“Showing Off”

The Horseless Age
5 April 1899

The English journals are full of reports of a fatal accident which overtook a motor carriage at Harrow, the other day, resulting in the death of two men and the injury of four others. Five persons went out riding in a Daimler carriage, in charge of an experienced employee of the company. This employee wished to “show off” the carriage to his passengers, and boasted that he could stop it on a down grade so suddenly they would all be hurled to the road. He proceeded to verify his boast with a literal precision he himself had not bargained for. He applied the brakes too suddenly while going at high speed down hill, the result being that a wheel collapsed, letting the vehicle down and throwing all the occupants out. The motorman and one of the passengers were killed. Four others were more or less injured.

Technical journals, commenting on the accident, blame the faulty construction of the wheels, and have light censure for foolhardy motormen, who “show off” themselves and their vehicles at the risk of the lives of those entrusted to their care, as well as the lives of others on the highway, and who undertake speeds wholly outlawed on the public highway. They are of the same class as those who excruciatingly funny men who rock row boats to frighten women and children, and occasionally drown a few of them to gratify their love of sport. Motor vehicle manufacturers would do better to employ men of discretion, who will be content with the rational use of a vehicle, and will not “show off” with such shocking results.