WALKER VALLEY � The man who put up the White Crosses on the stretch of Route 52 between Cragsmoor Road and New Prospect Road (Route 7) doesn't want his name in the newspapers. He did, however, agree to an interview with the Shawangunk Journal.

"I was going to start this way back in the 1970s, I even had crosses made back then. But, one thing and another, I didn't get around to it. But recently it's gotten so bad, that it came back to me."

The White Crosses � simple, unadorned, each about three feet high � began appearing along the road a few weeks ago. Each one marks the spot where someone has died over the years in an automobile accident along Route 52.

His perspective is one that few ordinary motorists share.

"I'm a volunteer fireman. Been in the department for fifty years and I've just seen too many accidents. It gets to the point where every time we get called out, there's a chance it could be to another car accident."

He remembers them, and the memories are troubling.

"There are 25 crosses up now, and that will be it. From Cragsmoor to New Prospect Church. They are all vehicle associated, except one, where a kid jumped off a bridge."

Asked about how long a time period the crosses cover, he said, "Oh, it goes back to the fifties. I'm sure there were more, but I just don't remember them all."

Of the fatalities, he said, "Pure stupidity, most of them were speeding. Seven or eight were motorcycles."

On the most recent fatality, which took place on the Ellenville side of the Shawangunk Ridge, he said, "The cross there isn't mine. It's outside my area. But it's the same problem."

It's something that drivers rarely think about, because we never, ever, imagine that we're going to kill ourselves, even if we are speeding, texting while driving, or driving with a blood alcohol measurement twice the legal limit.

The cost of fatal accidents is not entirely borne by those who cause them. Those who clean things up afterwards also bear a burden, as the man behind the crosses explains.

"We have to live with that death, many, many times over. It doesn't just go away. We get to the accident site and we have to pull people out of the wreckage. You don't forget these things. I still see those stupid accidents, I still see those deaths."