In 1895, when the entire United States was still astonished by the appearance of four-wheeled, engine-powered vehicles, a story that seemed straight out of a comedy actually happened in Ohio:

the only two cars in the state managed to find each other amid vast empty land… only to collide right in the middle of nowhere.

This “unbelievable” accident went down in history as America’s first car crash—and remains one of the strangest stories the transportation industry has ever witnessed.

When Technology Meets Chance: The Fateful Collision Between the First Two Machines

At that time, cars were both a novelty and a luxury.

The whole state of Ohio had only two cars, one of which was built by James William Lambert—a pioneering inventor in the American automobile industry.

Lambert’s single-cylinder car, although still rudimentary, marked the beginning of the American automotive era.

But what no one could have expected happened on a fateful day.

According to records from the Ohio Historical Society, while Lambert was test-driving his car on a bumpy dirt road, a wheel suddenly hit a protruding tree root.

Losing control, Lambert crashed straight into the only other car in Ohio—and so, in the vast, empty space, the state’s only two cars “managed” to collide!

No Injuries—Just a Story for the Ages

Fortunately, neither driver was injured, and the cars suffered only minor scratches.

Remarkably, the identity of the other driver remains a mystery to this day, adding to the intrigue.

In a large state with hundreds of thousands of hectares of open land, the only two cars “found” each other to crash—the odds of this happening are probably lower than winning the lottery!

The First Car Accident—And a Touch of Innocence in the Early Days of Automotive History

This event not only marked the first car accident in America, but also reflected the innocence and humor of the early days of the automotive industry.

Cars like Lambert’s—slow as a turtle, with simple engines and crude designs—laid the foundation for a massive industry, even if they sometimes resulted in “laugh or cry” accidents.

Today, this story is still retold as an amusing anecdote—an “unbelievable accident” between the first two machines on American soil.

It reminds us that, no matter how advanced technology becomes, humorous, unexpected, and deeply human moments will always be an inseparable part of human history.

More than a century has passed, and the automobile industry has changed the world.

But the collision between Ohio’s only two cars in 1895 lives on as a humorous and memorable testament to the naive, bold, and curious early days of American automotive history.