A POIGNANT reminder of a Bridport man was put up this week to commemorate his death.

Widow Marian Simmons pinned the Remember Me sign and a photograph of her late husband, Gordon, to a post opposite the town hall in East Street.

The sign, displaying a single red flower on a black background, was one of many put up on British roads as part of a national roadside memorial campaign.

It was launched on Sunday, the anniversary of the death of Diana, Princess of Wales.

Placed by members of RoadPeace, the UK's national charity for road traffic victims, the signs are the first ever nationwide public acknowledgement for people killed and injured on the country's roads.

Mr Simmons, 79, died in February last year after being hit by a car when he crossed the road. The driver, a 22-year-old woman, lost her licence for a year and was fined £250 after being convicted of careless driving. It was her second conviction for careless driving and she was receiving methadone treatment at the time of the accident.

The national secretary of RoadPeace, Brigitte Chaudhry, said: "Our aim is for the Remember Me sign to be adopted as an official, Department for Transport approved, road sign, which would automatically be erected wherever someone was killed or seriously injured in a road crash."

The red flower represents a scarlet anemone, a flower associated in mythology with love and loss.