Don Bain, writing for Torque News, gives us a number of “firsts” regarding the legendary automobile and its drivers’ penchants for mishaps and accidents. Apparently, the first recorded motor vehicle accident happened on May 30, 1896, when a driver hit a cyclist, breaking the cyclist’s leg, making Wednesday the auto accident’s 116th “birthday.”
Bain found some other interesting dates, including the first U.S. death from an auto accident, which happened on September 13, 1899, in New York City, when a man got out of a streetcar and was hit and seriously injured by a taxicab. The man died shortly thereafter.
As far as gasoline-powered autos go (the above accidents involved steam or electric power), two men in their vehicle hit a tree root, which sent them crashing into a hitching post, in 1891.
Bain reports that with Memorial Day behind us, we’re into the “vacation-driving period” running during the summer till Labor Day, and that Texas is second-place in terms of the number of highway deaths.
In other words, be careful out there on the roads.