I saw a dog run over today

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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Now that you've had a chance to re-read what you've written, are you really being serious?

Alec.
 
Broke_But_Happy said:
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 :(
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I agree - it is a legal obligation that if you hit anything you must report it.
Feel sorry for the dog, I can never understand people who allow their dogs off lead right by a busy road however well trained they are!
 
Accidents happen - that's why they're called accidents, we weren't to know our gate would blow down. I know someone who's dog got their head bashed by a car, he was on lead, on pavement, and saw a bottle blowing about in the gutter and just lunged for it. Very well trained dog, luckily made full recovery. One of the reasons I stopped mine playing with/being allowed to carry bottles or cans.
 
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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Do you really mean this ?
My thoughts are with the owner Of the dog whose dog could have caused a serious accident thy will feel bad as its their fault the dog is dead .
If a dog gets loose and is out of control it's the owners fault there's no evidence the driver is at fault .
We don't know the driver has not reported it to the police he may well have done particularity if the car was damaged so he can seek to recover the cost of the damage .
I certainly would have stopped though .
My dad ran over a dog when I was a child tsking us to school it ran straight out of a gate and into the door of the car it was horrible .
Horrible thing OP poor boxer .
 
It's about time the driving exam was changed. It needs to ensure that drivers are fully aware of the law. I would suggest it also needs to include part of the driving test to demonstrate ability and safety when passing horses. Much like horse riders take riding and road safety. Of course what happened today was an accident. The driver didn't make the dog run into the road. Nevertheless, the driver did hit the dog and at the very least, should have stopped to see if the dog needed help, and reported the incident to the police. Yes, it's not pleasant and probably time consuming. If you get behind the wheel of a car, you have a responsibility to drive safely, within speed limits etc etc. Driving a car is like having a machine gun, it is a lethal weapon in the wrong hands. If an accident happens, you just have to deal with it. That's what being a responsible adult is all about.
None of these points of view will help the OP or the poor Boxers' owners. In truth, I am sure they are very grateful their dog didn't cause a major accident. Let's hope the car driver sees the error of his/her ways, and makes an effort to contact the owner or OP to at least find out how the poor dog fair ed. Metal can be replaced.
 
A horrible thing for you to have witnessed OP, I have seen a dog run over and killed and it does stay with you. :( However some posters on here do seem to be over reacting. A driver has I think 24 hours to report hitting a dog to the police, he/she may well have done this. Yes it would have been the decent thing to stop but that doesn't mean they were driving dangerously, and as someone has already posted, the driver could actually claim off the dog owner for the cost of any repairs to their car.
 
Goldenstar said:
Do you really mean this ?
My thoughts are with the owner Of the dog whose dog could have caused a serious accident thy will feel bad as its their fault the dog is dead .
If a dog gets loose and is out of control it's the owners fault there's no evidence the driver is at fault .
We don't know the driver has not reported it to the police he may well have done particularity if the car was damaged so he can seek to recover the cost of the damage .
I certainly would have stopped though .
My dad ran over a dog when I was a child tsking us to school it ran straight out of a gate and into the door of the car it was horrible .
Horrible thing OP poor boxer .
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It WAS a serious accident because a dog DIED!

Alec Swan said:
Now that you've had a chance to re-read what you've written, are you really being serious?

Alec.
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I am being very serious and meant everything that I said. Drivers that drive dangerously (as in speeding, not stopping after they hit an animal, driving while under the influence of alcohol and drugs, using their phone/smoking while driving, etc) should NOT be allowed to get away with their actions. They are the ones who are more likely to cause accidents. As I said before, my Mum lost her sister because of a speeding nutcase. My should have been Aunt (she died before I was born) went in a car with her boyfriend, he proceeded to put his foot down, took a corner too quickly and overshot it and hit a truck that was coming round the corner at the same time. The car they were in flipped over and my Mum's sister was killed. He got off relatively unscathed. So, yes I am more than annoyed that authorities still aren't taking road safety seriously enough.

Lunatics can still drive like lunatics and there isn't a sodding thing that can be done BEFORE they cause an accident. Like I said previously you cannot report them. At least in the aviation industry a pilot who is seen flying in a dangerous manner can be reported and dealt with accordingly. There are country roads that I used to walk on, but not now. There are far too many vehicles on them and many of them bomb along the roads without a care in the world. If I were in charge of the country, half of the cars would be taken off the roads, speed limits would be reduced and I would re-open the old railway stations and lines in order to get most of the trucks of the roads as well. Those are the types of necessary measures to make roads safer. That and a zero tolerance policy on dangerous driving. As it is if you are caught driving dangerously, you might get a few points off your licence and/or a temporary ban. Outright bans are seldom given and the policing of people who have lost their licences is a joke. I know of several people who are STILL driving despite having had their licences revoked.

