The experienced driver at the beginning of New Zealand motoring
c.1870–1906, birth year awaiting confirmation
Motorist; rural resident; farmer’s wife
On 8 September 1906, Janet Meikle was driving the family’s eight-horsepower De Dion Bouton at Table Downs in the Washdyke Valley, about five kilometres from Timaru.
While descending a steep, narrow and muddy farm track, the vehicle went over a bank and overturned. Janet was killed, while her husband John survived with a fractured thigh. Manatū Taonga records Janet as the first person in New Zealand to die in an accident caused directly by a motor car.
That national distinction has tended to obscure something else recorded at the time. Janet was described as an “expert” and “particularly cool” driver with several years of experience. She was not an inexperienced passenger surprised by unfamiliar machinery. She was the person controlling the vehicle.
Motoring could be especially useful to rural women. A car increased access to shops, appointments, family and community activities when farms were some distance from town. NZHistory notes that women frequently drove into town for supplies while other members of the household remained working on the farm.
After Janet’s death, the South Canterbury Automobile Club expressed its sympathy and asked members to attend her funeral “without Cars”. The request suggests that the new machine was already becoming part of local identity, but that its risks had suddenly become visible.
Janet’s story should not be remembered only as a fatal accident. She was one of the women adopting a new technology during motoring’s earliest years. Her skill and experience challenge the assumption that early cars belonged only to male drivers.
Read the existing WuHoo story: Janet Meikle and New Zealand’s First Fatal Car Accident
Sources
NZHistory: New Zealand’s First Fatal Car Accident
Authoritative support for the date, location, vehicle, accident, Janet’s driving experience and the national precedence claim.
WuHoo: Janet Meikle and New Zealand’s First Fatal Car Accident
Provides the cemetery connection, local research and Roselyn Fauth’s grave photograph.