Compiled by Javier R. Garcia
The late 1930s demanded a solution to help protect children
from speeding or inattentive motorists traveling through school zones. In Orange County, California a philanthropic
organization made up of young men of the “20-30 Club” came up with a plan to reduce
deaths of children walking to school.
A
warning sign was needed that would grab the attention of passing
motorists. The signs were made of
plywood brightly painted in the shape of a girl dressed in a school uniform and
her name was “Safety Sally.
Sally was posted at school crossings and the practice was
deemed so successful that it spread throughout parts of the United States and
reached the Rio Grande Valley by 1940 when a local chapters of the 2-30 Club
with support of the Texas State Highway Patrol sponsored a dance at the Country
Club in Brownsville and other venues in the RGV to raise funds to purchase
approximately 200 Safety Sally signs for use by our schools.
It would seem Sally diligently stood at her post for several
years without much incident until 1946 after the Brownsville Herald began
reporting an increase of fatal accidents in which Safety Sally was the hapless
victim. Twenty signs had been ran over
since the beginning of the school year which had begun the previous month. Whether the damage was a result of careless
drivers or vandals remains a mystery but more Safety Sally’s would be damaged
and the 20-30 Club, Brownsville Herald, local police departments and members of
the community banded together to help reduce the incidents.
So frequent were the incidents that something else had to be
done. Newspaper items seemed to have
little effectiveness. A public display
of deceased or heavily damaged Safety Sally signs paraded downtown might have a
greater impact on the public if a 10-car funeral procession decorated with
“appeals for better traffic safety control” made its way through our downtown
streets.
Despite this counter measure to prevent further incidents, signs
continued to be damaged and more fund raising was required to keep up with the need
to replace the warning markers. It is
unknown if or how many children in the RGV were killed or injured during this
period but that is beside the case.
Safety Sally was probably phased out or deemed ineffective with the
creation of the volunteer crossing guard which would also be replaced by
traffic light signals.
Our next post will take a look at the 1948 funeral
procession with an attempt to recall the downtown-scape as it was on E Levee St
and E Elizabeth Streets.
