(Mass.) Overpass flags, troop tributes to be removed - Boston Globe

[Eugene]

Source: Boston Globe

Overpass flags, troop tributes to be removed
State cites safety worry

By Noah Bierman
Globe Staff / December 4, 2007

The 80 crisscrossed American flags on a bridge above Route 213
in Methuen remind Ramon "Andy" Jimenez that he is not alone as
he prays for the return of his son, Alex, a US Army specialist
kidnapped in Iraq.

But under orders from the Massachusetts Highway Department,
the display and hundreds of others hanging over highways across
the state must be taken down by week's end. State officials
said they are concerned the flags and signs could fall on
drivers, causing a crash.

The crackdown comes a year after the state's last attempt to
regulate the overhead displays. At the time, under pressure from
military families and their advocates, highway officials said
signs would be allowed if positioned behind fences, but now they
are saying even these must go.

"When the soldiers or their families hear about this, they're
going to be up in arms," said James Wareing, the leader of a
military support group who assembled and maintains the display
dedicated to Jimenez, whose family lives in Lawrence. "It has
nothing to do with safety. . . . Nothing has ever happened in
six years."

-snip-

Read more: http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2007/12/04/overpass_flags_troop_tributes_to_be_removed/

[proud2BlibKansan]

1. So how are the ones behind fences going to fall on the roadway?

Teleportation?

[DS1]

2. wind

I get concerned about the endless flags all the way across bridges as well.

[proud2BlibKansan]

3. We use cable ties here

and none have fallen off the back side of that fence and over the top and onto the roadway. Yet.