Bridget Driscoll

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Bridget Driscoll

Bridget Driscoll (* 1851 ; † August 17, 1896 in London ) is considered to be the first person to die in a traffic accident in which an automobile was involved.

Bridget Driscoll, 44 or 45, attended a festival of the Catholic Cross League that day in London's Hyde Park . A technology show was also held there at the same time. Driscoll and her sixteen-year-old daughter were crossing a street in the area of ​​the terrace behind the Crystal Palace when a Roger-Benz from the Anglo-French Motor Car Company made a demonstration drive and they were traveling at a speed of about 4 mph (6.4 km / h ) hit the ground. As a result, she suffered a severe head injury and died a few minutes later. The speed of the car was described by eyewitnesses as "inconsiderate pace, almost like a galloping horse or fire engine".

The car was driven by Arthur James Edsall. On this trip, which was supposed to illustrate the advantages of the automobile, Alice Standing was in the passenger seat. She later claimed that Edsall had modified the engine so that the car could go faster, but this claim could be refuted by experts.

After six hours of negotiations, the initiated legal proceedings revealed that the death had occurred as a result of an accident. Coroner Percy Morrison concluded the case and said he hoped something like this would never happen again. There was no prosecution.

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Footnotes

  1. ↑ First fatality in car accident. Bayerischer Rundfunk , August 17, 2012, archived from the original on October 3, 2014 ; accessed on January 27, 2016 .
  2. ↑ Philipp Oehmke: Death by algorithm. In: Der Spiegel. No. 50 / December 8th, 2018, p. 48.
  3. ↑ Mitchell Symons: The Bumper Book For The Loo: Facts and figures, stats and stories - an unputdownable treat of trivia. , 2012, p. 17.
  4. ^ Andrew McFarlane: How the UK's first fatal car accident unfolded. In: BBC News . August 17, 2010, accessed August 17, 2021 .
personal data
SURNAME Driscoll, Bridget
BRIEF DESCRIPTION first person to die in a traffic accident involving an automobile
BIRTH DATE 1851
DATE OF DEATH 17th August 1896
PLACE OF DEATH London