Runaway

You'd think that being RED would help in a sea of gray, black and white cars.  This pic was taken when I first go my Xterra.  

Saving dogs; we would all drop what we are doing to save a dog right?  Many times I have pulled to the side of the road in attempts of rescuing a dog running in the street.  It can be nearly impossible; most  dogs freak out if you try to grab them so the fact that you are trying to save them is insignificant to them.  All they know is that in an already panicked state; they now have a stranger following and trying to catch them.  But is there a right and wrong way to approach this saving a dog's life thing?  This morning I would most definitely say a big YES.

Yesterday morning after a wonderful but cold trip to the park we were nearing our home when we were in an accident.  First let me say that both Luke and Elsa are fine; shaken but fine.  After three rear end collisions in my past, another was not what I needed really.  It all started almost a block from my home; like two other very similar rear end collisions I've had.  Traffic started to slow; looking around to find the cause of the slowing traffic there seemed to be nothing.  But the cars ahead of me were coming to a stop so I did too.  I thought perhaps there was something blocking the street.  Then I heard it; that horrible screeching of tires when someone has hit their brakes, hard.  When you hear the noise you do not want to look into your rear view mirror and see what I saw.  A van sliding towards us, smoke engulfing it from the tires burning on the road.

I braced for impact.  It all happened so fast and in an instant I hoped that she might stop before getting to us.  She must have been going extremely fast, way over the speed limit to be creating the noise and smoke.  So many things go through your head when this happens but it is all within seconds of time.  She hit and she hit hard.  Luckily I was able to avoid hitting the car in front of me.  I let out a few choice words and pulled over.  REALLY???? A fourth rear ender?  Do I honestly have a target on the back of my car?  They ended up taking the woman on a board with her neck and back in a brace to the hospital in an ambulance.  My neck and back have once again taken a hit that was very much avoidable.

A dog, a tiny runaway dog caused this.  Yes the woman should have been driving safely enough to stop as I did but it all started with a dog and human error.  The dog was not in the middle of the road, it was running down the side of the road.  YOU DO NOT STOP IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ROAD.   If you have to stop, pull over.  There is no point in trying to save a dog if you risk injuring people or other dogs.  Accidents happen but when they happen out of human error it just makes you mad.  I didn't need to be hit, my back didn't need it, my car or the dogs.  The woman driving the car in front of me caused it all.  She made a very large mistake stopping in the middle of the road.

Slow down, this is the first thing to do.  Slowing is a heads up to people.  I knew as soon as I came up to the slowing car that something was up.  I couldn't see what it was but I knew that there was a reason for the cars slowing.  STAY OUT OF THE ROAD.  Unless you can clearly see that the road is void of traffic, stay out.  There were people all over the road trying to catch this dog.  That is a recipe for several accidents.  If you can safely stop the traffic then yes stop it but great care must be taken to give people a heads up.  I'm betting that the lady who slammed into me was texting; she most certainly was not paying attention.  She slid for so long before hitting me that she also had to be speeding a great deal.    So this particular woman in her van may have been an accident waiting to happen and placed into this scenario where there were so many safety errors made, it was the place and time to happen.

The first person to grab the dog was bitten.  The little 5 lb dog was caught before they even took the woman away in the ambulance.  My husband came and picked up Luke and Elsa and brought them home while I waited for all the accident stuff that needs to get done.  The dogs were very shaken and I have no doubt that Luke will be very sore today.   I believe that Elsa will need work creating a positive association with the car once we get it back and it is good to go.  All of this out of human error.

The little dog did not cause the woman who slammed into me to do so, that was clearly a lack of attentive driving.  But it did cause the woman in front of me to make a bad judgement call.  PULL OVER.  Saving a life is intense; it can be a make or break moment.  But there are right and wrong ways to attempt it, smart and stupid.