I am sorry, but it's way over time to toughen up driving laws.

As for this case. We do not know for sure what the driver was doing. Were they distracted by something, under the influence of drink or drugs, driving with a hangover and were they even legal?
 
MurphysMinder said:
A horrible thing for you to have witnessed OP, I have seen a dog run over and killed and it does stay with you. :( However some posters on here do seem to be over reacting. A driver has I think 24 hours to report hitting a dog to the police, he/she may well have done this. Yes it would have been the decent thing to stop but that doesn't mean they were driving dangerously, and as someone has already posted, the driver could actually claim off the dog owner for the cost of any repairs to their car.
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That's another law that needs to be changed. A vehicle can be repaired/replaced. A life cannot be replaced.
 
Love_my_Lurcher said:
As for this case. We do not know for sure what the driver was doing. Were they distracted by something, under the influence of drink or drugs, driving with a hangover and were they even legal?
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Or they could've been perfectly law abiding and got caught unawares by a dog bolting out in front of them.

And you can report dangerous drivers - by phoning the police on the non-emergency number and telling them the reg, car type and where you are.

Obviously hands free...
 
Nugget La Poneh said:
Or they could've been perfectly law abiding and got caught unawares by a dog bolting out in front of them.

And you can report dangerous drivers - by phoning the police on the non-emergency number and telling them the reg, car type and where you are.

Obviously hands free...
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I tried that last year and the police said they could not assist me. It might be due to different laws here in Scotland.
 
Very upsetting for you OP but you did everything you could and exactly what I would have done too.

I have had the misfortune of finding a dead Staffie in the middle of the road a couple of years ago (it was rush hour in London and everyone else was just driving around it). A couple of youths sitting on their bikes showed me the house where the dog lived, I carried it to the door and got a complete mouthful from the woman who lived there, even though the youths came with me and said it wasn't me who had knocked over the dog. The woman then proceeded to shout and swear at her young daughter who saw the dead dog and was naturally very upset, and then slammed the door in my face. A bit of a dysfunctional family if you ask me. The dog was getting very heavy by then, so I just laid her on the garden wall and walked away.

Found a freshly hit by a car cat in the same stretch of road a few months later barely alive, I drove like the absolute clappers on a Sunday morning to the nearest RSPCA but it died just before we got there, that really upset me.

And a couple of months ago again, noticed a cat lying in a road near me with a couple of women standing on the pavement not knowing what to do, it had just been hit by a large van and killed outright. I wrapped it in my dogs blanket and took it to the local vet, in the hope that it was microchipped and its owner could be notified.

One would hope that the car driver would have stopped but, alas, many people have very little regard for animals.
 
Love_my_Lurcher said:
That's another law that needs to be changed. A vehicle can be repaired/replaced. A life cannot be replaced.
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Dogs that ends up on public roads are a danger to the public as they can cause very serious car accidents. I have met way to many rta dogs.(road traffic accident) Some dogs on the roads have gotten there in tragic circumstances, the vast majority were however simply were not adequately under their owners control and ended up being hit by cars as a result.
Loads of different reasons... due to lack of a gate to contain them,wandering freely,chasing cars,no lead and no recall or whats becoming more common those b**dy extendable leads.
Many of the owners I meet were blaming the car drivers.....but it was their poor dog that was out of control and paying the price.

Making the owners take responsibilty for the damage that their "out of control" dog causes is more important and makes a lot more sense in my opinion than trying to make car owners responsible for the damages to a pet that caused a collision.
People do not generally chose to run down dogs on purpose. Who the hell wants to hit a dog with their car.Even the most animal hating person realises the damage it will do to the vehicle!
Dogs on the roads can cause fatal collisions and loss of human life as well as canine. Makes a hell of a lot more sense for the onus of responsibly to be on the pet owner.

The dog should not free on the road to come into contact with traffic .Owners have to be responsible and keep their pets safe.
Why should the car driver lose out when their property is damaged by an owners lack of control?

Tragic accidents do happen, but a hell of a lot of canine RTAs are accidents that were waiting to happen. And its the always poor dog who suffers the consequences. The idea of a life is a life is a nice idea when you think of responsible owners and much loved pets who would only ever be on the road through misfortune.....the reality is quite different.
 
My post started off as a vent, I needed to release the upset of the day, I didnt expect it to produce such strong opinions, I would like to add that I was angry at the driver for not stopping but it was an accident and I dont blame the driver in any way, the dog according to the owner had been playing in the park well away from the road when something spooked him and he ran, its something they will never forgive themselves for. I dont think the driver had much if any time to react. I did offer to take the dog and owner straight to the vet, it was his choice to go home, I have since found out from his wife that he is a very ill man and he was in shock at the time. A dreadful accident that will have a long lasting effect on several people.
 
