August 17, 1896: First fatal car crash with a gasoline vehicle kills Bridget Driscoll

On August 17, 1896, 44-year-old Bridget Driscoll was struck and killed by a gasoline-powered vehicle manufactured by the Anglo-French Motor Carriage Company. The incident is widely regarded as the first fatal traffic accident involving a car in the modern sense of the word.

Historians have not reached a consensus on which accident should be considered the first fatal crash in history. Several incidents compete for this grim distinction. The very first recorded traffic accident occurred in 1771, when French inventor Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot lost control of his steam-powered tricycle during a test run in Paris and crashed into a wall. The speed was extremely low, and no one was injured. Nearly a century would pass before the first death caused by a self-propelled vehicle.

On August 31, 1869, Irish scientist Mary Ward was riding in an experimental steam carriage with her husband. At that time, only a few dozen such homemade steam vehicles existed in the world, and only their creators were capable of driving them. Mary Ward was not from an ordinary family. She was a cousin of William Parsons, the 3rd Earl of Rosse, who was obsessed with engineering and had built the world's largest reflecting telescope. A passion for science and invention ran in the family. The young relatives of the earl who had built the steam carriage were giving Mary and her husband a ride on the day of the tragedy. According to witnesses, Ward fell out of the vehicle on a sharp turn and was crushed under its heavy cast-iron wheels, dying instantly.

The death of Bridget Driscoll in 1896, however, is considered the first fatal accident involving a gasoline-powered automobile — the direct predecessor of modern cars. The vehicle was traveling at a relatively low speed, but the impact proved fatal. The incident marked a somber milestone in the history of transportation, highlighting the dangers that would accompany the rise of the automobile age. Unlike the earlier steam-powered accidents, this crash involved a vehicle that was closer in design and technology to the cars that would soon dominate roads worldwide.