28-01-2024, 07:45 PM
What I did was be reminded that it was on this day in 1896 that Walter Arnold became the first person to be fined for exceeding the speed limit, still 2 mph. On his Benz, Arnold was pursued through Paddock Wood by a policeman, who kept his unbreakable gas pipe police bike up to a calculated 8 mph. Tortuous legal arguments as to what laws applied to Mr Arnold and his motorised carriage went on for some time, ending with him being fined one shilling, though with costs. Arnold was just about to start selling Benz derived cars under his own name, and was probably a very happy man indeed to get a great deal of publicity for one shilling. The previous year, two Benz cars had taken part in the Paris-Bordeaux race, as our French forunmists will gleefully confirm, French authorities were perfectly happy with an average speed of 24 mph.