I saw a dog run over today

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gingerarab

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Driving to work at 7.30 this morning, a large boxer dog ran out of the park and accross the road, he then ran back and was hit, I stopped and ran after him at which point the owner appeared, the dog had bolted and got confused. I put them both in the car and took them home then spent half an hour sobbing in my car and being sick. It was a shocking thing to witness and the car driver that hit the dog did not stop. It was a smallish car and a large boxer dog, the car would of sustained quite a bit of damage. All day I have been thinking about the dog, I come home tonight and there is an appeal on fb for the driver to come forward, the dog died before the owners could get him to the vets. I am in tears, I am so so angry, why did the driver not stop ? how can they live with it. There would of not been able to miss the fact they had run a large dog over. The owners have been in touch to say thank you and it turns out the dog had helped the husband get through treatment for cancer. This will haunt me for a long time
 
As someone who has had the misfortune of hitting a dog, it will haunt them. It could be that they did stop but further up the road. I did stop when I had my accident, but I wish I hadn't as the response I got was less than civil despite it not being my fault (dog bolted through an open gate, which apparently is normally closed but he went before they had closed it. Straight onto a 60mph road). I still can't pass a loose dog without flinching.
 
gingerarab said:
....... It was a shocking thing to witness and the car driver that hit the dog did not stop. ........ I am in tears, I am so so angry, why did the driver not stop ? how can they live with it. There would of not been able to miss the fact they had run a large dog over. .......
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With no intention of being harsh, how would the driver stopping have made any difference? Perhaps your anger would be better directed at an owner who allowed a dog to run across a road, an owner who didn't have their dog on a lead. Witnessing such accidents is distressing, but the person who ran away (the driver), may well have panicked, and that should be understood. There's a requirement in Law that any accident in which a dog is run over is reported to the authorities, I understand that, but at times of shock, people behave irrationally. From what you say, the driver was not the one responsible.

Alec.
 
I dont know how to put this better......but do you do realise that the owner of the dog is entirely responsible for all costs of all damages incurred to the car driver by this incident? So perhaps the chasing them down by facebook might not be the best idea...could end up being a very expensive witch hunt.

They should have stopped to be honest,its the right thing to do for the poor dogs sake....but they are not obliged to. It is obviously the better thing to do for that poor creature but by law all the owners of the car need to do is report the accident to the police as there was a dog involved.

Obviously Im not saying that they were right not to stop but sometimes people behave irrationally when they get a shock...plus in many cases where people do stop they get the blame for the dogs injuries from the distraught owners...

At the end of the day accident or not that dog could have caused a fatal accident to a person today.I love animals but people come first and dogs and roads do not mix. You cant blame the poor driver if they didn't have a chance to react and avoid hitting the dog.Accidents happen.Its impossible to know what went through their head...but I am sure it will haunt them as well once the shock wears off.

Poor dog though (R.I.P )

Rescue remedy yourself up and have a cuddle with your hounds.But a few minutes later and that could have been you hitting the dog.

.
 
Report it to the police as hitting a dog is a recordable accident so technically the driver is guilty of a hit and run. Hope you are ok, RIP doggy :(
 
How awful for its owner & you to witness. I'm surprised they didn't want a lift straight to the vets but shock does strange things.

Tbf we don't know why the dog ran from the park, maybe lack of owner control or dog may have been spooked or attacked and ran off in fear.
 
That must have been horrible to witness. Our girls were run over, thankfully not fatally (our gate had blown down in a storm and they were crossing the main road to go to the park!!) and the woman, who lived in our estate, was too scared of them to get out of the car. She told me that when I met her many years later and she introduced herself as 'the one who ran over your Alsayshuns'.

Have a stiff drink!
 
+1 to BBH report it.

I remember like it happened this very day, hitting a GSD. Technically, it hit me. I was behind a car in a 30 limit that was turning left so I was only doing about 15mph and it ran out of a back garden and into my car so hard it took the front bumper off. Nobody home, I poured it into my car, Wrapped it up tightly in one of my horses rugs to stop it moving, called my dad and he met me at our vets (who I was working for at the time). Dog, amazingly, was ok, but later that day, long after the owner called and thanked us, as I lay in the bath, I had to swallow down vomit and I poured my eyes out.

