The markers are the brainchild of Wangaratta police highway patrol Sergeant Michael Connors, who introduced them last year in a bid to bring down the Easter holiday road toll.

The crosses, which Sergeant Connors fashioned himself, will line a 50km stretch of the freeway from Glenrowan to Springhurst.

Each will marks the spot where a car came off the road — 12 crosses for 14 lives.

“I’ve been a policeman for 24 years and you see the horrific aftermath of these crashes,” Sergeant Connors said.

“I just felt in myself there was more that could be done. At the end of the day, I want to know that I’ve done everything I can.”

One of those crosses represents the life of Marjorie Hutchieson, killed on July 9 last year.

The 87-year-old was on her way home to Wangaratta with her husband, her sister and a grandson.

A freak storm hit when they were 15 minutes from home and a layer of ice had hardened on the road.

Six cars slid off the freeway. The passengers in five of them escaped injury, but the car Mrs Hutchieson was in hit the only tree in the vicinity.

Her sister, her sister’s grandson and her husband of 68 years survived, but the crash killed the grandmother of 24.

Her husband Bob will be 91 later this month but he now wishes the crash had taken him also.

“Having a loving family helps, but it doesn’t help enough. I just want to be with her,” Mr Hutchieson said.

The pain takes his breath away and right before it overwhelms him, he distracts himself and points to the photos covering the lounge room walls in the couple’s home of 50 years.

“I’ve got stories for all of them,” he said and he floods the room with tales of his children and how he started writing to Marjorie when he was serving in the navy.

“Her mum and dad were strict Methodists and I always wondered why they let her write to a sailor.

“Then I figured later on I was 3000 miles away so they had no worries.”

Mr Hutchieson is going with sergeant Connors to see his wife’s cross on Good Friday. It will be the first time he has returned to the scene.

He hopes people will see her cross and take more care.

“I want people to know it doesn’t get any better, you’ve got it for life,” he said.

The date of the crash that took Mrs Hutchieson is written in orange on a whiteboard in Sergeant Connors’ office. Every “fatal” his officers have attended is listed.

Sergeant Connors is what the force calls a “believer” — a diehard traffic cop, he truly believes the road toll can be brought down to zero and that his whiteboard will not be altered over the Easter holiday.

“I just feel there’s always more that can be done,” he said.

“People see the television campaigns and read the stories, but hopefully the crosses are more in their face and people will understand it really can happen to them.”