Jacob German (26), operator of a taxicab for the Electric Vehicle Company, became the first driver to be arrested for speeding in the US when he was stopped by Bicycle Roundsman Schueller for driving at the “breakneck” speed of 12mph on Lexington Avenue in Manhattan


Saturday 20th May 1899

Jacob German (26), operator of a taxicab for the Electric Vehicle Company, became the first driver to be arrested for speeding in the US when he was stopped by Bicycle Roundsman Schueller for driving at the “breakneck” speed of 12mph on Lexington Avenue in Manhattan. German was booked and held in jail at the East Twenty-second Street station house. “The company was notified, and its members were astonished,” reported the Times after German’s unprecedented arrest. The Electric Vehicle Company, however, soon ran into much bigger problems, as they dreamed too big and expanded too fast. By 1907, the company had gone bust, killing the electric car.


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