United Safety Apparatus Founder Tilmon “T.L.” Sexton taught himself to drive in the 1930s and started hauling without a license. After spending 30 years in the trucking industry, a decade of which he spent driving, he lost several close friends to highway accidents that resulted from front-tire blowouts.
In the 1940s, Sexton moved his trucking company to Atlanta, Georgia, and, 30 years later, partnered with a local man working on a mechanical steering control device. Sexton, who had a third-grade education, wanted to perfect the device using hydraulics and broke off to start his own company.
Sexton founded United Safety Apparatus, Inc. in 1980. to manufacture Safe T Plus steering control for vehicles larger than a half-ton, like RVs, trucks, tractor trailers and buses. He tested the Safe T Plus at truck races, where he supposedly installed the product before loading a semi truck’s wheel with explosive charges. The Safe T Plus held the wheel perfectly, keeping a truck on the road by reducing the effects of over-steering, side winds and rut tracking.
In 1991, Sexton patented the Safe T Plus, which is today sold and distributed in 22 countries. One of Sexton’s fifteen grandsons, Brian Maggi, is company chairman and CEO. In 2020, United Safety Apparatus expanded to a new 18,000 square-foot facility just west of Atlanta, Georgia. The company plans to build two more warehouses and an RV park on the 10 acres.
