DR ISSAC WILLIAM USHER MEMORIAL – HE DIED AS THE RESULT OF A CAR ACCIDENT 1917
Dr Isaac Usher was a popular resident of Dundrum at the beginning of the 20th Century. He did a lot for the town but unfortunately he was killed in one of the first accidents involving a motor car in Ireland, when a car struck him while reversing near the station in 1917. The residents decided to build a monument to honour him.
The monument was a stone obelisk with a source of water and a trough to provide drinking water for passing horses. There were also brass cups on chains which could be used for drinking by humans. The monument was placed right in the middle of the northern crossroads.
Note: It’s about 152 years since the world’s first-ever death due to a motor car accident. Irish scientist Mary Ward died on August 31, 1869, in Birr, Co Offaly. She died instantly when she fell out of her cousin’s steam-powered car and under its wheel. However, the first pedestrian killed by an automobile was Bridget Driscoll, who received fatal injuries when she walked into the path of a car moving at 4 mph (6.4 km/h), as it was giving demonstration rides in the grounds of Crystal Palace, London, UK on 17 August 1896.
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