1st Drunk Driver Busted Going 8 MPH, Hitting Wall

I wonder if he was aware of what a celebrity he was. History records that on September 10, 1897, George Smith, a London cabdriver, was arrested for drunk driving—the first such collar in the world!

George Smith was driving an 1897 electric taxi like this when he was arrested. (The Science Museum)
George Smith was driving an 1897 electric taxi like this when he was arrested. (The Science Museum)
They didn’t have fancy Breathalyzers in those days. Smith acted drunk (the same way people “look guilty”) and he had, of course, slammed his cab into a wall on New Bond Street, breaking a water pipe and the beading on a window. Plus, after a spirited defense about driving too fast, he admitted his crime and was fined 25 shillings ($10 million in today’s money).

Amazingly enough, the vehicle Smith destroyed was an electric car. Such taxis were popular in the U.S. at that time, too, and fleets of them plied the streets of New York before the 20th century started. The London fleet, eventually numbering 75, constituted the first self-propelled cars for hire in Britain

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