The Fact of the Day on August 6, 2002, states that the first railroad fatality was in 1832. While this may have been the first in America, it was not the first ever.
The first railroad fatality was on September 15, 1830, at the opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway in England.
A number of politicians got off of a train to stretch their legs while it was taking on water, when another train was seen rushing toward them on another track. A number of them got onto the train in time, but one of them, William Huskisson, who was slightly paralyzed on one side, slipped and fell into the path of the oncoming train. He was rushed to another city on another train to a hospital, but died while in transit, resulting in the world’s first railway fatality.