The commonest cause of premature death in dogs is probably from being run over and every dog owner has a responsibility to be aware of that and to guard against their dog causing an accident.

I went to visit a dog owner in Northern Ireland. He lived in a detached house in a row next to a very busy main road. Inadvertently, I left the gate open when I called at the house as I was not sure I had the correct address.

My friend came to the door and in due course he took me up to the top of his small garden where he had his kennels and promptly opened the kennel gate and let his three very active gundogs out. I suddenly remembered the open gate and busy road. "That's OK", said my friend, "The dogs won't go through the gate". They didn't either!

I questioned him about this and he explained, "Oh, I take the youngsters down on a lead next to the road and every time a car goes past I give them a light tap on the nose with a little stick!" Aversion therapy that obviously worked! Not a recommendation, but maybe something to remember if you find yourself in a similar situation as a safety stop? Better a dog with a bruised nose than a dead one. Dogs are not born traffic wise and it does no harm to teach them that cars can hurt.
 
I remember one horrible evening at dusk, a small dog ran out towards my car on a busy road. I hit my brakes as hard as I could, and swerved to try to miss the dog. I did not miss it entirely, I hit it with a glancing blow, but it was still alive. Some people in the car behind me stopped to help. We wrapped the dog in some towels I had in the car, and one of them ( complete strangers to me) held the dog in the back of the car while I drove to an emergency vet. The driver of the other car went to try to drive past the address on the dog's tag, as for some reason there was no phone number or the number was disconnected-- I don't remember. The emergency vet said they could treat the dog and stabilise it and keep it pain free -- at my expense-- until the owners could be located. Of course I said I would cover that treatment... finally the owners were located and they said the dog had escaped from their back garden much earlier in the day. They ended up paying whatever charges the vet had, fortunately the dog only had some bruising by some miracle and nothing broken and no internal damage. It was awful-- the feeling of hitting the dog was a nightmare. It is upsetting to see it. You were an angel of mercy to stop to help the dog and its owners.
 
gingerarab said:
My post started off as a vent, I needed to release the upset of the day, I didnt expect it to produce such strong opinions, I would like to add that I was angry at the driver for not stopping but it was an accident and I dont blame the driver in any way, the dog according to the owner had been playing in the park well away from the road when something spooked him and he ran, its something they will never forgive themselves for. I dont think the driver had much if any time to react. I did offer to take the dog and owner straight to the vet, it was his choice to go home, I have since found out from his wife that he is a very ill man and he was in shock at the time. A dreadful accident that will have a long lasting effect on several people.
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I know, this has turned into quite an opinionated thread. Just wanted to say (again) how I sympathise with you, not a nice thing for you to have had to witness, RIP doggy x
 
Just wanted to add I live in the middle of London and the amount of people I see with their dogs, walking them up to the common HOLDING the leads in their hands whilst the dog is a good 10 or 20 metres in front of them walking freely. I just want to stop my car and scream at them.

I don't care how well trained your dog is, put it on a bl**dy lead.
 
Meems thank you and to everyone else that has sent kind words it was appreciated. To those of you that have witnessed similar or been involved in an accident you really do have my sympathy, I feel guilty that I could not stop it from happening and yes I know thats silly, I know the owners appreciated the help. I drove past a dog on a lead today and found myself giving it far more space than necessary even though it was on the pavement attached to an owner .
 
gingerarab, witnessing dogs which are in a state of serious distress and at the end of life, is difficult, and even though many on here believe that I'm uncaring, I too find it distressing, and to the point that on occasions, I too find sleep difficult. You have to support yourself and be safe in the knowledge that you were unable to prevent the accident, you didn't panic and run as many would have done, you weren't in any way responsible, and that you did the very best that you could. I'd say that you behaved in an exemplary manner, and though I'm usually able to deal with such incidents, at the time, not everyone is. Accept some credit and commendation; and though that wont make the horror of it all disappear, it may just help a little to have another understand your feelings.

Chin up.

Alec.
 
gingerarab said:
My post started off as a vent, I needed to release the upset of the day, I didnt expect it to produce such strong opinions, I would like to add that I was angry at the driver for not stopping but it was an accident and I dont blame the driver in any way, the dog according to the owner had been playing in the park well away from the road when something spooked him and he ran, its something they will never forgive themselves for. I dont think the driver had much if any time to react. I did offer to take the dog and owner straight to the vet, it was his choice to go home, I have since found out from his wife that he is a very ill man and he was in shock at the time. A dreadful accident that will have a long lasting effect on several people.
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I once saw a dog being hit by a bus in London..the sound of his yelping will stay with me forever so I totally sympathise about how traumatic this was for you. Well done for stopping to help. You did your best and there was nothing else you could have done which would have changed the outcome.
 
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