Accident victim billboards along the Autobahn

Whenever I drive to Salzburg or beyond from Munich, I see a few of these billboards along the Autobahn. They're black and white, include a picture of a happy-looking couple or family with their names, and say something like "In a hurry to get home" or "Too fast in the curve." In other words, drive safely . . . or else.

The pictures are beautiful and heart-wrenching, and they get me every time with the tragic stories they imply. Not to be morbid, but does anyone know if the people depicted or the events described are real, or is it all just a very clever and emotional but fictional campaign? The pictures are all so similar in style and professional-looking that I suspect (and hope) it is the latter.

Its all true,

Its just their Identities that have been changed to protect the innocent!

Here's the web site of the DVR which is running the campaign. You can see all the current billboards, and also see the ones from previous years.


current campaign

.

last year's

I love the fact that they've made the writing so small, that you have to take your eyes of the road for a fairly long time if you want to read them. Excellent way to promote road safety. Idiots.

The people that die are very real and whether the campaign uses fictional pics or not, they still represent very real people dying due to idiots behind the wheels.

The idiots being one of the victims in each case.

Ah yes, the wonderful campaign featuring the gayest ever photo of a footballer...

Allershausen, I agree. The subject matter is distracting anyway, but trying to decipher the tiny print takes the eyes away from where they really ought to be.

EDIT: But I do think they're better than last year's shown above.

Not always. That is why they have this campaign in the first place. Too many innocent people being killed by some dickhead playing Schumi.

On this subject - kinda.

I got the original impression that these little praying cross thingies they set up at the side of country roads, depicted the place where someone had smudged themselves into a tree etc in their car.

But I saw one last week, that was off the beaten track so no way did someone have a fatal crash there.

So are these just random things chucked up by religious nutjobs. Or does each one depict a dead person, just not one that necessarily died on the roads?

As far as I know these crosses arent placed by authorities - in fact placing them on someone elses ground or near a street isnt legal, but often tolerated (for a while). If you saw such a cross off the road it means that someone died there and someone is grieving for him. Of course those religious nutjobs (also called bavarian catholics) also have these customs where they place larger crosses ("Marterl") for less morbid reasons.

Yeah I mean the bigger more permanent ones - like a little outside church for midgets.

Are they just "general" randomly placed thingies for when you need a quick roadside fix of god-bothering, or do they represent xxx died here?

You sometimes get them in the arse end of nowhere if someone spontaneously croaked on the spot - heart attack, stroke etc.

So not necessarily random phenomenon but definitely religious nutjobs.

You also get them on random spots which are considered to be a favourite haunt of the stiff. Bit like commemorative park benches. Some find the phenomenon comforting - others find it deeply maudlin and think that such shrines are dwelling excessively on the situation.

exactly that

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bildstock

Has any one here been to one of the Autobahnchapels - is that where they go and pray to Saint Audi or to the dead car crash victims?

Excellent. Do you think there might be a market for portable or maybe little inflatable ones?

I'm thinking some kinda "Church in a Box" for when life is rushing past too fast.

Or does God only come and visit if they are made of bricks/wood or something organic. And is it like the googlebot and websites? do you need to set up your site and wait
for a visit before it is a proper registered place of prayer, or is God smarter than Google and he just knows instantly when you are having an instant turbo-prayer moment?

I did see the Inflatable Church in the paper the other week:

http://www.inflatablechurch.com/



I am thinking maybe a smaller one to keep in the car - like a kinda portable toilet?

Haven't you seen this already?

http://www.inflatablechurch.com/

Edit, JE edited. I thought I was telling him something new for once. *sigh*

I use an origami Shinto shrine fashioned out of waxed paper if that is of any help?

I was kinda annoyed by the "führen gerne sportlich" one - seemed like they were suggesting that "liking to drive sportily" was a crime. It's not, of course, just as "wanting to get home fast" is not.

They do both increase the risk of accidents, so I guess increasing awareness of that is worthwhile, but let's not assume that anyone who enjoys driving fast, or any other increased-risk-of-death activity (any motor-cyclists out there? Or fans of extreme sports?) is out there on the roads being an idiot and risking _other_ peoples lives.

Also, I'm surprised that the billboards are being placed on autobahns, when the autobahns are apparently so much safer than the Landstrassen...

I reckon it would be better, like Tom Hanks in "Big":


So we need an inflatable church that ALSO turns into something else interesting. So you kinda turn it upside down and can then use
it as a porno hot tub?

