First Automobile Accident 17 August

At West 74th Street and Central Park West in New York City there is erected a plaque which is a small indicator of the way the United States sees itself in relation to the rest of the world. It's not a big thing, as things go - the world will not stop turning - nations will not fall, nor cities crumble - it just shows a state of mind. It was erected on September 13, 1999 and it reads:

"Here at West 74th Street and Central Park West, Henry H. Bliss dismounted from a streetcar and was struck and knocked unconscious by an automobile on the evening of September 13, 1899. When Mr. Bliss, a New York real estate man, died the next morning from his injuries, he became the first recorded motor vehicle fatality in the Western Hemisphere. This sign was erected to remember Mr. Bliss on the centennial of his untimely death and to promote safety on our streets and highways."

A tragic moment for Mr Bliss and his family. Nevertheless, I would draw your attention to two small details: firstly the bit that says "first recorded motor vehicle fatality in the Western Hemisphere" and secondly the bit that says "September 13, 1899". The Western hemisphere bit is interesting because, according to the definition given in both the Encyclopeadia Brittanica and the Smithsonian Institute, the western hemisphere is: "the half of the Earth that lies west of the prime meridian", although the Smithsonian, and this is the nub of it, allows that Americans define the western hemisphere as "the major landmass that lies west of the prime meridian, namely the continent America (aka the Americas)" - which is interesting, I have never thought of Margaret Thatcher as an Eastern Potentate - let alone Winston Churchill, or, come to that, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

In fact, the first person killed by an automobile in the world - and indeed the Western World - was Bridget Driscoll on this Day, August 17th in 1896. As she and her teenage daughter, May, (and possibly one other person) crossed the grounds of the Crystal Palace,(Lat: 51:23:53N Lon: 0:05:07W and hence in the Western Hemisphere) an automobile that belonged to the Anglo-French Motor Car Company struck her at "tremendous speed" – according to witnesses some 4 MPH (6.4 km/h). The driver was Arthur James Edsall of Upper Norwood.

No plaque commemorates this tragic event - some nondescript street corner wouldn't be appropriate somehow and the Crystal Palace was burnt down in 1936. So the first person killed by an automobile, unlike the second, is unremembered. Although in the inquest The coroner, Percy Morrison (Croydon div. of Surrey) said: "This must never happen again" there were 3600 deaths and serious injuries on Britains roads last year and that would be a lot of plaques.