Thursday Open Line


The first recorded automobile accident involving two vehicles occurred on this date in 1896 in New York City. Henry Wells of Springfield, Massachusetts, was driving a new Duryea Motor Wagon, the first automobile to be made and sold in the U.S. Unfortunately, he collided with Evelyn Thomas of New York, riding a bicycle. Thomas went to the hospital with a broken leg, and Wells spent the night in jail. Now, there are close to 11 million motor vehicle accidents a year, nearly 36,000 of them with fatal injuries. California, with over 3,000, has the greatest number of annual highway deaths, followed closely by Texas, then Florida, North Carolina and Georgia. You can find more facts about America from the U.S. Census Bureau, online at <www.census.gov>.