Paper short abstract:

In Kúagerði stands a monument to victims of car crashes in Iceland. It is a focal point for a campaign for road safety involving insurance companies, government agencies and private individuals, often bereaved. Around it swirl issues of biopolitics, speed, and neoliberal governmentality.

Paper long abstract:

It is said that sometimes, when the weather is bad, a young girl can be seen standing by the side of the road in Kúagerði, drenched from the rain and trying to hitch a lift to town. Asked where she is going, the girl gives an address in the town. She does not say anything else. When driving past the cemetery at the edge of town, the girl disappears suddenly. Drivers who have given her a lift are of course shaken and many have stopped their car to look for her. Some went to the address she mentioned. There they are greeted by a middle aged couple who, on hearing the story, explain that the girl is their daughter and that in recent years many drivers have come to their house having offered her a lift. "You see, the girl died in a car accident in Kúagerði a few years ago and is buried in the cemetery at the edge of town." She is always on her way home to her parents but never makes it all the way: before she gets there she disappears into her grave in the cemetery.

In Kúagerði, there is a 'black spot', a spot that has been the scene of more fatal and near fatal car accidents than any other place in Iceland. Over the last fifteen years it has also become a public shrine, a monument to those who have perished there, and by extension to all victims of car crashes in Iceland. The shrine in turn has become a focal point for a campaign for road safety, better 'traffic culture', better roads; a campaign that involves car enthusiasts, insurance companies, government agencies and private, often bereaved, individuals. The shrine and the campaign bring together issues around biopolitics of populations and their efficient movements; the politics of speed; neo-liberal governmentality; and the phantasm of modernity in Iceland. This paper relates the history and ethnography of the shrine and its associated campaign in the light of these issues.