The highway dividing line was the brainchild of June McCarroll, a doctor who found it difficult to get her proposal accepted.
At the intersection of Indio Boulevard and Flower Street in Indio, California, there is a sign dedicated to a doctor, June McCarroll. The recognition is not due to her health work, but because the automotive world owes her an idea that has saved many lives: the dividing line of the highway.
McCarroll wasn’t really Californian, he was from Kentucky. She traveled to California to try to alleviate her first husband’s tuberculosis without much success. She settled there serving the Indians, but her popularity would not have reached our days if it weren’t for an accident. McCarroll was driving his Ford T at dusk down a highway to see his patients. She had the misfortune to come across a truck with difficulty distinguishing where the asphalt ended. He crashed into McCarroll’s car.
Fortunately, the accident did not have dramatic consequences for this doctor who, instead of wasting time litigating against the truck driver, began to think about how situations like this would never happen again. His concern for road safety was not new. She often treated trafficking victims.
During a subsequent trip along US Highway 99 towards Kane Springs, Dr. June noticed that the highway had a distinct central intersection and thought painting a white dividing line to separate the round-trip lanes was a good idea.
Enterprising and enthusiastic as she was – in fact she worked as a doctor, which was still a rarity considering we’re talking about the early years of the 20th century – she went to Riverside County Board of Supervisors for the purpose of applying its idea throughout the territory of the State. Those in Riverside County kindly listened to her and just as kindly walked past her. So MacCarroll, paint can in hand, took to the road and painted the first lane marking in history. Thus was born the first dividing line in history.
Interstate 99, today Indio Boulevard, was the setting for this particular graffiti that avoided countless catastrophes throughout automotive history.
But this doctor was not content to increase the security of the sector that passed by her house. For the next five years, he tried to convince the American Chambers of Commerce and highway departments of the need for the project. Until she turned to the Indio Women’s Club. It was a success because thanks to this platform other women’s clubs and federations They were showing their support for the initiative until the State of California enacted a law that authorized the State Highway Commission to draw a line through the middle of all state highways. Dr. June had won and with her the safety of all pilots from that moment on.