U.S. Census Bureau Daily Feature for May 28: First Auto Collision

WASHINGTON, May 28, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Following is the daily "Profile America" feature from the U.S. Census Bureau:

FIRST AUTO COLLISION

Profile America — Sunday, May 28th. The first recorded automobile accident in the U.S. involving two vehicles occurred on this date in 1896 in New York City. Henry Wells of Springfield, Massachusetts, was driving a new Duryea Motor Wagon, the first automobile model to be made and sold in the U.S. Unfortunately, he collided with Evelyn Thomas of New York, riding a bicycle. Thomas went to the hospital with a broken leg, and Wells spent the night in jail. Now, there are close to 6.3 million motor vehicle accidents reported to police per year, with over 35,000 of them fatal crashes. There are nearly 33,000 insurance carriers in the U.S., with auto insurance premiums adding to the industry's $1.7 trillion of annual business. You can find current data on the country's economy by downloading the 'America's Economy' mobile application at www.census.gov/mobile.

Sources:
Duryea Motor Wagon/accessed 2/23/2017: http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1996-06-16/travel/9606180315_1_auto-industry-tailpipe-emissions-duryea-motor-wagon 
Accident/accessed 2/23/2017: https://wanderingbrooklyn.wordpress.com/2011/05/05/strange-but-true-the-first-car-accident-in-u-s-was-in-nyc-and-it-involved-a-bicycle/ 
Fatal crashes/page 6/accessed 2/19/2016: https://crashstats.nhtsa.dot.gov/Api/Public/ViewPublication/812318 
Accidents and cyclist deaths/accessed 2/19/2016: http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/Pubs/812234.pdf 
Insurance carriers /County Business Patterns/NAICS 5241: https://factfinder.census.gov/bkmk/table/1.0/en/BP/2014/00A1//naics~5241 
Insurance revenues/Economic Census/NAICS 5241:
https://factfinder.census.gov/bkmk/table/1.0/en/ECN/2012_US/00CCOMP1//naics~5241 

Profile America is produced by the Center for New Media and Promotion of the U.S. Census Bureau. Statistics and accounts drawn from cited non-Census sources are employed for illustrative or narrative purposes, and are not attested to by the U.S. Census Bureau. These daily features are available as produced segments, ready to air, on the Internet at http://www.census.gov (look for "Audio" in the "Library" pull-down menu). 

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SOURCE U.S. Census Bureau