[Ads-l] "accident waiting to happen"

[George Thompson]

The New Yorker very recently posted an article with the title "The Titan
Submersible Was “an Accident Waiting to Happen”".

Checking the America's Historical Newspapers database I find that that
expression first appears in November 27, 1948, with 1067 quotations,

I was put in mind of a similar expression, "an accident on its way to
happen".  This appears in AHN 24 times, the earliest from February 21,
1916.
I have heard it applied to a reckless driver.  AHN's first citation is
applied to someone who needs a vacation; its second, from 1922, refers to
someone who drives with worn-out brakes.

A variant, "an accident on its way to happening" appears four times in AHN,
the earliest from July 18, 1995, and all four are from the NY Post.

Another possible variant, "an accident about to happen", appears 86 times
in AHN.
The first 28 passages are spread out between 1833 and 1853, and all quote
the same passage from Sir Walter Scott, referring to a premonition of an
accident.  The first passage simila4 to what I have in mind is from July
10, 1905, in a column of satirical remarks on the news, and refers to a
series of mergers of banks: -- Louis Ochs as a promoter makes Pierpont
Morgan look like an accident about to happen.
The first passage to refer to a driver is from November 2, 1955, and
asserts that an emotionally disturbed person behind the wheel is an
accident about to happen

GAT

--
George A. Thompson
Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern
Univ. Pr., 1998.

But when aroused at the Trump of Doom / Ye shall start, bold kings, from
your lowly tomb. . .
L. H. Sigourney, "Burial of Mazeen", Poems.  Boston, 1827, p. 112

The Trump of Doom -- also known as The Dunghill Toadstool.  (Here's a
picture of his great-grandfather.)

https://heritagecollections.parliament.uk/collections/getrecord/HOP_WOA_3851

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