First road traffic death

Mary Ward, an Irish amateur scientist, holds the unfortunate record of being the first person to have been recorded dying due to a road accident. On 31 August 1869, Mary fell out of her cousin's experimental steam car and was run-over, breaking her neck in the process. At the inquest, the presiding coroner, John Corcoran, stated "this must never happen again". The vehicle speed was estimated to be 3.5 to 4 miles per hour (5.6 to 6.4 km per hour). Mary Ward (Ireland) became the first person to die under the wheels of a motorized vehicle when she fell from the experimental (and home-built) steam car she was riding in at Parsonstown (now known as Birr) in County Offaly, Ireland. As the steam-powered carriage rounded a bend in the road at no more than 6.4 km/h (4 mph), it jolted and Mrs Ward was thrown from her seat; she suffered a snapped spine as she was crushed under the wheels and died a few minutes later. Mrs Ward was cousin of William Parsons, 3rd Earl of Rosse, whose two sons had built the steam-powered carriage. Also in the car was her husband Captain Henry Ward, the two Parsons brothers – Richard and Charles – and their tutor Richard Biggs, who was driving. The speed limit in the countryside at the time was 4 mph (6.4 km/h), and the inquest into Ward's death cleared anyone of misconduct.