake" memorial reminds people of the importance of looking out for others in the community.
"We're going to keep it going to try and keep that memory out there for people, that we're all community here and everyone needs to look out for each other," David told the outlet, adding that he "really [doesn't] want your kid to be next."
Although David admitted that "there's a bad feeling associated with this," the memorial is doing what he hoped it would do: reminding people to drive slower.
David used to see "lines of traffic … doing 60 miles an hour, just double the speed limit," with some people doing "70 through here everyday," Fox 13 reported.
However, after he set up the memorial, he's noticed a change in the way people drive.
Now, he told the outlet that he sees "people slamming on the brakes" instead of speeding up. He explained that he used an old photo of someone he knows who is now in her 40s to create the "art piece."
In the United States, 966 bicyclists were killed in collisions with cars in 2021, with light trucks including SUVs, pickups, and vans causing the highest number of cyclist fatalities, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
It's estimated that drivers killed 7,508 pedestrians in 2022, according to Governors Highway Safety Association, and pedestrian fatalities have increased at a faster rate than any other type of traffic fatality.
