From "The DUI App," available from iTunes
The combination of consuming alcohol and operating modes of transportation has occurred for thousands of years. The use of animals as transportation was most certainly done under the influence too many times to chronicle. It was probably unwise and led to many a disaster but prior to modern times it was never illegal. Moreover, this type of activity rarely endangered anybody or anything other than the operator and the animal.
In more modern times the Industrial Revolution introduced the world to motorized transportation, namely locomotives and the great railroad movement. This is really genesis in regards to operating a motorized form of transportation under the influence of alcohol. Locomotives traveled at great speed carrying many passengers and there was real danger of serious tragedy if something went wrong. This issue became more severe if the train engineer was operating while under the influence of alcohol. To that end, in the United States in 1843 the New York Central Railroad prohibited drinking by employees while on duty. In 1904 the Quarterly Journal of Inebriety editorialized, with a hint of things to come, that "the precaution of railroad companies to have only total abstainer's guide their engines will soon extend to the owners of these new motor wagons. . . .With the increased popularity of these wagons, accidents of this kind will multiply rapidly." However, such conduct as operating a vehicle while under the influence of alcohol was not yet a crime.
The advent of the automobile changed everything. The legal system reacted to this new fangled mode of transportation and the trouble that followed. In fact the first known law regarding operating a motor vehicle while under the influence was passed in England in 1872. This law, enacted before the invention of the "modern" motor vehicle, made the operating of a steam-powered vehicle while intoxicated illegal and convictions could lead to a prison sentence.
The first law directly related to drinking and "driving" was enacted in 1872 and it was not for another twenty-four years that England saw its first drunk driving fatality. This is largely due to the fact that there were very few modes of motorized transport, few roads capable of serving such a machine, and that the automobile as we know it was not even invented until 1885. However, the day would invariably come when a tragic event involving an automobile would occur.
The first DUI arrest occurred in London, England. On September 10, 1897, London Taxi cab driver George Smith (age 25) was arrested for driving under the influence when the taxi he was driving drove onto the pavement and collided with the building located at 165 Bond Street, London. Mr. Smith, who worked for the Electric Cab Company of Hackney, London, allegedly admitted to "having had two or three glasses of beer." He was later convicted and fined 20 shillings (no jail).
The taxi cab company that employed Mr. Smith shortly thereafter was involved in a far more tragic event. Thirteen days after Mr. Smith's historic arrest, Stephen Kempton, aged 9, was crushed to death when the coat he was wearing got caught in the chain drive of the electric taxi after he had jumped onto the outside of a cab. The Electric Cab Company ceased trading in August, 1899 with all of its 77 vehicles being sold. A year later, the London Metropolitan Police stopped licensing this type of electric cab.
The first known traffic fatality (non-alcohol related) in the United States occurred on September 10, 1899, in New York City. Henry Hale Bliss was disembarking a streetcar at West 74th Street and Central Park West when an electric-powered taxicab (Automobile Number 43) collided with him crushing his head and chest. Henry died the next morning from his injuries. The driver of the taxi, Arthur Smith, was arrested and charged with manslaughter. He was later acquitted based on the defense that the conduct that resulted in Mr. Bliss' death was unintentional. Interestingly, the passenger in the taxicab was Dr. David Edson, the son of former New York City mayor Franklin Edson.
The location of this accident is memorialized with a plague that 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.
Prior to any laws in the United States making driving under the influence a crime, another great tragedy occurred involving drunk driving. In 1907 near Colorado City, Colorado, an accident occurred that killed the four passengers in the car driven by Albert Marksheffel, who survived the accident. Allegedly the accident occurred after the five friends had been drinking at a local Elks Club. After leaving the club Albert lost control of his speeding vehicle hit some nearby railroad tracks and ended up in the ditch.
This particular case was the cause for many states considering enacting driving under the influence laws. The story of Albert Marksheffel doesn't end with this horrific vehicle accident. The same year, 1907, Albert moved to Colorado Springs and managed the Western Automobile & Supply Company. The year following this DUI accident he opened his own automobile dealership, the Marksheffel Motor Company, and sold Chalmers, Dodge, Cadillac and Chevrolet cars. He later co-founded the Colorado Springs Rotary Club and had, rather ironically, a local street named after him, Marksheffel Road.
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