When the automobile was introduced there was a massive increase in the rate of accidental deaths, and likewise in factories when steam-powered machinery came in.

Judge as of 2018-02-13 against historical statistics. Two parts: (a) when cars spread (early 20th century, e.g. US 1900s–1930s) accidental deaths rose sharply (motor-vehicle deaths per population rising steeply, increasing overall accidental death rates); (b) when steam-powered machinery came into factories (industrial revolution) workplace accidental deaths rose sharply. True: historical data or scholarship support both. Mostly true: both broadly supported, with a minor overstatement (e.g. 'massive' when the rise was large in one measure but overall accident rates rose less). Mixed: one part is supported and the other is not or is unproven. Mostly false: both rest on real increases in one category (e.g. motor-vehicle deaths) but overall accidental death rates did not rise, or the data are too thin to support 'massive'. False: the evidence shows no such increases.

Set before the research began.

1. E1 Historical Car Crash Deaths and Rates - Injury Facts National Safety Council (Injury Facts) · 12 May 2025

   “The population motor-vehicle death rate reached its peak in 1937 with 30.8 deaths per 100,000 population.”

2. E2 Accidents Encyclopedia.com (reference entry drawing on National Safety Council data)

   “the nation achieved a 55 percent reduction in deaths from unintentional injuries from 1912 to 2000.”

3. E3 The State and the Steam-Boiler in Nineteenth-Century Britain Cambridge University Press (International Review of Social History), author Peter W. J. Bartrip

   “1840's, 104 recorded explosions killed 209 and injured 338.”

4. E4 Drivers, Wheels, and Roads: Motor Vehicle Safety in the Twentieth Century Oxford University Press (Oxford Academic) · 21 December 2006

   “The public health problem of motor-vehicle-related death and injury emerged in the 20th century with the advent of new technology-the automobile.”

5. E5 The State and the Steam-Boiler in Nineteenth-Century Britain Cambridge University Press (article by Peter W. J. Bartrip)

   “In the 1840's, 104 recorded explosions killed 209 and injured 338. In the next decade there were more than twice this number of explosions and deaths”

6. E6 The State and the Steam-Boiler in Nineteenth-Century Britain Cambridge University Press (article by Peter W. J. Bartrip)

   “Accepting that the increases shown in Table 1 reflect more accurate recording and increasing use of steam power, the figures indicate a serious problem of growing proportions.”

7. E7 Drivers, Wheels, and Roads: Motor Vehicle Safety in the Twentieth Century Oxford Academic (Oxford University Press), Silent Victories chapter by Bruce H. Jones · 21 December 2006

   “The public health problem of motor-vehicle-related death and injury emerged in the 20th century with the advent of new technology-the automobile.”

8. E8 The Transformation of Work and the Law of Workplace Accidents, 1842-1910 The Yale Law Journal (John Fabian Witt), Vol. 107, No. 5 · March 1998

   “As the recent work of economic historian Mark Aldrich has established, the late nineteenth century witnessed horrific growth in the absolute number and the rate of work injuries and fatalities.”

9. E9 The Transformation of Work and the Law of Workplace Accidents, 1842-1910 The Yale Law Journal (John Fabian Witt), Vol. 107, No. 5 · March 1998

   “Despite the general increase in work accident rates, the increases were uneven across different industries.”

10. E10 History of Workplace Safety in the United States, 1880-1970 EH.net (Economic History Association), by Mark Aldrich, Smith College · 1 June 2023

    “For such reasons, American methods yielded more coal per worker than did European techniques, but they were far more dangerous, and toward the end of the nineteenth century, the dangers worsened (see Table 1).”

11. E11 History of Workplace Safety in the United States, 1880-1970 EH.net (Economic History Association), by Mark Aldrich, Smith College · 1 June 2023

    “The sharp rise in accident costs that resulted from compensation laws and tighter employers' liability initiated the modern concern with work safety and initiated the long-term decline in work accidents and injuries.”

The evidence supports a rise in steam-boiler and work-accident deaths [E5, E6, E8]. For the automobile it gives only the 1937 peak motor-vehicle death rate with no earlier comparison [E1], a statement that the problem emerged with the car [E4, E7], and a 1912–2000 decline that does not isolate the early car era [E2], so it does not show a massive rise in the rate of accidental deaths when cars were introduced.