Garrett Morgan’s Life-Saving Yellow Light

Your drive home is safe because Garrett Morgan decided the world needed a pause button.

Before 1923, traffic lights just snapped from green to red, causing constant

deadly crashes. Morgan, the son of formerly enslaved parents, witnessed a horrific

wreck and went straight to his workshop to fix it. He invented the three-position signal,

introducing the concept of a caution light to give drivers time to react. This evolved into

the modern yellow light that saves millions of lives. He was obsessed with safety and

even invented the first gas mask. Every time you hit the brakes at a yellow,

that is his legacy keeping you safe.