George Smith, a London taxi driver, earned the miserable honor of becoming the first person ever arrested for drunk driving in 1897 after slamming his electric cab directly into a brick building.

A closer look

George Smith, a London taxi driver, earned the miserable honor of becoming the first person ever arrested for drunk driving in 1897 after slamming his electric cab directly into a brick building. Long before breathalyzers were invented, a police officer just smelled the aggressive aura of alcohol on Smith and fined him twenty-five shillings for his catastrophic lack of spatial awareness. It is fascinating that electric vehicles existed over a century ago, and the very first thing humanity did with this revolutionary clean technology was get absolutely hammered and crash it into a wall. This historic moment beautifully established a long-standing tradition of reckless motorists proving that human stupidity will always outpace technological advancement