The first two deaths occurred on England's first motorway, the M1. It had been opened only four days earlier on 2 Nov 1959. Two lorry drivers died when they crashed into the back of vehicles halted by a minor crash. In the multiple-vehicle crash which occurred in thick fog, five persons were injured. The new superhighway without a speed limit had traffic jams in both directions for several hours. It was the first part of a planned 400-mile motorway network that was the greatest road transport improvement project since the famous straight roads the Romans built. It was a quarter-century late by international standards, but its design benefitted from knowledge gained from expressways already built in the U.S. and Europe.

James Packard and his brother, William Doud Packard, had finished building a car of their own design, and gave it a road test on the streets of Warren, Ohio. As a mechanical engineer, when he was dissatisfied the Winton car he had had bought, and gave his criticsms to the manufacturer, it is said that Alexander Winton gave him a curt reply suggesting that he build his own, if he thought he could do better. It took fourteen months for the Packard brothers, with two men hired from Winton, to produce what became known as the Packard Model A. It had high wire wheels, was steered by a tiller rather than a wheel, and was powered by a single-cylinder engine under the seat. Packard had invented the automatic spark advance as an improvement. He sold the car for $1250, and thus began in business.