A Towner man received a “bad shaking up” on this day in 1911, when a modern invention collided with a conventional mode of transportation. Hans Olson was driving his motorcycle down Terry Street in Towner, North Dakota, when he spied C. P. Brandon coming down the road with his horse and buggy. To avoid a collision with Brandon, Olson tried to turn his bike to the right, but at the last minute made a quick left to avoid Brandon’s left-hand turn. Olson’s bike caught on a rock and skid beneath Brandon’s team of horses. Olson was thrown beneath the animals’ feet and trampled, but was pulled out quickly enough to avoid serious injury. Other than a few bruises, the rider was unharmed. The incident proved Olson’s second accident since acquiring the bicycle, but he remained undeterred from future riding. Although both motorcycles and cars were invented in 1885, the motorized inventions drove the streets alongside horse-pulled wagons for another forty years. The incident is only one example of the problems faced when tradition is forced to coexist with modern technology.

Written by Jayme Job

Sources:
Fargo Forum and Daily Republican, May 29, 1911: p. 1.
http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blmotorcycle
http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blcar

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