Quote Originally Posted by Stan Reid View Post
Perhaps the first motorsports fatality was on July 28 of 1852. The steamboat Henry Clay under Captain Thomas Collyer was racing the Armenia, another steamboat Captained by Isaac Smith, down the Hudson River out of Albany. An overheating boiler set the Henry Clay on fire. The boat was intentionally grounded and most aboard survived but 81 of the craft's passengers died either in the fire or from drowning.
Not if you are counting the Rainhill Trials!
Member of Parliament William Huskisson was run over by the Rocket & fatally injured during those Trials. Despite being rushed to hospital by Rocket he later died of his injuries. There is a trackside memorial at the site of the accident. His death is also widely acknowledged to be the first passenger railway fatality.