Here, Robin Longbottom examines how speeding and dangerous driving were problems before the advent of the motor car

TODAY, road traffic offences and accidents are generally associated with the advent of the motor car.

But dangerous driving, speeding and road accidents were also a serious problem in the age that preceded them.

Nowadays the police have the benefit of car registration plates to identify offenders. Although these did not exist in the 19th century, the law did require all backboards and tail gates on waggons and carts to clearly display the name of the owner and their town or village. Heavy fines were imposed on those who failed to display their details clearly.

Offences relating to speeding vehicles were introduced under the Offences Against the Person Act 1861 – “Whosoever, having the charge of a carriage or vehicle, shall by wanton or furious driving or racing, or other wilful misconduct, or by wilful neglect …. be guilty of a misdemeanor.”

On the evening of Saturday, June 30, 1889, Robert Smith of Oakworth was seen driving his horse and dog cart at speed up Silsden Road in Addingham.

PC Fletcher gave chase but on seeing him, Smith whipped-up his horse and galloped off.

PC Fletcher gave chase and followed him to Steeton, but was unable to overtake him. However, he was able to read the name on the tail gate of the vehicle and Smith was identified and brought up before the magistrates’ court.

Fletcher in his evidence described him as driving “like a furious Jehu” – a reference from the Old Testament to Jehu, the son of Nimshi, who drove his chariot furiously. He was fined five shillings and costs.

Smith’s was not an isolated case. On the same day, James Greenwood – a greengrocer of Ingrow – was also summoned for furiously driving a horse and spring cart along Chapel Street in Oakworth.

His actions were more serious as he hit a child crossing the road, who was dragged several yards. Greenwood was fined ten shillings and costs.

Charges of cruelty were also associated with driving offences and often brought by the RSPCA.

Richard Garnett, a quarryman from Bradley, faced such a charge at Keighley in 1898.

Evidence was provided that at Keighley Fair he had “whipped the horse into a gallop, raising twelve wheals on its skin”. He was fined two shillings and sixpence and costs on the charge of cruelty and ten shillings and costs for furious driving.

The gentry and wealthy mill owners travelled in more stately four-wheeled coaches, such as landaus and phaetons.

Although less likely to be under the charge of reckless coachmen, they were still subject to traffic accidents – particularly if the horses took fright.

When Sir Matthew Wilson was travelling from Eshton Hall, in Gargrave, to Skipton his horses bolted and he was thrown from the carriage.

He survived, bruised and shaken, unlike the eldest son of Lord George Cavendish of Keighley who had been killed in a similar accident earlier in the century.

The last decades of the 19th century saw the rise in popularity of the modern bicycle and the exhilaration of speed that the rider enjoyed brought them into conflict with the law.

In 1898 the press reported – under the heading The Lady Scorcher at Keighley – that Grace Walton, a shop assistant of South Street, had passed Constable Harrison “going at a rate of 13 or 14 miles an hour”.

She pleaded guilty to riding her bicycle furiously along Skipton Road, but Inspector Dempsey, prosecuting, said that as this was the first lady who had been prosecuted for such an offence, he would not ask for a fine. Grace Walton was discharged with a warning.

Two years before Grace Walton was summoned, the Locomotives on Highways Act 1896 had restricted the road speed to no more than 14 miles per hour.

The speed limit was raised to 20 miles per hour in 1903 and speed traps, timing vehicles between two points, were first introduced and have been with us ever since.