Mystery: How do I look up road deaths by location?

My investigator is looking for a vandal who appears to be doing random acts of abstract expressionism with paint on local roadways. But, the perp is really doing a memorial to deaths that occurred on the road.

People notice the paint splashes on the road and complain but the main character becomes intrigued when a large paint splash appears on the road after a well publicized fatal collision.

How does the main character check public records for paint on the road vandalism??? then connect the dots by finding new paint splashes on the road looking up the incident and connecting it to unsolved homicides? Or maybe ones that haven't occurred, yet.

This may be a real story.

I had seen the paint splattered on nearby roads before, but never gave it much thought until a relative voiced it. What's with all of the paint spilled on the road? I played around with the idea in my head. I write kids scifi, so it's outside my range. My goal is fiction but this story became surreal.

That's when there was a fatal accident close to my home. My errands brought me by the accident site several times. At first it was just the broken tail lights and debris that they didn't clean up on the day of the accident. Then, the paint splashes arrived. White, two buckets full, from a passing vehicle.


I played with the idea that it was a municipal worker who's father, a road painter also, died in a hit and run. Then, his son found himself uncontrollably dropping paint when reminded of his father. Then, intentionally dropping paint. Finally, cracking=up mentally and running reckless drivers off of the road. Interesting story?

Then after writing this post, I googled road deaths in my area and found a clickable map.

Before I tell you what I found, some background.

I've had plenty of time to think about this story and these paint splashes are everywhere in my area. I've seen them 5 miles from my place. There's a place on route 94, not saying the actual road, where there was a paint splash in three different lanes at one point.

So, when I clicked on the google map. I found there was a fatal accident there. 3 deaths. Coincidence? I clicked on another road where there's all different colors of paint splashed on the road. More fatalities. Am I on the trail of a killer? Will he or she find me out?

Is this a known vandal? Why do I keep finding more paint splashes?

Fictionally, it's some great source material.

Realistically, it's connecting too many dots with shoddy investigation.

I'm trying to figure out the best main character. Someone who's brother or sister recently died? Or just someone who had to do community service for putting graffiti somewhere or something else?