This paper focuses on the issues surrounding traffic accidents in the 19th and the early 20th century. Based on period sources the terms accident, disaster, mishap and misfortune are defined. The authors focus their attention on the magazine output at the time, and the subject of analysis is the perception of traffic accidents and the ways in which they were presented to Czech society by the press. After the general introduction the authors follow the situation for individual types of transport (rail, water, air and road). The impace of accidents on the legal system at that time are not neglected either, i.e. the possibility of learning from unfortunate events and for setting legal obligations that help to avoid traffic accidents.