BUCKYVERSE

Dymaxion Car Accident (1933)

The Crash

On October 27, 1933, Dymaxion Car #1 crashed on Lake Shore Drive in Chicago, just outside the entrance to the Century of Progress World's Fair. The driver, 33-year-old Francis T. Turner, a Gulf Refining Company employee and professional driver, was killed. His two passengers were Colonel William Forbes-Sempill, a British aviation pioneer, and Charles Dollfus, a French aeronaut and curator. Sempill suffered a fractured skull in two places but recovered by year's end. Dollfus was ejected and sustained cuts.

As the car traveled southbound approaching a slight bend near a light island, Turner turned abruptly to the left. The asphalt was slick with water and grease. The car rolled three or four times before coming to rest in the northbound lane. A second car, driven by Meyer Roth (a shoe salesman), struck the Dymaxion during its second roll. Roth was an innocent third party.

The Investigation

A coroner's inquest on November 16, 1933, returned a verdict of accidental death and did not ascribe fault. Witnesses — including Sempill and Dollfus — stated that Roth's car struck the Dymaxion only after it had already begun to roll. The coroner's certificate noted Turner died while "driving odd type car for publicity."

Fuller's Version vs. the Record

Fuller constructed a very different narrative. He claimed two cars had been racing at 70 mph (witnesses put traffic at ~40 mph), that the other driver was a powerful Chicago South Park Commissioner whose car struck the Dymaxion's bumper, and that the politician's vehicle was "quickly and illegally removed from the scene." In reality, Roth's car was properly documented. Dollfus recalled "no such collision" with the bumper.

Alec Nevala-Lee's Inventor of the Future (2022) demonstrates from coroner's records, newspaper accounts, and Fuller's correspondence that Fuller systematically distorted the account, transforming Roth from an innocent bystander into a corrupt official to shield the Dymaxion's reputation.

Impact

Because early press coverage attributed the rollover to the car's unconventional design, the reputational harm stuck. The inquest exoneration came too late — the story was old news. Fuller built Cars #2 and #3 but could not overcome the stigma. The Dymaxion Car Company folded. Car #1 was repaired, sold, and later destroyed in a garage fire. Car #2 survives at the National Automobile Museum in Reno, Nevada.

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