It hurt my heart...I can only imagine how you feel knowing that the dog died as a result and that the driver just left.

Don't underestimate the power of shock and make sure you look after yourself xx
 
Alec Swan said:
With no intention of being harsh, how would the driver stopping have made any difference? Perhaps your anger would be better directed at an owner who allowed a dog to run across a road, an owner who didn't have their dog on a lead. Witnessing such accidents is distressing, but the person who ran away (the driver), may well have panicked, and that should be understood. There's a requirement in Law that any accident in which a dog is run over is reported to the authorities, I understand that, but at times of shock, people behave irrationally. From what you say, the driver was not the one responsible.

Alec.
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It's upsetting because morally, it is not a nice thing to do...but moral scales are sliding of course.

As for the owners, no, the dogs shouldn't have been able to just run onto a road, but accidents do happen and for all we know the owners could have been extremely good owners, this just being a blip. God knows, we've had some with our four and we are extremely responsible.
 
Alec Swan said:
With no intention of being harsh, how would the driver stopping have made any difference? Perhaps your anger would be better directed at an owner who allowed a dog to run across a road, an owner who didn't have their dog on a lead. Witnessing such accidents is distressing, but the person who ran away (the driver), may well have panicked, and that should be understood. There's a requirement in Law that any accident in which a dog is run over is reported to the authorities, I understand that, but at times of shock, people behave irrationally. From what you say, the driver was not the one responsible.

Alec.
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No but it would have shown he was sad/sorry and appologised for the incident showing remorse to the owner rather than drive off as it was nothing just another road kill victim, a bit heartless IMO.

If the dog was in the park Alex like OP the dog came out the park, a park is where you let off dogs. We will never know why it came out, maybe it was scared of something , another dog, a noise, You can't presume its cut and dry.

As, BBH said report it there may be caeras rolling which caught evidence.
 
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When I was about 8 a local cat ran over a road to say hi to me because I always used to stroke him and he got hit by a car and died. Will never forget the noise it made. So sympathise OP, poor you. xx
 
I lost a dog through being run over on the main road outside my house. The side gate was left open by one of the children and the elderly dog went wandering - he was deaf too. I felt so bad and sorry for the driver who was visibly shaken. It was afterall not their fault at all and I was extremely grateful that they stopped. A horrible situation for everyone.
Perhaps the driver has now reported the accident - you have a certain time in which to do it. Not everyone can cope with the upset of hitting an animal - we are all different in our sensitivity and of course as someone said the driver could have been fearful of reprisals from the dog's owner - frankly you never know these days.
 
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It is law that an accident with a dog must be reported, absolutely regardless of how, when why etc. The driver may well have been banned from driving, uninsured or just too frightened or thoughtless to stop. Until the driver is found, you'll never know. Of course the owner of the dog must bear some of the responsibility and he'll never forgive himself. But what if this had been a child that ran out from the park? Would posters on here view this differently? The law is the law, regardless of moral fibre or lack of it.,.
OP, this is every dog owners worse nightmare, and you did all you could to help under horiible circumstances. Be gentle to yourself, you couldn't do any more, and I'm sure the owner is very grateful to you for your support.
 
OP that's terrible, I really feel for you and for the poor dog and his owners. Well done for doing what you could. Sending you my best vibes.

The driver was of course obliged to report what had happened and may well have done so since. I must agree with Alec's thoughts on this one though; it sounds like the driver was not responsible. If it was a woman, and the owner was a man, it's possible that she didn't stop because she was frightened of violence being directed to her. In addition, the driver wouldn't be responsible for any vet costs so finding them would be somewhat fruitless.

Would I stop? Of course, it is morally right to do so (as long as I didn't think violence would be meted out). I also would probably be sick, and it would stay with me forever.

Saneta - I think if it was a child, any driver would know that they must stop. With a dog, they aren't actually obliged to stop as far as I'm aware - just to report it. In addition, I'm not sure the law in that regard is well known anyway.
 
Nugget La Poneh said:
As someone who has had the misfortune of hitting a dog, it will haunt them. It could be that they did stop but further up the road. I did stop when I had my accident, but I wish I hadn't as the response I got was less than civil despite it not being my fault (dog bolted through an open gate, which apparently is normally closed but he went before they had closed it. Straight onto a 60mph road). I still can't pass a loose dog without flinching.
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Same here.

