ca. 1954 The Highway Safety Foundation unofficially began when Cleveland, Ohio-based accountant Richard Wayman encountered a fatal accident during his business travels. Wayman, a photography enthusiast and outgoing police booster, assisted the investigating officer by taking color photographs of the scene (a motorcyclist was hit by a train). When the Mansfield Police Department expressed their gratitude for his voluntary service, Wayman continued to snap similar photos in the course of his travels back and forth across Ohio.ca. 1955 Wayman recruits an acquaintance of his, Phyllis Vaughn of Mansfield, Ohio, to join his campaign and begin taking photographs of crash sites. On November 16, a small newspaper article (unidentified clipping) documents Vaughn's new endeavor.
1956 (May 27) The Cleveland Plain Dealer devotes the cover of its Sunday magazine to Phyllis Vaughn's accident photography crusade.
ca. 1958 The color pictures taken by Vaughn and Wayman are assembled into a slide presentation, which is presented at the Richland County (Ohio) Fair, to school groups and at other public events. Each slideshow is accompanied by a lecture by an Ohio State Highway Patrolman. Vaughn enlists her sister, Dottie (Vaughn) Deems to participate in the snowballing project. John Domer, a news photographer for the Mansfield News Journal is also invited to join the endeavor.
1959 Wayman and his loose-knit group begin shooting motion picture footage of the accident scenes. On October 16, 1959, Richard Wayman presents a 16mm print of Signal 30 to the Ohio State Highway Patrol and Ohio Department of Highway Safety.
1960 Wayman and Vaughn incorporate The Highway Safety Foundation, a non-profit organization. A separate body, Safety Enterprises, Inc. (Wayman, Vaughn and co.) supervises the production and sale of films. The foundation is sustained primarily through financial contributions of regional businesses.
1961 Mechanized Death is released.
1962 Two young girls are found dead in a creek in Mansfield, Ohio. The culprit, when apprehended, informs the police of sexual activity happening in the nearby public restroom. In June 1962, The Mansfield Police Department asks the Highway Safety Foundation for photographic assistance in conducting a sting operation in the bathroom, which they provide.
1963 Wheels of Tragedy is released.
1964 Inspired by its participation in the public restroom investigation, Safety Enterprises begins producing crime prevention/police training films. The Shoplifter is the first such film released. Two films based on the 1962 double-homicide and public sex investigations are also produced and released: The Child Molester and Camera Surveillance. Due to the nature of the crimes and investigations, the latter film is circulated only among law enforcement agencies. Other crime prevention films include A Great and Honorable Duty ("An Introduction to Police Service," 1965), Plant Pilferage (ca. 1965) and The Paperhangers (about check fraud, 1966).
1965 Carrier or Killer, aimed at professional truck drivers, is released. A consultant for the HSF, John P. Butler, a police officer who would become Manfield Police Chief in 1966, visits Jimmy Hoffa in Chicago in an effort to sell prints of the film to the Teamsters.
1966 (April 15) Time magazine runs a photograph of Jimmy Hoffa, testifying before Congress on the subject of highway safety, holding a print of HSF's Carrier or Killer.
1966 Dottie Vaughn Deems's husband, Earle J. Deems produces The Third Killer, which is their most ambitious film to date. Starring character actor Robert Simon, it employs an elaborate narrative in which a salesman of death named Rellik visits his three most productive accounts, heart disease, cancer and traffic accidents.
1967 (October 1) Citizens of Mansfield, Ohio are invited to come participate in the production of a film by lying in a line on State Route 13, as a camera mounted on a platform floats above them. The footage was originally shot for the film Research for Safety but later effectively employed in Highways of Agony. The film was produced by the newly-formed Edcom Productions which was established by Earle Deems to branch out into more varied educational and commercial films (hence the title).
1968 The Highway Safety Foundation releases A Matter of Judgement, a film that focuses on laws, safety facts and good driving habits, without explicit crash-site footage.
