ROADSIDE MEMORIALS ARE REPOSITORIES OF HOPE, ANGUISH FAMILIES ERECT CROSSES, BUILD GARDENS TO LOVED ONES TAKEN AWAY BY TRAGEDY.

Byline: Carol Rock Staff Writer

SANTA CLARITA - They've become a part of the landscape, reminding us of lives cut short. A circle of glass cylinders holds flickering candles. Teddy bears and Beanie Babies crowd for space with wilting flowers. Messages scrawled on paper secured with silver utility tape. Shiny balloons sailing at half-staff, their helium drifting away with the memory of some horrific crash.

In other states and countries, roadside memorials vary from the primitive to the formal, materials range from unfinished wood to marble shrines, all serving the same purpose: to mark the spot where a death occurred, often suddenly and violently. In some cultures, they are called ``descansos'' - sites where the soul has taken leave or offers the living a place to rest.

Three crosses sit in a small field of tulips, some wooden, some silk; colorful pots of live flowers brightening up the spot where Ciji McBroom suffered injuries that proved fatal in a traffic collision. Across Bouquet Canyon Road, California poppies and yellow Johnny jump-ups grow in a well-tended garden surrounded by a walking path, centered around a bead-draped cross dedicated to Anthony Amodio, who died in the same collision. Pieces of his shattered car are scattered on the ground, next to a stuffed Eeyore and a lop-eared bunny.

Across town, on Soledad Canyon Road near Home Depot, a small cross of white galvanized pipe bears reflectors and a red plastic sign that reads ``In memory of James Card, killed here by a hit and run, April 17, 1988.'' Card, who was 23 at the time of his death, was walking eastbound on Soledad when a car came from behind and hit him. The driver has never been found, but Card's parents still hold out hope.

Four crosses stand farther down Soledad in silent testimony of a horrific night in Canyon Country when the lives of Dominick Ianozzi, Tim and Daniel Renolds and Rodney Adams were taken in February 2000, the result of a high-speed crash.

Stickers and messages professing mourners' dedication to the victim cover the utility pole on Newhall Ranch Road where Kiel Kudroff died last December. A small cluster of flowers still sits at the base of a tree near the Saugus Speedway in honor of Nolan LeMar, a rising baseball star on the College of the Canyons team killed in a traffic collision April 9, 2001.

And a smattering of signs, photos and candles show fresh grief near the entrance to Central Park, tributes to Adam Marcus, a crash victim who died May 31. City crews will leave the memorabilia up for 30 days, at which point they will notify the family that it must be removed.

``Unless they pose an immediate safety hazard, we leave them up for a month,'' said Chris Daste, director of field services for the city. ``If the street crews pick up the items, we bring them to the field services office and keep them for about six months. We try to be sensitive and recognize that there is a time for grieving and a time when the right of way needs to be cleared. You hate to be involved because it's a tragedy, but we're responsible for both those who are grieving and for the general public.''

``Sometimes things are so benign, they're not noticeable. But some of them are very visible,'' he continued. ``We get phone calls from people who don't want to give us their names, but they tell us they're tired of seeing the memorials when they drive by and ask if we can't do something about taking them down. We try to be sensitive. It's part of the role of the city to do that kind of thing, balance the needs of the grieving with those of the rest of the citizens. So far, it's worked out real well.''

For Shirley Card, the death of her son, James, is no less painful today than it was 15 years ago. In the weathered metal cross on Soledad, she and her husband hold a faint hope that someday someone will remember what happened that fateful night.

``People notice it and sometimes they make comments about it. James was born and raised here, he went to Canyon High. He is still a part of this community.''

Card said the cross went up shortly after James' death in 1988, but was taken down for road improvements and the installation of the commuter bike trail, which, ironically, is named after Chuck Pontius, a popular city employee who was killed in a crash at Hasley Canyon and Del Valle Road. After the trails were installed, she called the city and asked whether the cross could go back, but was told that it was inappropriate and that the city doesn't want permanent memorials along the roads. It was an ongoing memorial for another young man who died when his car went through a fence near the Camp Plenty Road bridge that made her call again.

``I was going past this place on Soledad where they had the fence all decorated at Christmas and Halloween and on his birthday,'' she remembered. ``I got so frustrated, I called and asked why we couldn't have one little cross since he got this whole section of fence. Our only hope is that somebody might remember something and come forward.''

The city acquiesced to her request six months ago and the cross went back up, where it almost blends into the scenery as traffic whizzes by. Card said seeing the cross in place brings back a lot of emotions. James was hit from behind as he walked along the roadside after leaving the Genesis nightclub.

``The first few months (after the incident) I couldn't go by. I would go all the way around town to avoid Soledad Canyon because every time I passed the spot, I'd cry. Eventually, it got to where I could go by and look and say 'Hi, James' or 'Bye, James.' Now it gives me comfort.

``He was walking because he had gotten in an accident a year before and he didn't have insurance, so the judge took his license away,'' his mother said. ``James was pretty hyper, so his friends said he wouldn't take a ride home from them. He told them he 'needed to cool off, but if you see me, pick me up, don't hit me.' That was the last thing they remember him saying.''

The California Highway Patrol is responsible for enforcing laws that ensure the safety of drivers on the road, which sometimes includes the removal of memorials deemed a hazard to public safety.

``It depends on where they are,'' explained CHP spokesman Byron Wong. ``If people are in danger, that's one thing, but if it's safe, we don't have a particular guideline for that. It's not very common for us to remove something unless there is a real hazard involved.''

For Lynn Olds, Anthony Amodio's mother, the memorial is helping her family deal with its personal loss, made even more painful by ongoing court appearances that ended Friday when Travis Bibeau was convicted of vehicular manslaughter.

``His sister, Briana, built that garden,'' Olds said. ``Everybody has been up there helping. His father planted a baby oak tree and grandma was there planting cactus. It's comforting to see. Even though a lot of people might be against it, it is the place where his last breath was taken. We cremated Anthony, so there's no grave site. This is all we have.''

Amodio's family is also applying for a permanent memorial sign from Caltrans, available to families whose loved ones are killed by a driver intoxicated with drugs or alcohol. Bibeau's blood alcohol level was 0.12 percent. The sign comes with an admonition over the victim's name: ``Please don't drink and drive.''

Carol Rock, [phone]

carol.rock(at)dailynews.com

CAPTION(S):

3 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) Shirley Card still hopes to find the hit-and-run driver who killed her son, James, in 1988 at this Soledad Canyon Road spot.

(2) A makeshift roadside memorial to Ciji McBroom, who died from injuries suffered in a car crash on Bouquet Canyon Road in January, bears her picture.

(3) Signs, photos and candles near the entrance to Central Park are tributes to Adam Marcus, a car crash victim.

David R. Crane/Staff Photographer