On January 28, 1896, a man named Walter Arnold made history in a way he probably didn’t want to. He became the first person ever to be caught speeding in a motorized vehicle.
Mr. Arnold lived in East Peckham, Kent. On that winter day, he was driving his Arnold Benz Carriage through the streets of Paddock Wood. Early 1896, the speed limit on the road was incredibly slow, just 2 miles per hour, the law also required three drivers for each vehicle, two in the vehicle and one to walk ahead carrying a red flag so people know there’s a car on the road.. But Mr. Arnold didn’t have any of that, he was caught doing 8 miles per hour, which was four times the legal speed limit! He also didn’t have a man with a red flag leading the way.
When a local policeman spotted Mr. Arnold speeding, a chase began. Of course, since there were no police cars back then, the officer had to use what he had, a bicycle.
The policeman chased Mr. Arnold for five miles. Eventually, the officer managed to pull him over, and charged him with breaking the law on four counts, using a locomotive without a horse on a public road, travelling with fewer than three people, travelling at a greater rate than two miles per hour, and failing to clearly display his name and address on the locomotive.
Mr. Arnold was fined £47s in total, about £260 in today’s money, of which 10 shillings was for the speeding charge.
However, this incident actually helped lead to change. Later that same year, the Locomotives Act was updated. The speed limit was raised to 14 miles per hour, and the requirement for a man with a red flag was finally removed.
To celebrate this new freedom, motorists held a race from London to Brighton called the Emancipation Run. Walter Arnold even took part in it! Today, we remember him as the man who turned a slow drive into a world record that still stands in the history books today.
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