I hit a dog at 60mph. He bolted across the road out of a driveway. The thud still rings in my ears. I screeched to a halt, dog to be seen nowhere. Pulled into their driveway and the dog had run back home, whimpering and crying.
The owner cursed the dog for running out saying "bloody dog, she's always running out and up the road to my relatives house. I'm so sorry, any damage to your car we'll pay to be fixed!"

I couldn't give a toss about my car! Wanted to make sure the dog was OK! They rushed her to the vets and asked them to let me know how she was. Got to the yard literally a minutes driveaway and broke down in tears, shaking. Later on got a phone call from the owner to say that the dog was OK. Needed stitches for a cut, but will be extremely sore, but got away with bad bruising!

Everytime I drive past their house I slow down, and cringe - even though they now have a gate on their driveway!

It's horrible to experience, either being the driver, or witnessing it how you did.

Stiff drink, hug a pooch. x
 
I feel for you OP. I've stopped to pick two cats off the road that I saw being hit, both died. I also got a dog run over as an 11yo child, it started following me home and because I got to the main road I told it to sit and stay as I didn't want it to cross the road. Unfortunately when I got to the other side I said good dog and it ran into the road. I can't remember if the driver stopped, but thankfully a nice lady did and bundled the dog in her car and took him to the vets, I think he died a few days later. Took me a long time to get over it and forgive myself.
 
I find it unforgivable for a driver to hit any animal (humans included) and to not stop to check if the animal was okay or needed medical treatment. If the park was frequented by dogs and children, then there should have been speed limits in place and proper policing of laws to ensure that drivers do NOT exceed them. I also find it sickening that some of you (well one of you) are siding with the driver. I shudder to think of anything like that happening to my two and I would definitely be seeking justice for injuries or death. This could very easily have been a child that got hit. What would you be saying about that Alec? Then again if it had been a child, the police would have launched a full scale investigation and be pulling out all the stops on tracing the driver, but they probably won't take it seriously since the victim was 'only' a dog.

The dog might have been let off the lead to get some exercise and up to that point there might not have been a problem with recall. Then again the dog might have slipped his or her collar, the lead might have snapped or the woman who had the dog might have dropped the lead accidently.

I also agree that the driver in this case could have been driving illegally and/or over the speed limit. He or she MUST be caught as they are a menace. There MUST also be harsher penalties for driving offences. If it were up to me, anybody caught driving dangerously would have their vehicles impounded and destroyed. They would also be given a lifetime ban. My Mum lost her sister because of an idiot who thought it was okay to speed. I have also seen countless morons on the road who ought to have their licences revoked. You can't even report them because the police are only interested AFTER they have caused an accident. :mad:

My thoughts are with the poor man and woman who have very cruelly lost their dog and with everybody who witnessed his or her death.
 
OP, how awful for you. I too have seen a dog hit. We get the Goose Fair in Nottingham in October every year. It is off a very busy road straight out of the town centre. It was about 5.30 pm and the road was very busy. This German Shepherd type dog was running down the road and darting in and out of the traffic. My heart was in my mouth watching it. It then got hit, and the bang and the yelp were awful, it got up and limped off into the path of another car which killed it instantly. The driver stopped and took the dog to the side of the road and appeared to be looking for a collar which it didn't seem to have.

I assume it belonged to the traveling fair. It will haunt me forever.
 
LML I can see why you feel that way, but there isn't any evidence from the OP to suggest that the driver was actually at fault in this case. As a dog doesn't understand road sense they can easily just run out in front of a car and be hit, even if that car's being driven sensibly, safely and within the speed limit. There wouldn't be time to brake to a stop; as a few people above have posted about accidents where animals have run in front of their cars, these things can and do happen.

If a child had run out in front of a car, the driver is legally as well as morally obliged to stop. Even if a child had been hit under these circumstances (and the driver stopped as required), it does not necessarily follow that the driver is at fault.

Morally, the driver should have stopped, but she/he was not obliged to do so, and not stopping doesn't automatically infer that the driver was breaking the law and caused the death of the dog. Legally, he/she was not obliged to stop, but is obliged to report the incident; we don't know if that's happened or not.