1969 Highways of Agony, which borrows the title of the original slide presentation, is released.
ca. 1970 John Domer, one of the first accident-site photographers, accepts a full-time desk position at the Mansfield News Journal and ceases to make films for the foundation. In addition to films shot in Ohio, Wayman begins receiving graphic footage from a member of the coroner's department in New Orleans.
ca. 1972 The first Advanced Driver Training Course is opened in Mansfield, Ohio. A second school is announced for New York City (to open December 11, 1973), with plans for Palm Beach County, Florida and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
1973 (February) Newspaper articles on driver safety, supposedly written by Sammy Davis, Jr., are circulated nationwide.
1973 (May 27-28) Sammy Davis, Jr. hosts (with Monte Hall) the first annual, twenty-hour Highway Safety Foundation telethon. Guests included Muhammad Ali, Paul Anka, Jack Barry, Dr. Joyce Brothers, Ray Charles, Dick Clark, Roy Clark, Howard Cosell, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, Joe Franklin, Cliff Gorman, Richie Havens, Danny Kaye, Jerry Lewis, Hal Linden, Rich Little, Butterfly McQueen, Minnie Pearl, Boots Randolph, Tex Ritter, Phil Rizzuto, The Rockettes, Nipsy Russell, Sally Struthers, Mel Tillis, Ben Vereen, Lawrence Welk and many more. The total amount of pledges was $1.2 million. Actual pledges received were $525,000.
1974 In the wake of the unsuccessful telethon, the Highway Safety Foundation continues to operate. However, in Winter 1974, it becomes clear that it does not have the funds to continue, and the idea of a second annual Sammy Davis, Jr. telethon is abandoned. Richard Wayman relocates to California, where he begins developing support programs for the California State Highway Patrol. In July 1974, the State Attorney General's office begins an investigation into the financial collapse of the foundation.
1975 (August) The Attorney General concludes its investigation of the Highway Safety Foundation and declares that, in spite of some irregular financial incidents, there was no prosecutable wrongdoing.
1977 Even though the Highway Safety Foundation had folded, Earle Deems continues making films under the banner of Highway Safety Films, Inc. Drive and Survive is released. There's a Message in Every Bottle, which is devoted to underaged drinking and driving is also released. The elaborate production features very little explicit accident footage.
1978 (November 10-18) The Ohio Observer, a daily newspaper devotes a series of articles (written by Martin Yant) to the questionable business practices of the Highway Safety Foundation.
1979 Highway Safety Films Inc. releases Options to Live, in which a narrator encapsulates the history and philosophy of the Highway Safety Foundation, while showing clips from the various films.
1980s Earle Deems begins producing Strategies of Safe Driving but abandons the project when his wife Dottie is diagnosed with a serious illness. He ceases to produce new films, although continues to sell prints and videotapes via mail. After Dottie dies, Earle retires from the business and donates all the driver safety films to the Ohio State Department of Public Safety/Ohio State Highway Patrol. Many of the classic films are available on videocassette free of charge (only to Ohio residents) at www.state.oh.us/odps/newsletters/filmcatalog.htm
1991 Aficionado Ralph Coon creates the zine The Last Prom, which brings about a resurgence of interest in explicit driver education films.
1994 Martin Yant publishes Rotten to the Core: Crime, Sex and Corruption in Johnny Appleseed's Hometown, which summarizes his investigation into the Highway Safety Foundation.
1999 Production begins on HELL'S HIGHWAY: THE TRUE STORY OF HIGHWAY SAFETY FILMS.
2001 (June) Former Police Chief John Butler publishes a memoir of his years in Mansfield and his association with Richard Wayman, entitled The Best Suit in Town.
2002 (August) The Ohio Department of Public Safety releases Signal 30: Part II: Tragedy and Hope. Shot on videotape, the sequel continues the shock-effect technique of the original, though it surrounds the footage with disclaimers and digitally obscures the faces of the victims.
2003 (June) HELL'S HIGHWAY: THE TRUE STORY OF HIGHWAY SAFETY FILMS is given its theatrical release.
