Judge — February 16, 1924 — page 6: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# "The Pedestrian That Got Away" This cartoon satirizes the reckless danger of early automobiles. A well-dressed motorist, having struck a pedestrian, dramatically gestures in apparent shock or indignation while children witness the scene. The humor is darkly ironic: the title suggests the motorist "got away" with the accident—implying both that the victim survived and that the driver faced no consequences. The cartoon critiques two related issues: the carelessness of early drivers and the lack of legal accountability for traffic incidents. The children's presence emphasizes how normalized such accidents were becoming in public spaces. This reflects early-20th-century anxieties about automobiles as dangerous novelties that injured people with impunity, before modern traffic laws and insurance existed.