Saturday, March 03, 2012

Loose Dog On Highway Causes Major Accident

I am sickened when I see a dead dog on the highway. I just hate it.

Dogs get loose for all the known reasons: panic escapes; open doors and gates; untrained dog runs away; and so forth.

I have been on the highway and seen dogs dodging traffic. One such instance still haunts me. I won't describe the image. The problem is that there is often no safe way to stop without killing the dogs, other drivers and yourself. In this case, I had to keep driving.

In New Mexico, a loose dog caused a crash that resulted in not only the dog dying, but the destruction of a semi truck and the car of one of the rescuers. The highway was shut down for four hours.

Something that isn't mentioned is that you could be held civilly and criminally liable if your dog gets loose and you are found to have been negligent. You can be hauled into court, fined, given a huge financial penalty, and even go to prison if someone was killed.

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