The death of Henry Hale Bliss (June 13, 1830 – September 14, 1899) was the first recorded instance of a person being killed in a motor vehicle collision in the United States.

[1][2] On September 13, 1899, at West 74th Street and Central Park West in New York City, Henry Hale Bliss, a 69-year-old local real estate dealer, was alighting from a south bound 8th Avenue trolley car when he was struck by the driver of an electric-powered taxicab (Automobile No.

[3] Arthur Smith, the driver of the taxicab, claimed that a large truck occupied the right side of the avenue, making it necessary to drive his vehicle closer to the car.

Smith was arrested and charged with manslaughter, but was subsequently acquitted on the grounds that he had no malice, nor was he negligent.

When Mr. Bliss, a New York real estate man, died the next morning from his injuries, he became the first recorded motor vehicle fatality in the Western Hemisphere.