This Is the First Person to Ever Be Hit By A Car

With the advent of cars, came, obviously, the advent of car accidents. I’d hope that people had enough common sense from the time of horse-and-carriages to know you should get out of the way of pretty much every vehicle, but accidents happen. It makes you wonder who the unfortunate soul was to be the very first fatality caused by car-human collision. 

I figured that this was a strange enough question that the answer might not be clear, and Google would spit out a couple pages for therapy instead, but I was wrong. Not only is it well-documented, such hallowed institutions as the Smithsonian have apparently wondered the same thing.

One person who’s probably not as glad this information is so easily accessible? Bridget Driscoll, who has the undesirable honor of being the first recorded pedestrian fatality by car all the way back in 1898. 

She was struck at Crystal Palace in London, even more embarrassingly for both parties, by a car that was being used to demonstrate the convenience of motor travel. Her death does feel quite avoidable, given that the car was traveling at a whopping four miles an hour, but I’m not here to victim-shame. At least, explicitly. If there is an afterlife, perhaps she can commiserate about her fate with Henry Hale Bliss, the man who made history by becoming the first pedestrian hit and killed in traffic.