The pair were killed when the car Toby was driving in the early hours of the morning on December 6, 2006, crashed into a stormwater drain at the intersection of Athllon and Sulwood drives, the vehicle flipping on to its roof.

Toby was just 24, Phil only 22.

In the days after their deaths, friends of the young men started to write personal tributes on the culvert such as ''Mates forever''.

Reesha and her husband Zec, and Phil's parents, Helen and John Furlan, later put up crosses and planted two rose bushes next to the drain where their sons lost their lives.

Reesha says her monthly pilgrimage to the site is a comfort.

''It's just the last place they were for us,'' she said.

''When someone dies and you're expecting it, you're with them and you say goodbye. With sudden death, there's no way you get anything back.

''They were so vibrant and so full of energy. For me, most of those roadside crosses represent young lives.''

Reesha says friends of the boys go to the memorial on the anniversary of their deaths or on their birthdays.

''We should never forget why these boys lost their lives. They were reckless in a moment of God knows what and we can't take that back,'' she said.

''I just truly hope that the memorial makes people think twice and slow down or drive a bit more carefully.''

For Phil's mum, Helen Furlan, the messages written for the boys on the culvert made it ''a special place for us to realise how loved they were and how precious they were''.

The Furlans return to the culvert on the anniversary of their son's death.

Helen says, ''It's hard to say if he's there or his spirit is there, but it's somewhere where I know his last moments were. It was probably the most painful place for him to be but he was there, his last night.''

Roadside memorials became a passionate topic of discussion in the ACT last week when the Government removed a makeshift shrine at the site of a double fatality in Richardson.

For more, pick up a copy of today's Canberra Times