I feel terribly sorry for the dog and his owners, as well as OP who witnessed this, but we can't say that the driver is a menace, only that we morally disagree with his/her decision not to stop. We can say that the dog escaped for whatever reason; the fact is that he was not under control of his owners at the time. That is not the driver's fault; it may not be the owners' either, which renders this what it sounds like it was - a tragic accident.

It's an emotive subject and I respect your right to hold the view that you do.
 
hitting a child is not the same as hitting a dog! for one thing dogs generally move a hell of a lot faster than a child! its unreasonable to compare the two.imo they are not equal accidents.

my thoughts are with the poor dog and his owners in this accident, as it sounds like a genuine accident...but that doesn't change the law.

Dogs must be under control in public places.running loose on the road is not under control.in this case it may be just a tragic accident. ..but at the end of the day the car driver did not intentionally run down the dog.it ran in front of them and they likely did not have a chance to react. they should have stopped yes.....but considering some of the responses here im beginning to wonder if you wouldn't just get blame and abuse from the owner if you did the morally right thing and stopped....bad enough to hit a dog.worse again if you get a mouthful of abuse from the owner who had it running out of control. ..
 
Haven't read all the posts on here........ but I can remember when I was driving up our road one day and a cat jumped out in front of me. I was doing about 40mph and the cat went right under the wheels, I heard the crunch, and then a lot of hairs flew up, it was awful, but there was NOTHING I could have done to prevent this happening.

I went into the nearest house (knew the people anyway) and had to say "excuse me, but is this your (horribly mangled) cat that I've just knocked over???" Yes, it was their cat, and they were predictably upset, but they were glad that at least someone had bothered to explain what had happened. The cat could not under any circumstances have survived, death would have been pretty instantaneously. Cats will be cats.

One of our cats was killed recently....... I was in the yard talking to the builder, there was the sound of a car outside; then the cat came down into the yard at mega-speed, almost like she was having a fit - was going round in circles and turning over and over. Then (all within the space of less than 10 seconds) rushed under the builder's van, and lay down. You could see at once that she was dead. The car driver came in and said how sorry she was, cat had just jumped over the hedge etc etc.

I say all this because yes whilst realising this was AWFUL for the OP, and the driver - legally - SHOULD have stopped to report the incident; but this was purely and simply an "accident" and these things unfortunately do happen. If anyone was/is "blameworthy" then it has to be the owner of the dog for failing to keep it under control really I guess, tho' not much comfort for them. Again, dogs will be dogs, and I can't count the times my dogs have done daft things like run into the road when there's traffic coming along it, they've been lucky so far but doesn't mean they'll always be so.

Sorry you had to witness this OP; absolutely awful for you.
 
Lml- I think the point that alec was making was that in the eyes of the law it is the dog owner that is at fault and liable for damages to the car. If a dog causes an accident the owner is liable as the dog should have been under control. Also although I too think the driver should have stopped out of courtesy if the dog boltex in front of them there probably wasn't a lot they could do. The same is true if it was a child a lady I used to work with hit a child that ran out in front of her and was cleared of any wrong doing, luckily the child survived but it affected her deeply.
Op, well done for staying calm and helping the owner, it sounds as though you were a big comfort to them and what a shame for the dog.
 
When I was a child of eleven my dog was hit in front of my eyes running across the road to my Mother. The driver didn't stop. He died(the dog I mean) It was horrible. But ultimately it was our fault. The driver was probably in shock an just wanted to get home. However awful it was for you it was probably worse for them. They probably weren't thinking straight and drove on all flustered :(
 
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hayley.t said:
Sadken- sorry cross posted and you put it much better than I did!
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I was just nodding in agreement with your post!

Talking scenarios re the difference between this and hitting a child, I wonder what posters who think the driver was at fault would think if the dog had run out in front of a motorbike. As a biker, I know that not only does it take longer to stop on a bike, but hitting a dog would in most circumstances result in you being knocked off which invariably hurts. Would we still think that the person hitting the dog was responsible for their own likely injuries and damage to their machine? What about a lorry, which would have less chance of seeing a dog and probably wouldn't feel the impact as much?

I thought about putting this on a new thread but decided to post on this one as the backstory is all here.
 
