AMERICANALMANAC (Ken Jacobs) - Five days in jail for 15 mph: how America's first speeding sentence landed in 1904
A Rhode Island judge handed an unnamed driver the nation's first jail sentence for speeding in August 1904, for the reckless act of driving 15 miles per hour. Judge Darius Baker looked at the motorist in front of him and decided the man behind the wheel deserved five days behind bars. The offense: piloting an […] The post Five days in jail for 15 mph: how America's first speeding sentence landed in 1904 appeared first on American Almanac .
A Rhode Island judge handed an unnamed driver the nation's first jail sentence for speeding in August 1904, for the reckless act of driving 15 miles per hour. Judge Darius Baker looked at the motorist in front of him and decided the man behind the wheel deserved five days behind bars. The offense: piloting an early automobile at a speed most joggers can match today. No one was hurt. No property was damaged. The driver simply moved too fast for a country still getting used to the idea that machines could replace horses. The sentence, as documented by The Sun , marked the first time an American court put someone in a cell for driving over the speed limit. The driver's name has been lost to history, and the specific Rhode Island city where…Open