Death of Bridget Driscoll - wikipedia Death of Bridget Driscoll This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. ( March 2018 ) Bridget Driscoll Bridget Driscoll ( circled ) c. 1851 Ireland 17 August 1896 ( aged 44 ) Croydon, Surrey, England Resting place Queen 's Road Cemetery Known for First pedestrian to be killed by a motor car in the United Kingdom Bridget Driscoll ( c. 1851 -- 17 August 1896 ) was the first pedestrian to be killed in a collision with a motor car in the UK. As 44 - year - old Driscoll, her teenage daughter May and her friend Elizabeth Murphy crossed Dolphin Terrace in the grounds of the Crystal Palace in London, Driscoll was struck by a car belonging to the Anglo - French Motor Carriage Company that was being used to give demonstration rides. One witness described the car as travelling at `` a reckless pace, in fact, like a fire engine ''. Although the car 's maximum speed was 8 miles per hour ( 13 km / h ) it had been limited deliberately to 4 miles per hour ( 6.4 km / h ), the speed at which the driver, Arthur James Edsall of Upper Norwood, claimed to have been travelling. His passenger, Alice Standing of Forest Hill, alleged he modified the engine to allow the car to go faster, but another taxicab driver examined the car and said it was incapable of exceeding 4.5 miles per hour ( 7.2 km / h ) because of a low - speed engine belt. The accident happened just a few weeks after a new Act of Parliament had increased the speed limit for cars to 14 miles per hour ( 23 km / h ), from 2 miles per hour in towns and 4 miles per hour in the countryside. The jury returned a verdict of `` accidental death '' after an inquest lasting some six hours. The coroner, Percy Morrison, ( Croydon division of Surrey ) said he hoped `` such a thing would never happen again. '' The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents estimate 550,000 people had been killed on UK roads by 2010. See also Mary Ward, first person killed in a motor accident in the world Henry H. Bliss, first person killed in a motor accident in the Americas Harrow on the Hill, first motor car driver fatality in Great Britain Elaine Herzberg, first pedestrian killed in an autonomous motor car accident References Jump up ^ `` Fatal crash with self - driving car was a first -- like Bridget Driscoll 's was 121 years ago with one of the first cars ''. Washington Post. March 22, 2018. Retrieved 2018 - 03 - 22. ^ Jump up to : Andrew McFarlane ( 17 August 2010 ). `` How the UK 's first fatal car accident unfolded ''. BBC News. Retrieved 27 August 2013. External links History of Road Safety Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Death_of_Bridget_Driscoll&oldid=836026930 '' Categories : 1851 births 1896 deaths 19th - century Irish people Accidental deaths in England Pedestrian road incident deaths 19th - century Irish women People from London Road incident deaths in London Hidden categories : Articles needing additional references from March 2018 All articles needing additional references Use dmy dates from November 2014 Articles with hCards Talk About Wikipedia Deutsch Esperanto Edit links This page was last edited on 12 April 2018, at 07 : 00. About Wikipedia

Question: when was the first person killed by a car
Answer: 17 August 1896