Aru said:
hitting a child is not the same as hitting a dog! for one thing dogs generally move a hell of a lot faster than a child! its unreasonable to compare the two.imo they are not equal accidents.

my thoughts are with the poor dog and his owners in this accident, as it sounds like a genuine accident...but that doesn't change the law.

Dogs must be under control in public places.running loose on the road is not under control.in this case it may be just a tragic accident. ..but at the end of the day the car driver did not intentionally run down the dog.it ran in front of them and they likely did not have a chance to react. they should have stopped yes.....but considering some of the responses here im beginning to wonder if you wouldn't just get blame and abuse from the owner if you did the morally right thing and stopped....bad enough to hit a dog.worse again if you get a mouthful of abuse from the owner who had it running out of control. ..
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I disagree. Both are living beings and should be treated equally. My dogs are my babies and nobody is going to tell me that they shouldn't be compared to children. In terms of importance. There is no evidence to prove that one is more important than the other. As for causing accidents. At least dogs don't cause them deliberately. I was out driving with my Mum one day and we encountered a couple of younger boys (one on each side of the road). They pretended that they had a rope or something and proceeded to 'lift it' as we were about to pass. We got a fright, but they just laughed. This was at the time when there was a spate of cases involving children using real rope/chains to cause accidents. And dogs don't play 'chicken' either.
 
Love_my_Lurcher said:
I find it unforgivable for a driver to hit any animal (humans included) and to not stop to check if the animal was okay or needed medical treatment. If the park was frequented by dogs and children, then there should have been speed limits in place and proper policing of laws to ensure that drivers do NOT exceed them. I also find it sickening that some of you (well one of you) are siding with the driver. I shudder to think of anything like that happening to my two and I would definitely be seeking justice for injuries or death. This could very easily have been a child that got hit. What would you be saying about that Alec? Then again if it had been a child, the police would have launched a full scale investigation and be pulling out all the stops on tracing the driver, but they probably won't take it seriously since the victim was 'only' a dog.

The dog might have been let off the lead to get some exercise and up to that point there might not have been a problem with recall. Then again the dog might have slipped his or her collar, the lead might have snapped or the woman who had the dog might have dropped the lead accidently.

I also agree that the driver in this case could have been driving illegally and/or over the speed limit. He or she MUST be caught as they are a menace. There MUST also be harsher penalties for driving offences. If it were up to me, anybody caught driving dangerously would have their vehicles impounded and destroyed. They would also be given a lifetime ban. My Mum lost her sister because of an idiot who thought it was okay to speed. I have also seen countless morons on the road who ought to have their licences revoked. You can't even report them because the police are only interested AFTER they have caused an accident. :mad:

My thoughts are with the poor man and woman who have very cruelly lost their dog and with everybody who witnessed his or her death.
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I wasn't speeding, in fact I was doing 50 in a 60mph/national speed limit. Am I a menace? I had an ACCIDENT. What the OP saw was an ACCIDENT, we don't know if the driver actually stopped further down (as possibly doing exactly what I did and the OP) or reported it (I didn't report to police when I had mine as I didn't know I had to, the insurance company advised me I had to and all that happens is they log it) so to cast aspersions on the driver is massively, massively unfair.
 
Always horrible to witness or to actually do having hit a dog on a motorway at 2am in Belgium when it ran out from the trees. Not much you can do at full speed. Very poor show that the person didn't stop but shock works in weird ways.

Why on earth wasn't the dog taken the vet immediately? It seems a bit strange that you took the dog and owner home....
 
Love_my_Lurcher said:
I disagree. Both are living beings and should be treated equally. My dogs are my babies and nobody is going to tell me that they shouldn't be compared to children. In terms of importance. There is no evidence to prove that one is more important than the other. As for causing accidents. At least dogs don't cause them deliberately. I was out driving with my Mum one day and we encountered a couple of younger boys (one on each side of the road). They pretended that they had a rope or something and proceeded to 'lift it' as we were about to pass. We got a fright, but they just laughed. This was at the time when there was a spate of cases involving children using real rope/chains to cause accidents. And dogs don't play 'chicken' either.
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My two are also my babies. But - they are not equal to children in the eyes of the law. And dogs may not cause accidents deliberately, but they do cause them. In the case of either small child or dog, ultimately the responsibility for care lies with the owner/parent/guardian as neither has the capacity to make decisions regarding safety on the road themselves.
 
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