Remember those who died on the road via the Web

Albert Rose

Next Sunday, November 21, the World Day in Memory of Traffic Victims is celebrated and this year it arrives with a new web service developed in Spain and a pioneer in making road accidents more visible. Is about 'Roadside Memories', an application that aims to help the families of people who die in traffic accidents with messages in remembrance of the victims.

The project is developed by the Madrid-based startup BarCan i Consulting and is the result of joint work with the P(A)T Traffic Accident Prevention Association. In addition, the initiative has the collaboration of the Rey Juan Carlos University, which will study and analyze the behavior and profiles of those people who publish their memorials on the map.

With 'Memoriales en Carretera', the aim is to honor the memory of the victims in the places where they died virtually. Thus, families can receive the social embrace of other people. "Farewell rituals and honoring the memory of loved ones are necessary for the grieving process and, therefore, a tool like this can be of help to many people," warns Yolanda Doménech, director of P(A)T.

When uploading a memorial, an item is automatically created on the map in 'Roadside Memorials'. On this you can see the basic information of the claim and access the content. Already inside the memorial, in addition to reading the personal history of the deceased, a sign of remembrance can be left for his family.

How to communicate sensitive information

URJC professors and experts in visual communication and advertising and pain, Manuel Montes and Esther Martínez, collaborate and advise the project through their academic contributions. As it is a subject of sensitive information, these researchers have collaborated from the moment of planning the web and the way of dealing with issues such as religious confessions.

"We advise on the symbols that different users can use based on their religious beliefs and also on how to share and pay homage to this type of message," says Manuel Montes. Once the web is put into operation, the research will consist of analyzing these publications in the form of memorials through various variables.

“We will check what kind of people dare to publish the texts and what relationship they have. This will help us to better understand the phenomenon of the manifestation of grief”, adds Montes. Finally, the visual communication of the tributes will also be analyzed through the type of symbols used, the images that are published or the use of colors.