WEEK 24 May 29th to June 4th

   SUICIDE HIGHWAY

   During the first years of the nineties true suicide drivers started to appear on Danish highways. They would suddenly swing over in the opposite lane, and crash headlong into the truck or four wheeled tanker, heading in the opposite direction. Some left a note, others didn’t, but the fact that these were not accidents, but deliberate, spontaneous and planned suicides, were soon becoming apparent. As the numbers of creative suicides kept increasing the actions grew from peculiarities to causes for concern among government and public alike. The «news» has never really reached the front pages, being too disturbing, too alarming.
   A couple of years ago a campaign was instigated to keep people from making voluntarily roadkills of themselves. The public, safe in the knowledge that something was being done, relaxed once more. What had never really made the news, anyway, returned to obscurity, among tales of ghosts, werewolves and vampires.
   But the figures, the number of deaths kept rising, and keep rising, and once more the focus is on the Highway Suicides and their motivation. Why are seemingly successful people killing themselves, and in such a fashion?    Well, most of them are successful, in the eyes of scoiety, with families and everything that is seen as essential to a successful life, in the present day world. Fast cars, expensive electronic equipment, a flawless reputation and such. Inquiries and research however, are revealing that these people were thoroughly dissatisfied with their lives. They were, as many people are, fed up with the system, but didn’t really had the heart to fight it, so they chose a way out, one a bit more creative than most.

   «I’ve hated this life and this system of things».

   Mark Barton