Automobile accidents are somewhat unavoidable. No matter how hard you try, the chances are that you will experience a car accident in your life. If you are a very careful driver, you can avoid most crashes, but you cannot control the actions of others. Companies that specialize in auto collision repair in NYC stay in business solely because it is difficult to drive around other drivers. Also, it would seem that crashing cars is as old as cars themselves. You could argue that it is even older.
First Automobile Crash
Determining the first car crash really depends on the definition of a car. Most people think of the gasoline-powered automobiles or the hybrids. However, the first car accident occurred in 1869. In Ireland, some scientists built a steam-powered automobile. Their cousin, Mary Ward, rode in the vehicle with them. As they turned a corner on the road, she was thrown out of her seat. She fell in the direction of the vehicle and was run over. The accident killed her.
First Gasoline Automobile Crash
Though Mary Ward was the automobile fatality, the first gasoline-powered accident did not occur for another twenty years. The first accident occurred in Ohio City, Ohio. James Lambert, an engineer, invented a gasoline-powered buggy similar to horse-drawn buggies. The buggy hit a tree root. He lost control of the vehicle and crashed it into a post for hitching horses. Since this was the very first car crash in the United States, auto collision repair was not really an option. One assumes Lambert had to repair his own automobile.
First Pedestrian
The first pedestrian killed by a car occurred five years later in 1896. A woman named Bridget Driscoll was in London when she was struck by a car. She stepped off a curb and was hit by a vehicle operated by Arthur Edsall. The car could only travel four miles per hour, but Driscoll was frozen by the sight of the thing she had never seen before.
First Crash in NYC
In the United States, the first pedestrian death took place in 1899. A man named Henry Bliss was stepping out of a streetcar. He was hit by a taxi cab and died the next morning. The cab was electrically-powered, and though it did not have a very high top speed, he succumbed to injuries to his chest and neck.
Essentially, auto collision repair is a necessary business because people have been crashing their cars for as long as cars have existed. The first car crash actually occurred before gasoline-powered cars even existed. So, if you crash your car, you should know that you are not a worse driver than anyone else is. Crashes are as old as cars themselves.
