Weu2019d need to have a look at some statistics to know. I was only able to dig up statistics for the United States: List of motor vehicle deaths in U.S. by yearThis statistics doesnu2019t record the total number of accidents, just the fatalities. Perhaps a bit surprisingly for someone, the car travel was a dangerous business in 1930u2019s. In the year 1930, there were 31,204 total fatalities, that is 15.12 per billion vehicle miles traveled, or 25.353 per 100,000 population.In 2022 - the last year covered by the wiki page - there were 32,719 fatalities, or 1.1 per billion vehicle miles traveled, or 10.345 per 100,000 population.The most telling measure, in my opinion, is the number of fatalities per billion vehicle miles traveled. By this measure, the traffic was 15 times as dangerous in 1930 as it is today, despite the traffic being much less intense. Iu2019d say these are the most important factors (but I might have missed some):Cars are much safer now than in 1930 - seatbelts, airbags, deformation zones, ABS and other driving assistants all make a huge difference.Traumatic health care has improved significantly.We now have a dedicated system to quickly help car accident victims (firefighters with special equipment, helicopters to move injured to hospital quickly, etc.).The streets themselves are safer, being built with better knowledge of risks involved in car traffic. Especially highways allow to travel long distances relatively safely.But to answer the direct question: given that traveling the same distance resulted in 15 times higher probability of death in 1930 than today, Iu2019d say we can conclude that accidents were quite common - for those folks who actually traveled in a car back then.