The Pilot Club of Suffolk’s Safety Tree got a red bulb this week when 58-year-old William Lee Lawrence succumbed Monday to injuries suffered a week earlier in a crash on Nansemond Parkway.

The Pilot Club hopes that will be the only red bulb come Jan. 1.

The club has conducted the Safety Tree program for more than 25 years — nobody knows exactly how many. The club puts up a tree outside the Elks Lodge, 329 W. Constance Road, and decorates it with green bulbs at the beginning of each December.

For every traffic fatality that occurs during the month, a bulb is changed from green to red.

“It’s a reminder to everybody during this busy season when people are rushing about,” said club President Anna D’Antonio. “It’s a reminder for people to drive carefully and to remain safe. We hope when they see that tree, it will be that reminder to slow down and be careful on the roads.”

The Elks donate both the tree and the space for it, D’Antonio said.

“We’d like to thank the Elks for letting us put it up there in such a well-traveled and visible area,” she said.

She also thanked the Suffolk Police Department, which assists by changing the bulbs when they have to be changed.

The tree has rarely had an entire month with no red lights, but it managed to stay green last year. However, last year an accident victim died after New Year’s from injuries suffered during December, so there was a traffic fatality during the holiday season.

“Hopefully the rest of the month will go with no change,” D’Antonio said.