Of COURSE The First Car Crash Ever Was In Ohio

I know we give Ohio a lot of crap but the fact that the first recorded car accident ever took place in Ohio is absolutely hilarious to me. Don’t get me wrong, I can’t really say anything about Ohio drivers. I’ve been in the state enough and driven through it to know that they are not the worst drivers in the world by any means.

If we are being honest anybody who has ever lived or been in Florida can tell you that Florida has some of the most psychotic drivers of all time and you basically have a death wish if you go on any major highway down there. But again, it adds to the hilarity that of course in all places, Ohio would be the first state to get into a car accident.

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But it isn’t that surprising considering Ohio had just about as much involvement in early automobiles as Detroit did. After all, the first gasoline automobile made in the United States was made in Ohio in 1891.

Back then the car was known as a "Buckeye gasoline buggy" but many called it the "Lambert gasoline buggy," after its creator, as Kruger & Hodges explain:

When Was The First Car Accident?

[In 1981], the first gasoline-powered automobile accident would happen in Ohio City involving the Buckeye gasoline buggy’s creator, James William Lambert.  Lambert was driving the first single-cylinder gasoline automobile with James Swoveland. The car hit the root of a tree, which caused the car to zigzag out of control and then smash into a hitching post. There were no major injuries.

It's good that nobody got hurt, but it just shows how dangerous cars have always been. It still can be a dangerous place to drive, as TheZebra recently did a study that showed not only Ohio, But Michigan were among 10 states in 2020 to record over 1,000 fatal car accidents.