Yes, they do risk other lives by simply driving faster than conditions allow. These people are not alone on the road, but they certainly drive like they are. The worst ones drive like they own the road and all other cars are simply in their way.

See, there's the assumption that "enjoys driving fast" is equivalent to "driving faster than conditions allow".

I'm not denying that there are a lot of idiots out there, but is anyone who likes driving sportily (sorry if that's not a word, but "fast" is also not equivalent to "sporty") one of them?

There's one corner near my place, a t-junction in open fields, which I love. What makes this corner perfect is not just the width of the road there, and that picking the line through the corner is complicated, but also that it's a quiet road and the visibility is very good, so that you can be sure that there's nothing else around before trying to take it fast. I see that as one example of enjoying driving fast without endangering anyone other than yourself.

Not everybody who drives fast, drives faster than the conditions allow. Simply driving fast is not particularly dangerous as long as you do it at the right time. 30kph past a busy school can be too fast and 200kph on an empty autobahn can be perfectly safe. Putting signs up that you have to stare at to read them is much more dangerous.

Agreed - the excessive amounts of 'street furniture' in this country can be very distracting. If you couple that with people scanning the road in built up areas for the speed cameras that are helpfully reported on the radio, it is a wonder that anyone has any time at all to look at the road.

A few years ago, OK about 10, I used to think like Matt T but that doesn't change the fact that driving like that is illegal, dangerous, and risking other peoples' lives as well as your own - even if that's only for the poor person who finds your smashed up remains in the ditch when you get it wrong. Regardless how well you think you judge any given set of circumstances the public roads are not there for that type of 'fun' and if you want to do that then join a club that does it off road.

Edit: And to add to Kommentarlos's post - the street decoration in Germany is incredible. It's hardly possible to keep track of it all, or filter out the important bits from all the misc crap. No speed limit unless you're driving a vehicle over 2 tonnes after 10pm or was that before 6am when it's not raining...

Speaking of Autobahns being safer than Landstrassen, why don't they clear away all those rows of trees lining the two-lane country highways? At least in Bavaria, they look like some well-intentioned but misguided idiot planted them with regular spacing to ornament the road, about 2 feet from the edge of the pavement.

The tree lined road thing has already been discussed on TT, including the psychology and it being more or less dangerous, and I believe they are actually less dangerous, or so TT concluded and that's all the proof I need

Risk, speed, safety - tis a complicated issue. Make people feel too safe and they act more dangerous. Make people drive too slow and they lose concentration.

Only if they are already loosing it.

I dunno. Should I not be allowed to rock-climb because, if I fall to my death, I might cause someone who sees me falling to have a heart-attack? And yes, I realise that if I get stuck on a cliff somewhere, that the peeps who come to rescue me are risking their lives to do so. Which is one reason that I volunteer my time to the Alpenverein...


That sounds very German. The public roads are there for all sorts of things. Kids play on them. Festivals happen on them. People walk on them. People enjoy scenic drives and leisurely bicycle rides. I'm not convinced that transport for purposes of leisure is not a valid use of public roads.

I'm sure I'll grow up one day and will drive with a scowl on my face directed at the younger kids having fun. But for the time being I'll reserve my scowl for the tradesmen heading home in their white vans in the evenings, each with a bottle of Helles clasped in their hands, failing to indicate or obey speed limits, talking on their mobiles, throwing cigarettes out the windows, etc.

", about 2 feet from the edge of the pavement. blink."

It is all about tradition. When they built these roads they were designed for Wanderers and carriages and the trees provided shade. If all the road users would drive slower they would get a benefit out of these trees too. As it is, it's only the Beerdigungsinstituten and the doctors who benefit from them.

Hmmmh - to answer the original question, no, neither the people nor the accidents described are real. They show what can (and quite easily ) happen when people overestimate their ability to control their cars, no matter for what reason. Accidents happen because people don´t concentrate, think they can accelerate their van-stuffed-with-entire-flat as quickly as their Porsche 911, are tired, preoccupied, distracted or simply react wrongly to sb else´s mistake. I don´t think driving your car sportively, or even just fast, automatically makes you a "dangerous" driver. As long as you know your car and yourself, i.e. have some driving experience, you also know what speed is too dangerous for a situation. In a good car and a free motorway, 250 can be ok, or 60 with a packed van on the A9 during rush hour. If you just use some common sense and don´t let anybody talk you into "being cool", you´ll be able to figure out how fast you can drive and stick to that.