This is the third in a series of stories shared by those who have been in accidents while traveling with their dogs. The goal of this series is to share anecdotes that may help others determine the safest travel options for animals in vehicles.
Have a story yourself? Four Paw Drive wants them all, regardless of the accident’s severity! Send them to our email address: 4pdriveblog@gmail.com.
Stories 7&8 from Ashlee
I drove an older (’97) boxy body style Jeep Cherokee. I was hit by a teen driver running a red light at approx. 45 mph. I had a second to try to avoid being hit and turned away from the oncoming car as far as I could, so he hit the driver’s side front corner of my jeep – and basically sheared off the front of the jeep from the wheel’s forward. That night I placed my 8yo 45lbs mix breed in the front seat like I always did with him, as I backed out of the driveway I had a weird feeling and stopped and put him in the back in my larger breed dog’s crate. I am so thankful that I did. The crate he was in was too big for him, by quite a bit. He was thrown into the side of the crate in the crash. His injuries consisted of basically severe whiplash with extreme neck and back pain, he didn’t sleep for 2 days, he couldn’t get comfortable in any position. Finally, a combo of pain meds, muscle relaxers and steroids started to make progress. He made a full recovery, but it took several weeks.
My second accident was also in an older boxy body style Jeep Cherokee (’00). I was rear-ended by a mini-van accelerating to get through a yellow light that I stopped for. My dogs were not in this accident. The back hatch door was caved in and unable to be opened. My crates were set up in the back of the jeep with the doors opening out to the hatch door. The crates are strapped in and set back from the hatch door by about 8 inches. The crates were undisturbed. In anticipation of an event like this I keep a set of bolt cutters that are big enough to cut open my crates tucked in between the bucket seats in the front seat, so that either the driver or passenger can access the cutters easily. I have since upgraded the wire crates to the ones that have doors on both ends, but I still keep the cutters in the car.
Story 9 – from Erin, Four Paw Drive’s blogger
In August, I was returning home from a vet visit with my foster dog, Laurel, in her wire crate in the second row of my Impreza. I stopped at a light and as the light turned green I was rear ended by an SUV who didn’t even hit the brakes. The SUV ended up deciding to make the accident a hit and run unfortunately, so I don’t have any info on how fast they were going, but it was hard enough to fling all the stuff on the front seat onto the floorboard and my foster dog into the side of her crate.
The SUV’s bumper over-rode the Impreza’s, so there was nothing between the SUV and my rear crate but the hatch. The rear crate suffered a small dent in the corner, but no other damage. Laurel and I both were fine, just slight soreness the next day, but the impact jammed my rear hatch shut and totaled my car. We were only 4 miles from home!
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