Bridget Driscoll

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Briget Driscoll (circled)

On August 17, 1896, in London, Bridget Driscoll, age 44 or 45, became an early car accident fatality (Mary Ward may have been the first in 1869). As she and her teenage daughter, May, (and possibly one other person) crossed the grounds of the Crystal Palace, an automobile belonging to the Anglo-French Motor Car Company and being used to give demonstration rides struck her at a speed witnesses described as "a reckless pace, in fact, like a fire engine."

The driver, Arthur James Edsall of Upper Norwood, claimed to have been travelling only 4 MPH (6.4 km/h). His passenger, Alice Standing of Forest Hill, alleged he modified the engine to allow the car to go faster although another cabbie analyzed the car and said it was incapable of passing 4.5 MPH because of a low-speed belt.

The jury returned a verdict of "accidental death" after an inquest lasting some six hours. The coroner Percy Morrison (Croydon div. of Surrey) said he hoped "such a thing would never happen again". The coroner's hope was short-lived, however, as automobile deaths are now one of the most common ways of dying in the world. No prosecution was made.