An Oxfordshire woman who lost her son in a road accident is helping lead a campaign for memorial signs displaying the message 'Remember Me' to be placed on roadsides.

The signs campaigners want put up at the site of fatal road accidents

The black plastic signs, which are A4 size and bear a single red flower dripping three drops of blood, are designed to provide a more lasting tribute to the victims of fatal accidents than the familiar sight of bouquets placed at crash scenes by bereaved families and friends.

Each sign has a white strip at the bottom on which families can put the name of the deceased or a tribute.

Zoe Stow, of Nettlebed, near Wallingford, is chairman of RoadPeace, a national charity for road traffic victims which is behind the scheme to supply the signs.

The charity hopes the idea will also provide road users and pedestrians with a poignant reminder of the dangers that exist on certain stretches of roads.

Mrs Stow, whose 15-year-old son Alec died when he was knocked over on the A4130 by a car in 1995, said: "Our aim is for the 'Remember Me' sign to be adopted as an official Department of Transport-approved road sign, which would automatically be erected wherever someone was killed or seriously injured in a road crash.

"I hope that seeing these memorials will give people a brief glimpse into the human suffering and sense of loss which the relatives and friends of road crash victims have to endure every day.

"We have monuments to recent tragedies like the Paddington rail crash, but not to the thousands of people who have been dying in an everyday slaughter on the streets."

David Robertson, the county council executive member for transport, said he expected the scheme to get a mixed response. He did not personally believe the signs would draw undue attention to accident blackspots. Mr Robertson said: "Most people who saw the signs would more likely feel sad for the bereaved family."

The signs were launched on Sunday, August 31, to commemorate the deaths of Bridget Driscoll, the first car accident victim who died on August 17, 1896, and Diana, Princess of Wales, who died on August 31, 1997, in a car crash in Paris.

In theory, local auth- orities or the Highways Agency should be consulted before relatives place roadside tributes. In practice, most councils - including Oxfordshire - have tolerated an increasing number of floral tributes, recognising the importance they hold for families.

In France, authorities have started erecting life-sized silhouettes at the side of roads -- often of children -- to mark fatalities. In Italy, permanent stone memorials to all road traffic victims exist in some cities, including Rome. In Greece, roadside shrines are a common sight.