Roadside Memorial Sign Program Gets Thumbs Up From Municipal Services Committee

The Municipal Services Committee on Tuesday unanimously approved a Roadside Memorial Sign Program, which seeks to memorialize victims of fatal crashes while at the same time raising the awareness of traffic safety to motorists. 

Under the program, a memorial sign can be requested by the family of a victim of a fatal collision through their local Council District office after a minimum of six months after the incident. 

The Director of the Department of Transportation (DOT) will be the approval authority for requests for memorial signs. 

As per the policy, once the proposed installation of a memorial sign is approved, the DOT will determine the specifics of the sign design and location, and work with public works to install the sign.

Nader Asmar, principal engineer at DOT said the department will work with the victim’s family and the office of the Council District in which the collision occurred to determine what the best location is but ideally, the sign will be placed where the accident occurred. 

“Our starting point is where it occurred but we will keep in mind that sometimes that location may not be suitable,” Asmar said.  

The city will pay for the cost of the installation and will maintain the sign for a period of seven years. The city will also pay for the cost of installation of signs that will be up for replacement. 

The DOT initially proposed asking families to pay for replacement costs but based on the Transportation Advisory Commission recommendation, the draft policy was modified to allow the city to shoulder the replacement costs. 

At the meeting, Councilmember Tyron Hampton recommended to the DOT to consider revising the language on the proposed signs and add: “in loving memory of.”

Vice Mayor Andy Wilson recommended including the date of the incident on the memorial sign. He also recommended amending the language in the policy to allow non-family members to make requests for memorial signs in the absence of the victim’s family members. 

“We can look into how we can add that language. One thing that we want to be sensitive to is that if there is a family that they have the ability to say whether they want to have such a memorial,” DOT Director Laura Rubio-Cornejo said in response to Wilson.